Daily Office Readings for Monday of the Second Week of Lent: Year 1
Morning Psalms 56 and 57; Evening Psalms 64 and 65;
Jeremiah 1:11 to 19; Romans 1:1 to 15; John 4:27 to 42
“The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4:36 to 38)
I must have read this passage following the story about the woman at the well at least a hundred times, and yet, I am getting a whole new message now.
I study the saints of God. Many of them are my spiritual heroes. They were the sowers of my faith. They labored in the spiritual fields. I read their works and benefited from their labors. I am so blessed and thankful.
Jesus talks about eating the instructions of God as his food. He lives to obey God. It seems Jesus and the saints eat to live; I, on the other hand, too often, live only to eat my next meal. I can, and will, do better.
I like thinking that I have entered into the labor of those holy people I have read about, and there are many. They planted, I harvested. I entered with them in their labor, in the work God has assigned “us” and this pleases me. I look through “A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Calendar of Commemorations; by Church Publishing;” everyday. It is a starting point that I use to go deeper with other sources.
Whose spiritual shoulders have you stood on? Do you alter your life on the words of Evelyn Underhill, or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Bede, or Richard Hooker, or Anselm as do I? If so, you have joined with them in their labor. You are one with them in Christ Jesus. What an honored place to be. Listen to their testimony, their words, their life. Hear what these saints are telling you. They have planted, they have sown, you are now reaping. But if you listen to them and amend your life with their help you are with them as one in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful place to be.
Today we remember Patrick of Ireland (March 17, 461) and his information may be found at: St. Patrick.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: (The prayer for All Saints’ Day, BCP p.245)
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
onewhoponders 