Dear parishioners,
Today is National Nurses Day and to pay tribute we posted on Facebook a message of support. Where would we be without nurses, any day, and especially now! They are so brave to take care of us in these times of COVID19, and every day. Thank you, Nurses!!!
While coming into work today, I stopped by Dunkin Donuts to get coffees and the line was very, very long. As I got to the window to get my order and pay, the gal said to me, “The woman in front of you paid for your order.” What a surprise!! Such a nice gesture. I, in turn, decided to pay for the order of the gentleman behind me. It makes one feel good to pass on gestures of community spirit and kindness.
Today’s message shares a favorite hymn of Libby Sternberg’s and a wonderful meditation for today from Forward Day by Day.
Michelle
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From Libby Sternberg: Here’s an Easter favorite of mine by Patrick Hadley, “My Beloved Spake.” I remember singing this with an Episcopal choir in Baltimore. Seems appropriate now as spring comes and we contemplate things reopening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjULGCnpYaI&list=PLkZaLImNGrfoJYxmdRunLL3XMNXtDCJse&index=54&t=0s
The text (hard to get from the recording):
My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land
The figtree putteth forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
Arise my love, my fair one and come away.
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WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020
Exodus 33:3b For you are a stiff-necked people.
Few things drive God crazier than stubbornness. More than forty verses in the Bible criticize the traits of a stiff-necked people—the hardened heart, the refusal to be led, the haughtiness of certainty.
God knows—God knows—we are a stubborn people. We dig in our heels even when evidence is presented to the contrary. We take comfort in certainty and pride in charting our own paths. Among our many sinful traits, stubbornness is among the most egregious.
We see what happens when its gnarly tendrils take root in God’s people—in biblical times and today. We become oxen following the same rutted paths, unwilling to see new possibilities, unable to find common ground. Let us pray for softened hearts so we might be open to God’s leading to a promised land, one we can neither imagine nor find on our own.
MOVING FORWARD: How do you discern the difference between determination and stubbornness? Is this a slippery slope for you? Pray for guidance.
PRAY for the Diocese of Kushtia (Bangladesh)
Ps 119:49-72 * 49, [53] | Exodus 33:1-23 | 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 | Matthew 5:17-20