WEDNESDAY, May 26 (Augustine of Canterbury) Ember Day

Psalm 38. O Lord, do not forsake me; be not far from me...Make haste to help me, O Lord of my salvation.

Like the psalmist, we all at times feel isolated and lonely. Even our Lord felt it: "Could you not watch with me one hour?" he prayed at Gethsemane.

Ours cannot be a loneliness like his, but we have all felt unwanted, that nobody cares. Many destitute, homeless, and forgotten people feel this today; and it is almost as bad to be alone in luxury.

The only hope, when we feel alone, is the realization that our Lord was alone, and that we, like him, may be relieved by the comfort of the everlasting arms of almighty God, "unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid."

Recall the words that George Bernard Shaw put into the mouth of Joan of Arc: "Do you think you can frighten me by telling me that I am alone? France is alone; and God is alone; and what is my loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God?...Well, my loneliness shall be my strength too; it is better to be alone with God; His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love." (1939)

PRAY for the Diocese of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Canterbury, England)

Ps 38 * 119:25-48; Proverbs 17:1-20; 1 Timothy 3:1-16; Matthew 12:43-50

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.

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May 26, 2010 at 1:55 am

Written by Sheri Christi,

I am thankful that the internet brings us together in this sacred space. On a more solumn note: It seems a simple act for a nun to take a dying man to her abode, that he not die on the street alone - yet for the dying man it is salvation. Still our university educations do not teach this type of humanity: They teach survival of the fittest instead.

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May 26, 2010 at 8:26 am

Written by Steve Doutt,

The words that stood out for me in today's meditation were the opening lines about Christ's call to his disciples to watch with him.

George Bernard Shaw

May 26, 2010 at 9:09 am

Written by Paul Crips,

I find it deplorable that Forward Movement would include George Bernard Shaw in today's reading. If you read history, George Bernard Shaw visited the Ukraine and said Joseph Stalin did nothing wrong in the extermination of 8 million Ukraines, many of them women and children saying "It was the proper solution."
Is this a person we Christian's should be writing about in such positive terms?
God help us.

Editor of Forward Day by Day

May 26, 2010 at 9:37 am

Written by Richard H Schmidt,

Thank you for your comments. About George Berhard Shaw. Yes, he was not a good role model, for more reasons than his fondness for Stalin. But if he said something that could help someone, I find no reason to exclude it from the pages of Forward Day by Day. To acknowledge that someone said something worthwile is not to endorse everything that person said or did. And in this particular case, despite his own failings, Shaw was expressing the thoughts of a saint.

Who are we to judge?

May 26, 2010 at 9:59 am

Written by Mary kier,

I agree with forward movement. I believe everyone has a dark side. If G BS had an enlightening moment that inspires our study of our relationship to God then so be it.

Hope through despair

May 26, 2010 at 10:14 am

Written by Jean Erwin,

Certainly many of us have experienced loneliness, not only temporal, but spiritual: a sense of hopelessness, despair, abandonment, uselessnes and being not only unloved, but unlovable. In my darkest moment, I suddenly remembered that I was a child of God and that He loved me - and I heard a voice saying, "It will be alright". From that moment on, with renewed hope, things changed.

But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait

May 26, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Written by Gaye Anne McWade,

Love waits. Psalm 38 is a passionate cry for God perhaps even a lament due to His chastening,and being separated from Him due to sinfulness. His forgiveness alone can bridge the separation from Him--and it is so with others, too. The darkest aloneness is in our unforgiveness, whether giving or receiving it, or asking for it.

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