I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

The One Broken Body--April 17, 2014


In distress they cry aloud to you, Jesus;
the hearts of the starving are stricken,
withered like grass; even if they had
bread they are too wasted to eat it.

You took bread, blessed it, broke it,
and gave it to us as your broken body.
The hungry, too, are part of the one body;
as we eat the bread, remind us of the hungry.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 27; 147:12-20; 126; 102
Lam. 2:10-18
1 Cor. 10:14-17; 11:27-32
Mark 14:12-25

Selected Verses
Ps. 102:4
My heart is stricken and withered like grass;
          I am too wasted to eat my bread. 

Lam. 2:18
Cry aloud to the Lord!  O wall of daughter Zion!  Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night!  Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!

1 Cor. 10:17                                                                                                                                              
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Mark 14:22
While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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