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.

A Prayer for Healing--October 17, 2018


Our lives are like the morning mist,
or the dew that goes away early;
like chaff that swirls from the
threshing floor, or smoke
drifting out a window.

We are in a deserted place,
violently pounded by the storm.
You heal the broken hearted, God;
O, bind up our wounds, we pray you.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
Hosea 13:1-3
Acts 27:9-26
Luke 9:1-17

Selected Verses
Ps. 147:3
[The LORD] heals the brokenhearted,
          and binds up their wounds. 

Hosea 13:3
Therefore [the people worshiping idols] shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes away early, like chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window.

Acts 27:18
We were being pounded by the storm so violently that on the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard…

Luke 9:12
The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place." 

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