Daily Reading for February 8

Small, inconspicuous signs of love are important in all those places where people live in close proximity with each other and depend on each other. Huerre calls [the 32nd chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict, on the tools of the monastery] a “chapter of good mood” because concrete elements such as order, cleanliness, and attentiveness contribute much to a cheerful atmosphere. Rough and inconsiderate treatment shows disregard for people as well as for things. The way we treat objects is a criterion of our spirituality. If we come into a community where things are generally neglected, we may question the spiritual depth of the community. Anselm Grün says: “The way of treading things is normally a test for a person’s inner attitude,” for in the way “in which someone treats things, he treats himself.” Conservation of creation is not only a duty of the individual but also of the entire community, and in this a climate of treating objects reverently and even small rules can help. . . .

This chapter is of great current interest because we are much more aware today that our environment is subjected to great dangers and how necessary the conservation of our creation has become. We know that overexploitation has continued over a long time and that neglect of things, even on a small scale, does add to the destruction of our cosmos. Joan Chittister says: “Benedictine spirituality is as much about good order, wise management, and housecleaning as it is about the meditative and immaterial dimensions of life. Benedictine spirituality sees the care of the earth and the integration of prayer and work, body and soul, as essential parts of the journey to wholeness that answers the emptiness in each of us.”

From Around the Monastic Table—RB31-42: Growing in Mutual Service and Love by Aquinata Böckmann (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2009).

Daily Reading for February 7 • The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

That you may understand that the Lord was speaking of spiritual fishing, however, Peter says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” It is as if he were saying, “Through the whole night our fishing has brought us nothing, and we have been laboring in vain. Now I will not fish with fishing gear but with grace, not with diligence acquired by skill but with the perseverance acquired by devotion.” When Peter lets down the nets at the word, therefore, he is in fact letting down the teachings in Christ. When he unfolds the tightly woven and well-ordered nets at the command of the Master, he is really laying out words in the name of the Savior in a fitting and clear fashion. By these words he is able to save not creatures but souls. “We toiled all night,” he says, “and took nothing.” Peter, who beforehand was unable to see in order to make a catch, enduring darkness without Christ, had indeed toiled through the whole night. But when the Savior’s light shone upon him the darkness scattered, and by faith he began to discern in the deep what he could not see with his eyes.

From a sermon of Maximus of Turin, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament III, Luke, edited by Arthur A. Just, Jr. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

Daily Reading for February 6 • The Martyrs of Japan, 1597

The saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same element in every age. Yet every generation seeks its saint by instinct; and he is not what the people want, but rather what the people need. This is surely the very much mistaken meaning of those words to the first saints, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” . . . Christ did not tell the apostles that they were only the excellent people, or the only excellent people, but that they were the exceptional people; the permanently incongruous and incompatible people; and the text about the salt of the earth is really as sharp and shrewd and tart as the taste of salt. It is because they were the exceptional people, that they must not lose their exceptional quality. . . . If the world grows too worldly, it can be rebuked by the Church; but if the Church grows too worldly, it cannot be adequately rebuked for worldliness by the world. Therefore it is the paradox of history that each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.

From Saint Thomas Aquinas: “The Dumb Ox” by G. K. Chesterton (New York: Image Books, 1933, 1956).

Daily Reading for February 5 • Roger Williams, 1683, and Anne Hutchinson, 1643, Prophetic Witnesses

Cast out by men who themselves had been outcasts in their native England, Hutchinson is a classic rebel’s rebel, revealing how quickly outsiders can become authoritarians. The members of the Massachusetts Court removed Anne because her moral certitude was too much like their own. Her views were a mirror for their rigidity. It is ironic, the historian Oscar Handlin noted, that the Puritans “had themselves been rebels in order to put into practice their ideas of a new society. But to do so they had to restrain the rebellion of others.”

Until now, views of Anne Hutchinson in American history and letters have been polarized, tending either toward disdain or exaltation. The exaltation comes from women’s clubs, genealogical associations, and twentieth-century feminists who honor her as America’s first feminist, career woman, and equal marital partner. . . . Her detractors, starting with her neighbor John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, derided her as the “instrument of Satan,” the new Eve, and the “enemy of the chosen people.” In summing her up, Winthrop called her “this American Jezebel”--the emphasis is his—making an epithet of the name that any Puritan would recognize as belonging to the most evil and shameful woman in the Bible. . . .

One of her heresies was knowing that she was among God’s elect and then presuming that she could detect who else was too. . . . This view, which her opponents imputed to her, was not hers alone. An excessive concern with one’s own and others’ “spiritual estate” was also typical of her judges. Salvation—who had it, who didn’t—was the major issue of her day, as it may be, in various forms, today.

From American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante (New York: HarperCollins, 2004).

Daily Reading for February 4 • Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865

We ought not to pass over in silence the fact that the Northalbingians on one occasion committed a great crime and one of a terrible nature. When some unhappy captives, who had been taken from Christian lands and carried away to the barbarians, were ill treated by these strangers, they fled thence in the hope of escaping and came to the Christians, that is to the Northalbingians who, as is well known, live next to the pagans, but when they arrived these Christians showed no compassion but seized them and bound them with chains. Some of them they sold to pagans, whilst others they enslaved, or sold to other Christians. When the bishop [Anskar] heard this he was greatly distressed that so great a crime had been perpetrated in his diocese, but he could not devise how he might mend matters because there were many involved who were esteemed to be powerful and noble.

When he was much distressed on this account there was granted to him one night the customary consolation. For it seemed to him that the Lord Jesus was in this world, as He had once been, when He gave to men His teaching and example. It seemed to him that He went with a multitude of the faithful and that he, the bishop, was with Him on His journey, glad and rejoicing because there was no opposition, but a divinely infused fear was upon the arrogant, and the oppressors were removed and a great quiet prevailed, so that there appeared to be no contradiction or opposition on the journey.

Having seen this vision he prepared to go to this people with the desire by some means or other to set free the unhappy men who had been sold and given over to an outrageous servitude and by the Lord's help to prevent anyone from committing hereafter so great a crime. On this journey the Lord so greatly assisted him and caused the fear of his power so to overawe those who were arrogant that, though these men were of rank and exercised harmful influence, none of them ventured to oppose his advice or resist his authority, but the unhappy men were sought out wherever they had been sold and were given their liberty and allowed to go wherever they desired. Furthermore, in order to prevent any deceit being practised thereafter they made an agreement that none of those who had defiled themselves by the seizure of these captives should defend himself, either by taking an oath or by producing witnesses, but should commend himself to the judgment of Almighty God, whether it was the man who was accused of the crime or the captive who accused him. Thus did the Lord manifest on this journey the truth of the promise which He made to those who believe when He said, "Lo I am with you all the days even unto the end of the world." [Matt xxviii., 20] So prosperously and joyfully did he accomplish this journey that those who were with him said that never in his life did he have such a good and pleasant journey, for they said, "Now of a truth we know that the Lord was with us."

From Life of Anskar by Bishop Rimbert, found at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anskar.html.

Daily Reading for February 3 • The Dorchester Chaplains: Lieutenant George Fox, Lieutenant Alexander D. Goode, Lieutenant Clark V. Poling, and Lieutenant John P. Washington, 1943

Now and then you hear wild and frightening talk about a “holy war” which will some day overtake and destroy America. The four chaplains of three faiths on the troopship Dorchester had the answer for that, and their answer is perhaps the epic experience of World War II. . . . These four were en route to Greenland on the troopship Dorchester when on Feb. 3, 1943, just after midnight, their vessel was torpedoed. More than 600 men were lost, and there were less than 300 survivors. . . .

Grady Clark, a young engineer who was rescued after several hours in the water, described the event: “They quieted the panic, forced men ‘frozen’ on the rail toward the boats and over the side, helped men adjust life jackets and at last gave away their own. They themselves had no chance without life jackets. I swam away from the ship and turned to watch. The flares now lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under. The last I saw, the chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again.”

Each of the Dorchester chaplains had a dynamic loyalty to his particular faith. To each his vows of ordination were holy, and they were passionately held. Nowhere in America could four men be found more intense in their devotion to their own faiths. But these four became one in service, in sacrifice and dying. Standing shoulder to shoulder, their arms linked and braced against the rail as the waters rose about them, each in the tradition of his faith prayed to God the Father of us all. Each was loyal to himself, but each had found a cause transcending all differences and divisions, even as their deed transcends all debate and arguments.

From “A Protestant’s Faith” by Dr. Daniel A. Poling, in Life magazine (November 7, 1949).

Daily Reading for February 2 • The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple

The Nunc Dimittis is ultimately a song about realizing personal inner tranquility and restfulness—as we see a spiritual calm brought to Simeon’s life. This is why it has been traditionally used during Evening Prayer services, as the day closes for the night’s rest. During the season of Lent our church in Cairo has a midweek contemplative service of Compline. For those who come, it provides a spiritual calm in the midst of the noise, chaos, dirt, and endless intensity of a city of twenty-two million people. After this occasion, or rather due to it, an internal peacefulness filled Simeon as never before, thereby becoming for us a marvelous lesson in peaceful living.

Simeon sings, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation.” I love the way the writer Eugene Peterson paraphrases this line in The Message: “God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation.” The entire song is sung with the language of freedom. In the original Greek text, it has the connotation of releasing a slave. Simeon is describing his own experience as one of being released. In the song the word “now” is of utmost importance, emphasizing that an experience of profound liberation happened to him at that moment in time upon seeing the Christ Child.

Simeon’s song is his way of describing how he was finally “released” truly to live. Many biblical commentators have interpreted his song as meaning he was at last free to die, presumably due to his old age after all those years of waiting to see the Messiah. However, the heart of Simeon’s verse is that he was released into freedom, enabled to experience the gift of life anew. Essentially, Simeon now understood what it meant to be at peace with himself, because of what he “saw” in the temple.

From Songs in Waiting: Spiritual Reflections on the Middle Eastern Songs Surrounding Christ’s Birth by Paul-Gordon Chandler. Copyright © 2009. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org

Daily Reading for February 1 • Brigid (Bride), 523

Brigit grew in exceptional virtues and by the fame of her good deeds drew to herself from all the provinces of Ireland inestimable numbers of people of both sexes who willingly made their votive offerings. On the firm foundation of faith she established her monastery on the open expanses of the planes of Mag Liffe, which is the head of almost all the churches of Ireland and holds the place of honor among all the monasteries of the Irish. Its jurisdiction extends over the whole of the land of Ireland, from coast to coast. Her concern was to provide for the orderly direction of souls in all things and to care for the churches of the many provinces which were associated with her, and she reflected upon the fact that this could not be without the help of a high priest, who could consecrate churches and perform ordinations. She summoned a famous hermit, therefore, who excelled in all ways, and through whom God had manifested many powers, telling him to leave his retreat and his solitary life and to make his way to join her, so that he might govern the church together with herself in episcopal dignity and there might be no lack of priestly order in her churches.

Afterward this anointed head and principal of all the bishops and most blessed head of all women established their chief church in felicitous and mutual cooperation under the guidance of all the virtues, and by both their merits their episcopal and feminine see spread throughout the whole island of Ireland, like a fertile vine pushing its burgeoning branches out on all sides.

From the Prologue to The Life of St. Brigit the Virgin by Cogitosus, quoted in Celtic Spirituality by Oliver Davies and Thomas O’Loughlin, The Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1999).

Daily Reading for January 31 • The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

When Jesus had read this passage, he rolled up “the scroll, gave it to the servant, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” Now too, if you want it, your eyes can be fixed on the Savior in this synagogue, here in this assembly. When you direct the principal power of seeing in your heart to wisdom and truth and to contemplating God’s Only-Begotten, your eyes gaze on Jesus. Blessed is that congregation of which Scripture testifies that “the eyes of all were fixed on him”! How much would I wish that this assembly gave such testimony. I wish that the eyes of all (of catechumens and faithful, of women, men and children)—not the eyes of the body, but the eyes of the soul—would gaze upon Jesus. When you look to him, your faces will be shining from the light of his gaze. You will be able to say, “The light of your face, Lord, has made its mark upon us.”

From Origen’s Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament III, Luke, edited by Arthur A. Just, Jr. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

Daily Reading for January 30 • Juan Bosco (John Bosco), Priest, 1888, and Samuel Shoemaker, Priest and Evangelist, 1963 (transferred)

The second thing the Church needs to learn from AA is that men are redeemed in a life-changing fellowship. AA does not expect to let anybody who comes in stay as he is. They know he is in need and must have help. They live for nothing else but to extend and keep extending that help. Like the Church, they did not begin in glorious Gothic structures, but in houses or caves in the earth,—wherever they could get a foot-hold, meet people, and gather. It never occurs to an AA that it is enough for him to sit down and polish his spiritual nails all by himself, or dust off his soul all by himself, or spend a couple of minutes praying each day all by himself. His soul gets kept in order by trying to help other people get their souls in order, with the help of God. At once a new person takes his place in this redeeming, life-changing fellowship. He may be changed today, and out working tomorrow—no long, senseless delays about giving away what he has got. He’s ready to give the little he has the moment it comes to him. The fellowship that redeemed him will wither and die unless he and others like him get in and keep that fellowship moving and growing by reaching others. Recently I heard an AA say that he could stay away from his Veteran’s meeting, his Legion, or his Church, and nobody would notice it. But if he stayed away from his AA meeting, his telephone would begin to ring the next day! . . .

The third thing the Church needs to learn from AA is the necessity for definite personal dealing with people. A.A.’s know all the stock excuses—they’ve used them themselves and heard them a hundred times. All the blame put on someone else—my temperament is different—I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work for me—I’m not really so bad, I just slip a little sometimes. They’ve heard them all, and know them for the rationalized pack of lies they are. They constitute, taken together, the Gospel of Hell and Failure. I’ve heard them laboring with one another, now patient as a mother, now savage as a prize-fighter, now careful in explanation, now pounding in a heavy personal challenge, but always knowing the desperate need and the sure answer.

Are we in the Church like that? Have you ever been drastically dealt with by anybody? Have you ever dared to be drastic in love with anybody? We are so official, so polite, so ready to accept ourselves and each other at face value. I went for years before ever I met a man that dared get at my real needs, create a situation in which I could be honest with him, and hold me to a specific Christian commitment and decision. One can find kindness and even good advice in the Church. That is not all men need. They need to be helped to face themselves as they really are. The AA people see themselves just as they are. I think many of us in the Church see ourselves as we should like to appear to others, not as we are before God. We need drastic personal dealing and challenge. Who is ready and trained to give it to us? How many of us have ever taken a “fearless moral inventory” of ourselves, and dared make the depth of our need known to any other human being? This gets at the pride which is the hindrance and sticking-point for so many of us, and which, for most of us in the Church, has never even been recognized, let alone faced or dealt with.

From “What the Church Has to Learn from Alcoholics Anonymous” by Samuel M. Shoemaker; found at http://westbalto.a-1associates.com/LETTERS%20ETC/WhatChurches.htm.