Daily Reading for May 1 • The Second Sunday of Easter

Who protected the hand of the disciple which was not melted
At the time when he approached the fiery side of the Lord?
Who gave it daring and strength to probe
The flaming bone? Certainly the side was examined.
If the side had not furnished abundant power,
How could a right hand of clay have touched
Sufferings which had shaken Heaven and earth?
It was grace itself which was given to Thomas
To touch and to cry out,
“Thou art our Lord and God.”

Truly the bramble which endured fire was burned but not consumed.
From the hand of Thomas I have faith in the story of Moses.
For, though his hand was perishable and thorny, it was not burned
When it touched the side which was like burning flame.
Formerly fire came to the bramble bush,
But now, the thorny one hastened to the fire;
And God, Himself, was seen to guard both.
Hence I have faith; and hence I shall praise
God, Himself, and man, as I cry,
“Thou art our Lord and God.”

For truly the boundary line of faith was subscribed for me
By the hand of Thomas; for when he touched Christ
He became like the pen of a fast-writing scribe
Which writes for the faithful. From it gushes forth faith.
From it, the robber drank and became sober again;
From it the disciples watered their hearts;
From it, Thomas drained the knowledge which he sought,
For he drank first and then offered drink
To many who had a little doubt. He persuaded them to say,
“Thou art our Lord and God.”

From Kontakion on Doubting Thomas by Romanus Melodus, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVb, John 11-21, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).

Daily Reading for May 2 • Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 373

What advantage then was it for the immortal to have assumed the mortal? Or what improvement does the everlasting one get by putting on the temporal? How great can any reward be for the everlasting God and King in the bosom of the Father? Don’t you see that this too was done and written because of us and for us? The Lord became man for us, we who are mortal and temporal, so that he might make us immortal and bring us into the everlasting kingdom of heaven. . . .

It is not the Word then (viewed as the Word) that is improved. For he had all things and has them always. But it is the human race, which has its origin in him and through him, that is the one who receives the improvement. For when he is now said to be anointed according to human terms, it is we who in him are anointed, since also when he is baptized, it is we who in him are baptized. But on all these things the Savior throws significant light when he says to the Father, “And the glory that you gave me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Because of us, then, he asked for glory. And the words “took” and “gave” and “highly exalted” occur so that we might take, and to us might be given and we might be exalted in him. He also sanctifies himself for us so that we might be sanctified in him.

From Discourses Against the Arians by Athanasius, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVb, John 11-21, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).

Daily Reading for May 3

Why does the hand of a faithful disciple in this fashion retrace those wounds that an unholy hand inflicted? Why does the hand of a dutiful follower strive to reopen the side that the lance of an unholy soldier pierced? Why does the harsh curiosity of a servant repeat the tortures imposed by the rage of persecutors? Why is a disciple so inquisitive about proving from his torments that he is the Lord, for his pains that he is God, and from his wounds that he is the heavenly Physician? . . .

Why Thomas, do you alone, a little too clever a sleuth for your own good, insist that only the wounds be brought forward in testimony to faith? What if these wounds had been made to disappear with the other things? What a peril to your faith would that curiosity have produced? Do you think that no signs of his devotion and no evidence of the Lord’s resurrection could be found unless you probed with your hands his inner organs that had been laid bare with such cruelty? Brothers, his devotion sought these things, his dedication demanded them so that in the future not even godlessness itself would doubt that the Lord had risen. But Thomas was curing not only the uncertainty of his own heart but also that of all human beings. And since he was going to preach this message to the Gentiles, this conscientious investigator was examining carefully how he might provide a foundation for the faith needed for such a mystery. . . . For the only reason the Lord had kept his wounds was to provide evidence of his resurrection.

From Sermon 84 of Peter Chrysologus, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVb, John 11-21, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).

Daily Reading for May 4 • Monnica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387

My fever increased, and I was on the verge of passing away and perishing; for, if I had passed away then, where should I have gone but into the fiery torment which my misdeeds deserved, measured by the truth of thy rule? My mother knew nothing of this; yet, far away, she went on praying for me. And thou, present everywhere, didst hear her where she was and had pity on me where I was, so that I regained my bodily health, although I was still disordered in my sacrilegious heart. For that peril of death did not make me wish to be baptized. I was even better when, as a lad, I entreated baptism of my mother’s devotion, as I have already related and confessed. But now I had since increased in dishonor, and I madly scoffed at all the purposes of thy medicine which would not have allowed me, though a sinner such as I was, to die a double death. Had my mother’s heart been pierced with this wound, it never could have been cured, for I cannot adequately tell of the love she had for me, or how she still travailed for me in the spirit with a far keener anguish than when she bore me in the flesh.

I cannot conceive, therefore, how she could have been healed if my death (still in my sins) had pierced her inmost love. Where, then, would have been all her earnest, frequent, and ceaseless prayers to thee? Nowhere but with thee. But couldst thou, O most merciful God, despise the “contrite and humble heart” of that pure and prudent widow, who was so constant in her alms, so gracious and attentive to thy saints, never missing a visit to church twice a day, morning and evening—and this not for vain gossiping, nor old wives’ fables, but in order that she might listen to thee in thy sermons, and thou to her in her prayers? Couldst thou, by whose gifts she was so inspired, despise and disregard the tears of such a one without coming to her aid—those tears by which she entreated thee, not for gold or silver, and not for any changing or fleeting good, but for the salvation of the soul of her son? By no means, O Lord. It is certain that thou wast near and wast hearing and wast carrying out the plan by which thou hadst predetermined it should be done. Far be it from thee that thou shouldst have deluded her in those visions and the answers she had received from thee—some of which I have mentioned, and others not—which she kept in her faithful heart, and, forever beseeching, urged them on thee as if they had thy own signature. For thou, “because thy mercy endureth forever,” hast so condescended to those whose debts thou hast pardoned that thou likewise dost become a debtor by thy promises.

From Augustine’s Confessions, Book IX, translated by Albert C. Outler, Ph.D., D.D.; found at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/confessions-bod.html

Daily Reading for May 5

We are taught by the slight lack of faith shown by the blessed Thomas that the mystery of the resurrection is effected on our earthly bodies and in Christ as the firstfruits of the human race. He was no phantom or ghost, fashioned in human shape, simulating the features of humanity, nor yet, as others have foolishly surmised, a spiritual body that is compounded of a subtle and ethereal substance different from the flesh. For some attach this meaning to the expression “spiritual body.” Since all our expectation and the significance of our irrefutable faith, after the confession of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, centers in the mystery concerning the flesh, the blessed Evangelist has very pertinently put this saying of Thomas side by side with the summary of what preceded. For observe that Thomas does not simply desire to see the Lord but looks for the marks of the nails, that is, the wounds on his body. For he affirmed that then, indeed, he would believe and agree with the rest that Christ had indeed risen again, and risen in the flesh.

From Commentary on the Gospel of John by Cyril of Alexandria, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVb, John 11-21, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).

Daily Reading for May 6

It’s surprising how many Christians prefer not to talk about doubt. Some even refuse to think about it. Somehow, admitting to doubt seems to amount to insulting God, calling his integrity into question. . . . Yet one of the reasons why so many Christians have difficulty in coping with doubt is that they confuse it with two quite separate ideas, which at first seem similar but are actually rather different.

In the first place, doubt is not skepticism--the decision to doubt everything deliberately, as a matter of principle.

In the second, it’s not unbelief--the decision not to have faith in God. Unbelief is an act of will, rather than a difficulty in understanding. . . .

Doubt often means asking questions or voicing uncertainties from the standpoint of faith. You believe—but you have difficulties with that faith, or are worried about it in some way. Faith and doubt aren’t mutually exclusive—but faith and unbelief are.

Doubt is probably a permanent feature of the Christian life. It’s like some kind of spiritual growing pain. Sometimes it recedes into the background; at other times it comes to the forefront, making its presence felt with a vengeance. . . . It is helpful to think of doubt as a symptom of our human frailty, of our reluctance to trust God. . . . Many people feel deeply attracted by the gospel, despite their doubts. On the one hand, their doubts are real and hold them back from faith; on the other, the pull of the gospel is very strong and draws them toward faith. In the end, they decide to put their trust in God and in Jesus Christ, despite unresolved anxieties and difficulties. They are still in two minds. They hope that their doubts and difficulties will be sorted out as they grow in faith. The seventeenth-century philosopher Francis Bacon commended this way in his Advancement of Learning: “If a man will begin with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he is content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties.”

From Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith by Alister E. McGrath (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006).

Daily Reading for May 7 • Harriet Starr Cannon, Religious, 1896

The Bishop of New York, Dr. Horatio Potter, from the outset grasped the future as they did, and saw and felt that there was an abundant work for them and such as they to do in our Church, under the conditions for which they yearned. . . . The wise counsel of the Bishop of New York and his quiet influence in certain quarters helped to prepare the way for the birth of the Sisterhood of St. Mary, on the Feast of the Purification, 1865, when he received by profession, in St. Michael’s church, New York, five sisters, Harriet, Jane, Sarah, Mary, and Amelia. Their work went on as before, but a great change had come in their inner spiritual life. They were not their own as they had been before. No one belongs to himself, for, “No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself,” but men and women largely forget this divine ownership, and live as though they owned themselves. The vows of Baptism are an act of self surrender, the vows of the sacred ministry are a still further self surrender on the same lines, and the vows which the dear sisters Harriet, Jane, Sarah, Mary and Amelia took on the Feast of the Purification, 1865, are, as far as human infirmity will permit, an absolute self surrender to God. . . . This profession of five sisters, the “five wise virgins,” was a very quiet service; few knew of it at the time, and none took note of it beyond the circle of friends who were immediately interested. It was like the original Presentation in the Temple. The Lamb of God was there, and with Him, we can count them they were so few, His blessed Mother and St. Joseph and the Priest and St. Anna and St. Simeon. Jerusalem was not stirred and the Scribes and Pharisees were not aroused, but the Saint of God sang his Nunc Dimittis and the event passed. . . .

It would be difficult to make those who have grown up since 1865 understand the temper of those days. The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost in His manifestations of self surrender in holy lives of humiliation and fasting and prayer, and the power to suffer patiently and bless the hand of the persecutor, were out of sight in our Church and almost out of mind, except as a lost art, which had died with the apostles and confessors and martyrs; hence when the attempt was made to recall these gifts and revive them and reproduce them among us, it provoked amazement and in some quarters amusement, and when it was seen that the effort was serious, and had a respectable if not a powerful support, consternation and ridicule were turned into wrath, and the powers of this world were invoked to overcome the forces of Heaven. Dense ignorance was the parent of intense prejudice, and the fierceness of men and women thus generated knew scarcely any bounds. Clergymen forgot their holy calling in denouncing religious orders and entangling vows. Ladies and gentlemen of the highest social position laid aside their good manners and behaved like barbarians to defenceless sisters, and the general voice and temper of our Church were to the effect that all who sympathized with such extravagancies, not to say follies and wickedness, as entangling vows and a common life based upon spiritual affinities exhibited, must be content to be contemned if not forgotten. That storm has long since spent its fury, that tyranny has been broken, and that fierceness and vindictiveness have been changed into gentleness and praise. . . .

What a wonderful life to contemplate is that of Mother Harriet! “The baby from Charleston,” an orphan, dependent, thrown upon her own resources, called of God by bereavement and consequent loneliness, and heeding the call, and persevering in heeding it in spite of other voices and obstacles from friends, as well as those opposed, and at last with congenial spirits, united by God under the same holy vocation, reaching the haven where she would be, the heavenly rest of home, sheltered by vows of self-surrender to Christ as the Bridegroom. And now, when Easter 1896 dawned, God called with a tenderer tone than she had heard and heeded from early womanhood, and said, “Daughter, thou hast done well, come up higher,” and she obeyed and went; and men say that she is dead, but we say she lives a higher life than she ever lived on earth, and remembers us and her spiritual household; and the Master tells us that she is with Him in Paradise, and we believe Him and trust Him, and write her epitaph in our hearts: “Mother Harriet was faithful unto death, and lives now nearer to her Lord in Paradise, waiting for us and all of God's children, since she without us cannot be made perfect in the enjoyment of the beatific vision in heaven.”

From Mother Harriet of the Sisterhood of St Mary: A Sketch by the Rt. Rev. George F. Seymour, D.D., LL. D., Bishop of Springfield; found at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/gfseymour/harriet.html

Daily Reading for May 8 • The Third Sunday of Easter

And when we by His special grace plainly gaze upon Him,
seeing no other,
then we need to follow Him
and He draws us into Him by Love.

Then I saw that His constant working in all manner of things
is done so well,
so wisely,
and so powerfully
that it surpasses our imagining,
and all that we can suppose and comprehend.

And then we can do nothing more than to gaze at Him
and rejoice with a high mighty desire to be wholly
one-ed to Him,
and to pay attention to His prompting,
and rejoice in His loving,
and delight in His goodness.

Then shall we, with His sweet grace, in our humble constant prayer, come unto Him now in this life by many secret touchings of sweet spiritual sights and experiences, meted out to us as our simplicity can bear it.

From A Lesson of Love: The Revelations of Julian of Norwich, edited and translated for devotional use by Father John-Julian, OJN (Walker and Company, 1988).

Daily Reading for May 9 • Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, 389

It is the Day of the Resurrection, and my Beginning has good auspices. Let us then keep the Festival with splendour, and let us embrace one another. Let us say Brethren, even to those who hate us; much more to those who have done or suffered aught out of love for us. Let us forgive all offences for the Resurrection’s sake. . . .

Yesterday the Lamb was slain and the door-posts were anointed, Egypt bewailed her Firstborn, and the Destroyer passed us over, and the Seal was dreadful and reverend, and we were walled in with the Precious Blood. To-day we have clean escaped from Egypt and from Pharaoh; and there is none to hinder us from keeping a Feast to the Lord our God—the Feast of our Departure; or from celebrating that Feast, not in the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, carrying with us nothing of ungodly and Egyptian leaven.

Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; to-day I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; to-day I rise with Him. But let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us—you will think perhaps that I am going to say gold, or silver, or woven work or transparent and costly stones, the mere passing material of earth, that remains here below, and is for the most part always possessed by bad men, slaves of the world and of the Prince of the world. Let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most fitting; let us give back to the Image what is made after the Image. Let us recognize our Dignity; let us honour our Archetype; let us know the power of the Mystery, and for what Christ died.

Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become God’s for His sake, since He for ours became Man. He assumed the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich; He took upon Him the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonoured that He might glorify us; He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were lying low in the Fall of sin. Let us give all, offer all, to Him Who gave Himself a Ransom and a Reconciliation for us. But one can give nothing like oneself, understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He became for ours.

From Oration 1, “On Easter and His Reluctance,” of Gregory Nazianzen; found at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.iii.iii.html.

Daily Reading for May 10 • Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, Prophetic Witness, 1760

Jesus, great High Priest of our profession,
We in confidence draw near;
Condescend, in mercy, the confession
Of our grateful hearts to hear;
Thee we gladly own in every nation,
Head and Master of Thy congregation,
Conscious that in every place
Thou dispenses life and grace.

Thy blest people, trusting in Thy merit,
On the earth’s extended face
From each other far, but one in spirit,
Sound with one accord Thy praise.
May we never cease to make confession,
That Thy death’s the cause of our salvation;
We to Thee, our Head and King,
Joyful hallelujahs sing.

From Hymn 89, Covenant Hymn, by Count N. L. von Zinzendorf, in Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) (Bethlehem, Pa.: Provincial Synod, 1920).

Daily Reading for May 11

If you feel no sense of God’s presence within you when you pray, why worry? There is no precise dividing-line between emptiness and fullness, any more than between doubt and faith, or fear and love. The essential is always concealed from your own eyes. But that only makes you more eager than ever to progress towards the one reality. Then, gradually, it becomes possible to sense something of the depth and the breadth of a love beyond all comprehension. At that point you touch the gates of contemplation, and there you draw the energy you need for new beginnings, for daring commitments. . . .

You are never alone. Let yourself be plumbed to the depths, and you will realize that everyone is created for a presence. There, in your heart of hearts, in that place where no two people are alike, Christ is waiting for you. And there the unexpected happens.

In a flash, the love of God, the Holy Spirit, streaks through each one of us like lightning in our night. The risen Christ takes hold of you, and he takes over. He takes upon himself everything that is unbearable. It is only later, sometimes much later, that you realize: Christ came, he gave his overflowing life. The moment your eyes are opened you will say, “My heart was burning within me as he spoke.”

From “A Life We Never Dared Hope For,” a letter to his brothers from Brother Roger, quoted in Parable of Community: The Rule and Other Basic Texts of Taizé by Brother Roger (New York: Seabury Press, 1981).

Daily Reading for May 12

O thou who this mysterious bread
didst in Emmaus break,
return, herewith our souls to feed,
and to thy followers speak.

Unseal the volume of thy grace,
apply the gospel word,
open our eyes to see thy face,
our hearts to know the Lord.

Of thee we commune still, and mourn
till thou the veil remove;
talk with us, and our hearts shall burn
with flames of fervent love.

Enkindle now the heavenly zeal
and make thy mercies known,
And give our pardon’d souls to feel
that God and love are one.

Hymn text by Charles Wesley, found in Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1749), Hymn 29, and United Methodist Hymnal, Hymn 613.

Daily Reading for May 13 • Frances Perkins, Public Servant and Prophetic Witness, 1965

As I’ve considered Frances’ life, it’s struck me that she addressed one of the questions that all of us must answer. To use Cain’s phrasing, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” To put the question in more religious terms: “Does God have intentions for our relationships as God’s people?” “Are we responsible before God for more than our own lives?”

As you may know, Frances came of age and was nurtured in the Anglo-Catholic culture of New York City of the early 20th century. That culture, influenced by Roman Catholic and Jewish thinking, held a “theology of generosity,” which contrasted sharply with a “theology of righteousness.”

The theology of righteousness held that people get what they deserve, that their wealth and status are signs of their relationship with God. It was a theology of social Darwinism, a combination American individualism and Calvinist Predestinarianism. Good, hardworking people get what they deserve. Sinful, lazy people get what they deserve. Good people are not responsible for alleviating poverty, although they may out of their goodness offer charity if they choose.

In contrast, the theology of generosity held that all we have is a gift from a generous God. The particulars may be influenced by our own effort, but the foundation is the generosity of God who gives to all people without regard to our particular circumstances or merit. If we are wealthy, we are wealthy only by God’s grace. If we are poor, we are poor because the circumstances of our lives have blocked our access to God’s blessings. It is, therefore, the obligation of those who have been blessed to share those blessings with the poor.

That belief, along with Frances’ direct experience with the grinding poverty of the people who worked in the mills and the factories of the industrial revolution and her witness of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, caused her to work with unrelenting passion for the establishment of what we now call the social safety net, most particularly the regulation of labor and Social Security. . . .

The tensions between rich and poor which Frances confronted have not faded. They have only increased. In our day many believe that there are not enough resources to go around and that it is our right to keep whatever we can hold. If we use 25% of the world’s oil, well, so be it. We have a right to our place in the sun. A theology of scarcity has replaced a theology of righteousness, but it still means haves and have-nots.

The question before us is whether or not all God’s children deserve a place in the sun, whether or not the abundance which God has been given might not be used in ways that enrich many more lives.

From a sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Stephen T. Lane, Bishop of Maine, on May 15, 2010 at a festival evensong celebrating the life and witness of Frances Perkins, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Newcastle, Maine, the home parish of Frances Perkins.

Daily Reading for May 14

Whatsoever the Spirit can convey to the body of the church, we may expect from this sacrament; for as the Spirit is the instrument of life and action, so the blood of Christ is the conveyance of His Spirit. And let all the mysterious places of holy scripture concerning the effects of Christ communicated in the blessed sacrament be drawn together in one scheme, we cannot but observe that . . . it is mysterious in the expression, . . . no words being apt and proportionate to signify this spiritual secret, and excellent effects of the Spirit. A veil is drawn before all these testimonies, because the people were not able to behold the glory which they cover with their curtain; and “Christ dwelling in us,” and “giving us His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink,” and “the hiding of our life with God”. . . are such secret glories that, as the fruition of them is the portion of the other world, so also is the full perception and understanding of them. . . .

This holy sacrament does enlighten the spirit of man, and clarify it with spiritual discerning; and as He was to the two disciples at Emmaus, so also to other faithful people, “Christ is known in the breaking of bread”; . . . it is the relief of our sorrows, the antidote and preservative of souls, the viand of our journey, the guard and passport of our death, the wine of angels. . . . When we remember that the body of our Lord and His blood is communicated to us in the bread and the chalice of blessing, we must sit down and rest ourselves, for this is “the mountain of the Lord,” and we can go no farther.

From Discourse XIX, “Of the institution and reception of the holy sacrament of the Lord’s supper,” in The Great Exemplar, or Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution by Jeremy Taylor (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1847).

Daily Reading for May 15 • The Fourth Sunday of Easter

There is no image of the Saviour as exploited by Christian art as that of the Good Shepherd. However, it too often puts before us an idyllic, somewhat effeminate figure, with insipid colours—in short, something very different from the rough, nomadic shepherd who inspired the words of Christ and who, alone, faces the wild beasts and the harshness of the climate. For the Christians of the first centuries, the image of the shepherd summed up the whole work of salvation, it embellished all the catacombs; at that epoch it was what the image of the Crucified is for the faithful of our days. . . .

Christ defines himself as shepherd: “I am the good shepherd.” . . . For his audience it is a known image. “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 34:15). Like all the Johannine passages with “ego eimi” (“I am”), Jesus presents himself in chapter 10 as the Lord in history. “I am the good shepherd” has here the value of a solemn, theophanic discourse. The shepherd, Christ, is the one to whom the Father has confided those who are his. “They were yours,” says Christ in the sacerdotal prayer in John 17, “you gave them to me” (John 17:6). . . . By proclaiming himself the Good Shepherd, Jesus professes that he assumes without reserve the responsibility for those who are entrusted to him. Always new, this proclamation assures us of the unfailing presence of the Saviour. He is the Good Shepherd. Let us read this Gospel as his word addressed, here and now, to us.

From “The Good Shepherd” in From Advent to Pentecost: Carthusian Novice Conferences by a Carthusian, translated by Carmel Brett (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1999).

Daily Reading for May 16 • The Martyrs of the Sudan

“So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.” (Psalm 78:72)

God is opening doors for our partnership work with the church in Sudan. . . . As God opens these doors, keep praying so that we can walk through them faithfully to bring relief to those suffering, hope to those laboring, and effective support to those working hard to keep the peace. . . .

We pray for the church in Sudan, that it will continue to be an effective peacemaker, leader and teacher.

We pray for all those working to bring about an equitable and peaceful separation of South Sudan and Sudan, for the safety, prosperity, and harmony of both countries, and for the protection of religious freedom in both countries.

And we pray that we will be steadfast in prayers for peace and for our partners in Sudan.

All this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

From the Sudan Prayer Update by Russ Randle for March 29, 2011, found at the website of the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, http://www.afrecs.org/Mar_29_Sudan_prayer_update.pdf

Daily Reading for May 17 • William Hobart Hare, Bishop of Njobrara, and of South Dakota, 1909

Rev. Father in God: This presentation of a Bishop’s Robes is the first that has occurred in the history of our youthful diocese. We who have the privilege of making it wish that it may be regarded as an expression both of our gratitude to Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, and also of our love and respect for our fellow-man who has been placed over us in the Lord. The gift itself is small; but to us it implies much. It means, first of all, that we can, as we ought to be, thankful that during these fifteen years we have had a leader who is fearless and prudent in conducting our Christian warfare; an overseer of the vineyard who is himself a diligent laborer; a preacher of the gospel who, rightly dividing the word of truth, boldly declares the whole counsel of God; a father, who, by precept and example, promotes peace and good works among the members of the household. It means, also, that we duly honor the diligence and fidelity, and thoughtfulness and perseverance with which the weighty duties of your solemn office have been performed, and appreciate the loving kindness and sympathy that have gone out from the heart of our Chief Pastor to the people of his flock. We are glad, also, to express hereby our unfeigned pleasure at being able honestly and sincerely to congratulate all Christian people in South Dakota upon the abundant blessing that has been bestowed upon this field while it has been under your spiritual charge. In the increase of true religion that has followed the increased teachings of the Gospel of Christ in His kingdom, we find good reason to thank God and take courage.

Moreover, we think that we ought to feel encouraged, not only by the success that has crowned our honest endeavors, but also by the trials and hindrances and opposition that we have been called to meet; for these have put us on our mettle, as well as made us show what kind of men we are. Especially may we be thankful concerning the charges and attacks lately made upon your character--which charges, though made against yourself alone, yet, of course, affect us all; for we are members one of another, and if any member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Even for these accusations we may be thankful, because they have been the means of revealing a noble character, and of calling forth a general expression of love and admiration--love of the man, admiration of the Bishop; love for his gentleness, charity and impartiality; admiration of his patience, firmness and conscientious discharge of duty. Out of a great evil has resulted one great good--it has shown to us all the gratifying fact that there can exist a union of true love and strict justice, even in the soul of one of our fellows. It has drawn out many expressions like that which appeared in one of the papers of our own See City: “Nothing whatever can shake the firm belief of the people of Dakota in the integrity and purity of Bishop Hare.”

The old robes put on at your consecration have worn well; doubtless they have performed their part better than any of us have ours; at last they have yielded to the wear and tear that befall all things that accompany a Bishop in his travels. May these new ones do as good service--only may they not last so long. Rather, may they be used so constantly that they will soon have to be replaced. May your long and happy life of continuous diligence and usefulness require many similar presentations at the returns of this joyous anniversary. And may the wasting of these, our present garments, that perish so quickly in the using, cause us all so faithfully to fulfill our trusts, that one day the Great Bishop and Shepherd of our souls may clothe us in the imperishable robes of His righteousness.

From an address by the Reverend J. H. Babcock of Mitchell, South Dakota, at the presentation of new episcopal robes to Bishop Hare, at the celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of his consecration, January 10, 1888. Found at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/whhare/reminiscences1888.html

Daily Reading for May 18

“I will be their shepherd,” he says, “and I will be close to them,” as clothing to their skin. He desires to save my flesh by clothing it in the robe of immortality, and he as anointed my body. “They shall call on me,” he says, “and I will answer, ‘Here I am.’” Lord, you have heard me more quickly than I ever had hoped. “And if they pass over they shall not fall, says the Lord,” meaning that we who are passing over into immortality shall not fall into corruption, for he will preserve us. He has said he would, and to do so is his own wish. Such is our Teacher, both good and just. He said he had not come to be served but to serve, and so the Gospel shows him tired out, he who labored for our sake and promised “to give his life as ransom for many,” a thing that, as he said, only the good Shepherd will do.

From Christ the Educator by Clement of Alexandria, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVa, John 1-10, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006).

Daily Reading for May 19 • Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988

St. Dunstan’s life at Canterbury is characteristic; long hours, both day and night, were spent in private prayer, besides his regular attendance at Mass and the Office. Often he would visit the shrines of St. Augustine and St. Ethelbert, and we are told of a vision of angels who sang to him heavenly canticles. He worked ever for the spiritual and temporal improvement of his people, building and restoring churches, establishing schools, judging suits, defending the widow and the orphan, promoting peace, enforcing respect for purity. He practised, also, his handicrafts, making bells and organs and correcting the books in the cathedral library. He encouraged and protected scholars of all lands who came to England, and was unwearied as a teacher of the boys in the cathedral school. There is a sentence in the earliest biography, written by his friend, that shows us the old man sitting among the lads, whom he treated so gently, and telling them stories of his early days and of his forebears. And long after his death we are told of children who prayed to him for protection against harsher teachers, and whose prayers were answered.

On the vigil of Ascension Day, 988, he was warned by a vision of angels that he had but three days to live. On the feast itself he pontificated at Mass and preached three times to the people: once at the Gospel, a second time at the benediction (then given after the Pater Noster), and a third time after the Agnus Dei. In this last address he announced his impending death and bade them farewell. That afternoon he chose the spot for his tomb, then took to his bed. His strength failed rapidly, and on Saturday morning (19 May), after the hymn at Matins, he caused the clergy to assemble. Mass was celebrated in his presence, then he received Extreme Unction and the Holy Viaticum, and expired as he uttered the words of thanksgiving: “He hath made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord: He hath given food to them that fear Him.”

From the entry for St. Dunstan in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese—Fathers (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1909).

Daily Reading for May 20 • Alcuin, Deacon, and Abbot of Tours, 804

The nature and scope of Charles’ liturgical reforms were determined by his desire to secure a uniformity in the church commensurate with that which he was trying to secure in the realm of political affairs. The Frankish Church with its numberless local “uses” could not be expected to furnish the requisite model. Accordingly, he decided to adopt the Roman use, so that the Frankish and Roman churches, one in doctrine and in faith, should be one in form and in ritual. The Roman chant, the Roman sacramentary, the Roman calendar and the Roman form of baptism were all to be approved.

In carrying out his sweeping policy of reform, Charles was at once confronted by a difficulty. The Frankish uses were in the field; they could not be ousted by a mere command; they must be gradually modified, revised and brought into uniformity with the use of Rome. To execute this task required a man of great tact and ripe scholarship, who, while recognizing the difficulties in the work in hand, and the need for moderation, would yet be in hearty sympathy with its purpose. Such a man was Alcuin.

Alcuin wholly approved of Charles’ efforts to make the Frankish liturgy conform to that of Rome. Yet his training and experience had been such as to counsel moderation. In his own land, there had been a struggle between two rival liturgies, and knowing the history of that struggle from the compromise under Theodore of Tarsus to the ultimate triumph in his own day of the Roman purists at the Councils of Cloveshoe and Pincanhale, he was not likely to be too arbitrary nor too radical in dealing with a similar question in Frankland. This is very evident from a reply to Eanbald, Archbishop of York, who had requested him to compile a new sacramentary. “Have you not an abundance of sacramentaries in the Roman style,” says he, “and yet others of a larger size, representing an older use?” “And,” adds he, very pertinently, “I would fain have had you teach your clergy something of the Roman Order ... so that the ecclesiastical ceremonies might be performed in an orderly, respectful way.” Manifestly, while Alcuin’s love of order led him to prefer the Roman service-books, he was willing to supplement them by the local uses. It was in such a spirit of compromise that he composed the liturgical works ascribed to him.

From The Letters of Alcuin by Rolph Barlow Page (New York: Columbia University, 1909).

Daily Reading for May 21 • John Eliot, Missionary among the Algonquin, 1690

Puritan missionary activity was not an early form of the aggressive evangelism so familiar to twentieth-century Americans. As several scholars have observed, the Massachusetts charter enjoined the planters to “win and incite the natives to . . . the Christian faith” through “your good life and orderly conversation.” This phrasing reflected a point of view found in many seventeenth-century missionary sources, whether Puritan or Anglican. The perspective in question—which I would term the “affective model” for a mission—taught that Indians would yearn to participate in the English way of life once they had witnessed the virtues of the colonists. . . .

Puritans identified four stages in the missionary process that would unfold after the natives had “affect[ed] the persons” of the saints. The first was to train the Indians in what was almost always termed “civility.” In James Axtell’s handy summary of Puritan judgments about the matter, natives lacked three defining characteristics of the “civilized” way of life: order, industry, and manners. Colonists saw evidence of disorder in the Indians’ failure to enclose their fields and establish year-round places of residence, a disregard for the virtue of industry in native subsistence practices, and improper breeding in the Indians’ grooming habits. Eliot devoted much of his attention to eliminating these alleged deficiencies in aboriginal culture. The second stage was to teach the Indians about Protestant Christianity. The indoctrination of the natives required the eradication of their traditional form of animism, which colonists variously described as superstition, idolatry, and devil worship. . . .

Puritan sources on Indian instruction invariably listed the word “civility” before the word “religion.” In some cases, this arrangement clearly indicated a chronological order. . . . Eliot’s practice, however, was to “carry on civility with religion.” From the outset of his missionary work, he taught the Indians to “labor and work in building, planting, clothing [them]selves, etc.” and also instructed them in “all the principal matters of religion.”. . . Indians “must have visible civility,” Eliot explained, “before they can rightly enjoy visible sanctity in ecclesiastical communion.”

The Native Americans were not the only persons whom the colonists considered deficient in civility and religion. . . . Maine, Virginia, and the West Indies were filled with English settlers whom the authors of New Englands First Fruits considered “almost as dark and rude as the Indians themselves.” . . . At the same time, however, the Indians represented a special challenge. They were more “dark and rude” than reprobates in Maine and interior Massachusetts, and they did not speak English. The Massachusetts Puritans did not lack advice about how to solve the language problem. In 1632 Edward Howes, a family friend in England, told the younger John Winthrop that the colonists’ objective should be “the speedy bringing of . . . Indians to the perfect understanding of our tongue and writing.”. . . [Other colonists, including John Eliot,] concluded that the planters would have to become “more perfectly acquainted” with the Indians’ language, and “they with our,” before proper instruction could be given.

From John Eliot’s Mission to the Indians Before King Philip’s War by Richard W. Cogley (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999).

Daily Reading for May 22 • The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Today there are many voices enticing people into the ways of death. As in the days of Christ, they speak in tones of prudence, expedience and self-protection. We are caught in the gravitational pull towards death. To stand on the side of life calls for the risks and initiatives of a different policy.

For behind every considered policy there is a bias either towards death or towards life. The arguments or the weapons or the methods you use reveal which side you are on. Was that why Jesus declined Peter’s sword and the merciful women’s drugged wine?

But aliveness will win, the enduring aliveness of God. Year after year Easter and Pentecost renew the promise that ‘in Christ Jesus the life-giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death’. After every winter the spring flowers are drawn back into the light of the sun. So may we be drawn back from our falling away and up into Christ who is our life and in him grow sensitive to the reality of God, spontaneously responsive to the glory and pain of the world, less prudential in our self-giving, more daring in our risks, each marked with the liveliness and singularity of a child of God.

From “Most Glorious Lord of Life” in The Incarnate God by John V. Taylor. Copyright © 2003. A Continuum book used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com

Daily Reading for May 23 • Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543, and Johannes Kepler, 1543, Astronomers

I can reckon easily enough, Most Holy Father, that as soon as certain people learn that in these books of mine which I have written about the revolutions of the spheres of the world I attribute certain motions to the terrestrial globe, they will immediately shout to have me and my opinion hooted off the stage. For my own works do not please me so much that I do not weigh what judgments others will pronounce concerning them. And although I realize that the conceptions of a philosopher are placed beyond the judgment of the crowd, because it is his loving duty to seek the truth in all things, in so far as God has granted that to human reason; nevertheless I think we should avoid opinions utterly foreign to rightness. And when I considered how absurd this “lecture” would be held by those who know that the opinion that the Earth rests immovable in the middle of the heavens as if their centre had been confirmed by the judgments of many ages—if I were to assert to the contrary that the Earth moves; for a long time I was in difficulty as to whether I should bring to light my commentaries written to demonstrate the Earth’s movement, or whether it would not be better to follow the example of the Pythagoreans and certain others who used to hand down the mysteries of their philosophy not in writing but by word of mouth and only to their relatives and friends. . . . They however seem to me to have done that not, as some judge, out of a jealous unwillingness to communicate their doctrines but in order that things of very great beauty which have been investigated by the loving care of great men should not be scorned by those who find it a bother to expend any great energy on letters—except on the money-making variety—or who are provoked by the exhortations and examples of others to the liberal study of philosophy but on account of their natural stupidity hold the positions among philosophers that drones hold among bees. Therefore, when I weighed these things in my mind, the scorn which I had to fear on account of the newness and absurdity of my opinion almost drove me to abandon a work already undertaken.

From the Preface and Dedication to Pope Paul III of On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus, edited by Stephen Hawking (Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 2002).

Daily Reading for May 24 • Jackson Kemper, First Missionary Bishop in the United States, 1870

We determine with grateful hearts to embrace the opportunity afforded by the Steam boat. On Friday evening I made a short address to the children at family prayers, & now took leave of them, exhorting them to love one another. We packed up immediately after breakfast. Talked with Suydam about his becoming a candidate, directed him & promised to send him Horn’s Intro. He gave me two MSS maps, one of Green Bay, the other of Pox river—& a menomenie war club. Started from Mission house before 9 bidding all & affect[ionate] farewell. . . .

My berth proved a sad one—bed bugs &c & very rocking—slept very little. Rose at day break when the boat started. Many passengers complain of dirt & vermin of the boat. Passed the beautiful eagle harbour—grape islands. . . .Much is said of the clearness of these waters—certain subjects can be seen at a great depth say 6 or 7 fathoms—a white towel for instance tied to the line. . . .

The death of Gov Porter is not considered a calamitous event for the Territory or the Indians. All parties appear to be unanimous in the opinion that the Indians are injured on all sides. The government, the army, the traders, the agents (& the Missionaries to a certain extent) accuse each other. Many agents appear to prey upon them & have grown rich. The Government forces them to give up land which the Governor does not want. Some conscientious officers assert that traders have come within musket shot of their forts & sold without reserve, & that they cannot obtain from the Governor the authority necessary to repress their efforts & drive the traders away. Rolet & others appear to think that all the efforts pledged to the Menos for their lands will be made without producing the least good. . .

Rolet an intelligent shrewd man has been 30 yrs an Indian fur trader—has lived for yrs among—a Canadian of french descent. Speaks severely of our Governor’s conduct towards the Indians. He has a son at a presbyterian school & a daughter at a quaker school near New York. He was educated at the Catholic college of Quebec. Appears tolerant, perhaps deistical in his sentiments. . . . The wilder they are the better in his estimation—at all events they are free from many of the vices of the whites. The Sioux are yet in a wild state—men & women dress in Buffalo skins—the men have boot moccasins, the hair inside. Their robes are painted with figures of animals &c on outside. In hunting &c they often guide their horses by bearing their bodies to the side they wish to go. Their lodges are rendered very comfortable in winter by having Buffalo robes hung up in them. In hunting the Buffalo they go with their families in parties of 1 or 200. . . . Each warrior knows his own arrows, & is entitled to the skin & tongue of the animal he slew. The meat is in common. . . . Their meat particularly the Buffalo roasted before the fire & cut off in thin slices as it is cooked & eaten is far more delicious than beef and more juicy. . . .

The boat stopped last night while I was asleep at Erie & today we arrived at 11 at Buffalo. Not a storm or accident during the whole of the trip on the upper Lakes. Thanks to God through Christ my Redeemer for all his mercies.

From Journal of An Episcopalian Missionary’s Tour to Green Bay, 1834 by Jackson Kemper, D.D; found at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/jkemper/greenbay.html

Daily Reading for May 25 • The Venerable Bede, Priest, and Monk of Jarrow, 735

It can disturb hearers with weak [faith] that, at the beginning of this reading from the gospel, the Savior promises his disciples, “If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Not only do people like us not receive many things they seem to ask of the Father in Christ’s name, but even the apostle Paul himself asked the Lord three times that the angel of Satan with which he was tormented might depart from him, and he was not able to obtain what he asked. . . .

Whenever we are not listened to when we ask, it happens either because we are asking [for something] contrary to what would aid our salvation, and for this reason the grace of his kindness is denied us by our merciful Father because we are unsuitably asking . . . or we are asking things that are indeed useful for and connected with true salvation, but we ourselves, by our evil lives, divert away from us the voice of the just Judge, falling into what was said by Solomon, “The person who turns away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer will be an abomination”; or [it happens because] when we pray for certain sinners, that they may recover their senses and return to themselves, that although we are asking [for something] pertaining to salvation, and we deserve to be heard for our own merit, yet their obstinacy stands in the way of our obtaining what we ask.

It also sometimes happens that we seek things entirely related to salvation with our eager petitions and devoted actions, and yet we do not immediately obtain what we ask. The result of our petition is postponed to some future time, as when we daily ask the Father on bended knees, saying, “Your kingdom come,” and nevertheless we are not going to receive the kingdom as soon as our prayer is finished, but at the proper time. It is a fact that this is often done with benevolent foresight by our Maker, so that the desires [inspired by] our devotion may increase by deferment. When they had advanced more and more by daily growth, at length they embrace perfectly the joys they are seeking.

From Homily 11.12 on John 16:23-30, in Homilies on the Gospels, Book Two: Lent to the Dedication of the Church by Bede the Venerable, translated by Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst OSB (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1991).

Daily Reading for May 26 • Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury, 605

The king bade the missionaries be seated; and Augustine is said to have addressed him to the following effect:

“Your everlasting peace, O king, and that of your kingdom, is the object we desire to promote in coming hither; we bring you, as we have already made known, tidings of never-ending joy. If you receive them, you will be blessed for ever, both here and in the Kingdom which is without end. The Creator and Redeemer of the world has opened to mankind the Kingdom of Heaven, and of citizens of the earth makes men inhabitants of a celestial city. . . .

“Do not, therefore, most illustrious king, regard us as superstitious, because we have been at pains to come from Rome to your dominions for the sake of your salvation and that of your subjects, and to force upon an unknown people benefits, as it were, against their will. Be assured, most loving king, that we have purposed this, constrained by the necessity of great love. For we long, beyond all the desires and glory of the world, to have as many fellow citizens with us as we can in the Kingdom of our God; and we strive with all our efforts to prevent those from perishing, who may be advanced to the company of the holy Angels. For this goodwill the loving-kindness of our Christ has everywhere infused, by the inestimable sweetness of His Spirit, into all the preachers of His Truth, that, laying aside the thought of their own necessities, they burn with zeal for the salvation of all nations, and esteem every people as their parents and sons, their brethren and kinsmen; and, embracing all in the single love of God, labour to bring them to everlasting ages of all happiness and festal joys. . . . Moved, too, by such love as this, Gregory, the present Father of all Christendom, thirsting most ardently for your salvation, would have come to you, hindered by no fear of punishment or death, had he been able (as he is not) to leave the care of so many souls committed to his charge. And therefore he has sent us in his place to open to you the way of everlasting light and the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven; in which, if despising the idols of devils, you refuse not to enter through Christ, you shall most assuredly reign for ever.”

Such was the tenor of the address which Augustine delivered to the king. He spoke it, as St. Bede tells us, “sitting by the king's command.” Ethelbert’s answer was as follows: “Fair, truly, are the words and promises which you bring me, but they are new to me and of doubtful authority. I cannot, therefore, accept them, to the neglect of those religious observances, to which, in common with the whole English people, I have so long adhered. However, you are foreigners, who have come a long way to my country, and, as far as I find myself able to understand the object of your visit, you are come with the desire of imparting to me what you yourselves believe to be true and excellent. We are far, then, from wishing to molest you; rather we would receive you with kindness and hospitality. We shall, accordingly, take measures for supplying you with all necessary articles of food. Neither do we forbid you to preach, and make what converts you can to the faith of your religion.”

From Gocelin’s Life, quoted in The Life of Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English by John Henry Newman (London: James Toovey, 1845).

Daily Reading for May 27 • Bertha and Ethelbert, Queen and King of Kent, 616

King Ethelbert was as good as his word. Upon his return to Canterbury, he gave orders that a suitable house should be prepared for the reception of the missionaries, that a table should be kept for them at his own expense, and that no obstacles should be put in the way of their preaching. In due time St. Augustine and his companions quitted Thanet for Canterbury, and entered the city in the same solemn order which had been observed in approaching the king in Thanet. The tall silver cross was again uplifted, and the sacred banner displayed; and as they passed the little church of St. Martin, they chanted, as in the name of its inhabitants, “Lord, we pray Thee of Thy mercy, take away Thine anger from this city, and from Thy holy house; for we have sinned. Alleluia.” The poor idolaters of the place marvelled at the strange sight; curiously staring, now at the sunburnt complexions, mortified aspect, and unwonted garb, of the missionaries; now at the gleaming cross, now at the painted banner. . . . One inmate of the place, at least, there was, who discerned in that lowly procession a troop of dauntless warriors, and whose heart beat high with presages of victory,—queen Bertha. . . .

The monks, on their arrival at Canterbury, were lodged by Ethelbert in the part of the city called Stablegate, or “the resting-place,” as being the quarter in which strangers were usually accommodated,—a name which it retains to this day. . . . Here St. Augustine and his companions remained till Ethelbert, on his conversion, made over to them his own royal palace, out of which grew the Monastery of Christ Church. Ethelbert’s own palace was, therefore, within a stone’s throw of the house in which the missionaries were lodged on their arrival, so that the king must have enjoyed constant opportunities of witnessing the devout and holy conversation of the strangers. “They lived,” says the historian, “like Apostles; frequent in prayers, watchings, and fastings. They preached the Word of Life to all who were ready to hear it, receiving from their disciples so much only as was necessary for a bare subsistence, and in all things acting in strict conformity with their profession and doctrine. In truth, they seemed to put aside the good things of this world, as property not belonging to them. They bore disappointments and hindrances with a calm and cheerful spirit, and would readily have died, had such been God’s will, in defence of the truth they preached.” The result may easily be imagined. “Many believed, and were baptized, won over by the simplicity of their blameless lives, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine.” . . .

Who that has been at Canterbury, has not visited the church of St. Martin? and who that has visited it with such knowledge of the history of England as most educated persons now possess, can have failed to experience many strange emotions on entering beneath its low portal, and surveying its scanty proportions? After all the changes wrought by time in the actual building, —which, with the exception of a few red Roman bricks still discernible in the eastern exterior wall, has probably quite lost its identity with the original fabric, —and notwithstanding the desolating ravages which Reformers and Puritans have perpetrated in the sacred interior, it is hard not to reflect that here, so runs the tradition, queen Bertha prayed for heathen England; here St. Luidhard and St. Augustine of Canterbury offered the holy Sacrifice of the Altar; and here king Ethelbert, laying aside his earthly crown, and sceptre of temporal sovereignty, was admitted as a little child into the Kingdom of Heaven.

From The Life of Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English in Lives of the English Saints by John Henry Newman (London: James Toovey, 1845).

Daily Reading for May 28 • John Calvin, Theologian, 1564

If the Lord truly represents the participation in his body through the breaking of bread, there ought not to be the least doubt that he truly presents and shows his body. And the godly ought by all means to keep this rule: whenever they see the symbols appointed by the Lord, to think and be persuaded that the truth of the thing signified is surely present there. For why should the Lord put in your hand the symbol of his body, except to assure you of true participation in it? But if it is true that a visible sign is given to seal to us the gift of a thing invisible, when we have received the symbol of the body, let us no less surely trust that the body itself is given to us. . . .

In short [Christ] feeds his people with his own body, the communion of which he bestows upon them by the power of the Spirit. In this manner, the body and blood of Christ are shown to us in the Sacrament . . . . I freely accept whatever can be made to express the true and substantial partaking of the body and blood of Christ, which is shown to believers under the sacred symbols of the Supper—and so to express it that they may be understood not to receive it solely by imagination or understanding of the mind, but to enjoy the thing itself as nourishment of eternal life.

From John Calvin’s Institutes 4.17.10, 18, 19.

Daily Reading for May 29 • The Sixth Sunday of Easter

I will confer the grace of the Holy Spirit, he says, so that you may always have it with you to teach you the truth. He speaks of another Advocate, as of another instructor, a comforter. This is a doctrine for those in dire straits because the Spirit, through its grace, will make the afflictions inflicted on them by people lighter. And, as a consolation, through its gifts, it will enable them to easily endure their afflictions. This is what actually happened. Indeed, the more his disciples feared death before, the more they rejoiced in tribulations after the descent of the Spirit. He calls it “Spirit of truth” since it teaches nothing but the truth, nor can it ever change to the contrary in order to teach anything different from the truth. He says “another” in relation to himself, for while he was among them, he certainly filled the same role for them. In addition they received from the Holy Spirit the confirmation of all those things that he had taught them when he was present. Thus our Lord said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you. And you will be my witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea and among the Samaritans, and all nations.”

From the Commentary on John of Theodore of Mopsuestia, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVb, John 11-21, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007).

Daily Reading for May 30 • Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc), Mystic and Soldier, 1431, and Memorial Day

O Lord our God,
whose name only is excellent
and thy praise above heaven and earth:
We give thee high praise and hearty thanks
for all those who counted not their lives dear unto themselves
but laid them down for their friends;
beseeching thee to give them a part and a lot
in those good things which thou has prepared
for all those whose names are written in the Book of Life;
and grant to us, that having them always in remembrance,
we may imitate their faithfulness
and with them inherit the new name
which thou has promised to them that overcome;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From a prayer before a war memorial by Eric Milner-White, quoted in Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, compiled by Christopher L. Webber. Copyright © 2004. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com

Daily Reading for May 31 • The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Eve, mother of our humanity,
Teach us true wisdom, that all life is precious in God’s sight.

Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth, yearning for a child,
Comfort and strengthen all who know the pain of infertility.

Hagar, condemned to the harshness of exile,
Sustain those who struggle to feed their sons and daughters.

Rebecca, bride from a far-off land,
Welcome women who must bring up family among strangers.

Rachel, weeping for your children,
Weep with all mothers whose children have disappeared.

Jochebed, mother of Moses and Miriam,
Lend your ingenuity to women who seek protection for their children.

Naomi and Ruth, bound together by a love greater than blood,
Show us how bitter disappointment can become the sweetness of hope.

Mary, daughter of Israel, mother of Jesus,
Share with us God’s secrets you have pondered deep within your heart.

From A Litany of Biblical Mothers by Clare Amos, quoted in Lifting Women’s Voices: Prayers to Change the World edited by Margaret Rose, Jenny Te Paa, Jeanne Person, and Abagail Nelson. Copyright © 2009. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com