Daily Office Readings for Saturday of the Third Week of Lent: Year 2
Morning, Psalms 87 and 90; Evening, Psalm 136;
Genesis 47:27 to 48:7; 1st Corinthians 10:1 to 13; Mark 7:1 to 23:
“Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.” (Mark 7:1 and 2)
In the Gospel we are always on notice that when the Pharisees approach our Lord Jesus, the encounter is normally confrontational. This meeting at the beginning of Chapter 7 of Mark is no different. However, as we live today in the lessons of the Covid 19 virus the message over and over again is to wash our hands and wash them often.
Our Lord Jesus will speak of the ill intent of the Pharisee’s attempt to discredit him. He will also let us all know that if we are not careful there is an unholy kind of dirt that may be in us, in our hearts, and it will do much damage if it comes out in our words and actions against our neighbors. He says, in effect, that it is not what goes into a person that defiles them but rather, what is crafted in them and then comes out of them in an evil and sinful way that defiles them.
I have a book of Russian Theologians, honorable priests, bishops and monks out of whom comes all goodness. All of the ones in my book were well before the present regime in Russia. What comes out of the present regime, and the clergy who support it, is what pollutes the great Russian religious history. As they continue to wage war with Ukraine the Russian leadership needs to return to their rich Russian religious heritage and live peacefully with their neighbors, and so should we all, personally and nationally. But first, we must seek help from outside ourselves.
Let us Pray:
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 355)
Today we remember Gregory of Nyssa (9 March 395). See Gregory of Nyssa (satucket.com) for more details.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and 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
onewhoponders 