Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
SATURDAY, January 1 The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Numbers 6:22-27. The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
This is the blessing our Lord heard, the one commonly used in the synagogue then as today. Henry Sloane Coffin suggests that it relates to the stages of life.
“The Lord bless and keep you” is a petition for youth. As we look on untarnished youth, we ask God to keep them from temptation, crushing sorrow, loss of ideals, fading vision, being victims of a system.
The Lord’s brightness and graciousness may pertain to our middle years, which need to become years of grace. Life may become a fog, where getting on and making money confuse principle. We can come to see the second-choice situations in middle age as enlarged opportunities.
Age brings both failure and achievement. It gives perspective, when the drama is better understood than when we played in the foreground. May “that unhoped serene that men call age” of which poet Rupert Brooke wrote, and its sense of tranquility after the storm, bring you Christ’s peace. (1941)
PRAY for the International Anglican Family Network (IAFN) as it considers issues and problems affecting families
Ps 8; Galatians 4:4-7 or Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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Will the archival meditations continue into 2011?