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.
SUNDAY, November 21 Last Sunday after Pentecost
Colossians 1:11-20. Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things.
Sometimes joy springs up from deep within us when we least expect it, catching us by surprise. We think of it as a gift, and so it is. But surely we are meant to develop this gift in ourselves. The source is always there, whether we are attending to it or not. God is always energizing the universe. Each moment holds out to us, in some form, the possibility of participating in Christ’s work of building, of gathering to a greatness, of reconciling all things in himself, drawing all things to their own perfection, in God.
This discovery of joy has hardly begun to be explored. How much of our life we waste in tamer moments, feeling only a surface interest, a habitual and meaning-less pleasure, nothing that goes deep.
We must go deep. We must work at it, develop our own ways of seeing and attending, finding the joy that is there. This is a way of contemplation in the midst of the active life. If we take that path, it will open out before us into an increasing fullness of joy, a way of extreme delight. (1970)
PRAY for The Church in Bermuda (Extra-Provincial to Canterbury)
Canticle 4 or 16 (Luke 1:68-79) –OR– Ps 46; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 23:33-43
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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