Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 1:1-7

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion” (Phil. 1:6).

Prayer

Hope blossoms in these early days, my Lord. Assurance fills me with clear awareness that I am not alone, cut off, cast away. The nagging nihilism of despair that sometimes haunts has been tested and found false. That ancient fear is trampled under foot as I see the labor of those around me and know: It all matters. It all counts. It will not fail or fall incomplete, discarded pieces of a project that never bore fruit.

My hope is not the result of rational process, nor even the product of good work I see among saints around me. It is the natural effluence, the living flow released in the soul by the knowledge and experience of you. Knowing you, the energies of confidence, joy, assurance, creative power and love flow from depths of soul I can neither summon nor control. You give a certainty, a confidence beyond reason, confidence in you: in your beauty, your grace, your good will, your determination to bring the beauty you are to completion in the lives of those who love you.

In this good work, I know the goodness of the Worker. In the graces of the graced, I know the One who is grace. In the beauty of the given souls, I see you who are Beauty. In every act of love, I know the One who is Love. In their companionship, I know the Holy Companion who never departs from me. In their wisdom and care, I know you whose name is Eternal Wisdom and Unending Compassion. And that is enough for me. Amen.




Pr. David L. Miller
Dean of the Chapel, Director of Spiritual Formation