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.
THURSDAY, July 22 Saint Mary Magdalene
Psalm 42:1-7. As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God. My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
The psalmist compares animal thirst to our spiritual yearning. As animals ourselves, we know of physical thirsts, hungers, and cravings. But our souls also thirst, hunger, and crave. They crave God.
There is within us a huge God-shaped space that can be filled only by God. Many people do not realize this and seek to fill it with something else. But food and drink will not fill it. Health and good looks will not fill it. The affection and admiration of other people will not fill it. No peak human experience--art, rewards, childbirth, drugs, glories, honors, music, sex--can fill it. The God-space can be gratified only by the one who designed it for his own abode. Only God can fill what was meant only for God.
As Saint Augustine wrote: "You awaken and stir us so that only in praising you can we be content. You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." (2004)
PRAY for the Diocese of Niagara (Ontario, Canada)
Judith 9:1, 11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:14-18; John 20:11-18
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Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
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