Daily Office Readings for Friday of the Second Week of Lent: Year 2
Morning, Psalms 95 and 69: Evening, Psalm 73;
Genesis 43:1 to 15; 1st Corinthians 7:1 to 9; Mark 4:35 to 41:
“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. (Psalm 95:2)
Psalm 95 is the Venite. It is often sung or said in the opening of Morning Prayer. However, it is the Eve of one day that allows us the time to prepare for the Morn of next. So in our eve this evening, we prepare to receive tomorrow, Saturday, as a gift from God.
Friday evening is particularly special for me. As the labors of a worship service are work for those who organize and conduct it, I think it is good that we Christians worship on Sundays, the first day of the week. Abraham Joshua Heschel says in his book, “Sabbath,” the Sabbath is a gift from God and we should appreciate it and honor it. So I don’t think, as a matter of regular practice, even the work of worship should be done on the Sabbath morning. The Sabbath should be of day of comfort and meditation and perhaps some individual or small group reflective study or pondering.
There are exceptions to this. First responders, the military, hospital and prison staff, must make allowances for the Sabbath. But even they should be afforded at least every other Sabbath to enjoy this gift from God. Jesus reminds us that the Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)
Let us as families and friends come before the Lord with thanksgiving on the Sabbath and then also prepare to come before the Lord on Saturday Eve for Sunday Morn in corporate community worship and raise a loud shout to God with Psalms.
God created all that is, and in the Gospel according to John, nothing came into being that didn’t come through him. You and I were literally prayed into being. And therefore all of us are people who came into being as a response to God’s prayer.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom.
What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Palestine and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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