February 06, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 42, 102, 133
Isaiah 58:1-12
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Mark 9:42-50

II. Selections
Psalm 42:7
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.

Isaiah 58:7
Is not [ the fast that I choose] to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

2 Timothy 1:11-12
For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.

Mark 9:42
" ...If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. ... "

III. Meditation: Suffering comes

Suffering comes to all, and who knows all the reasons?
The apostle-herald-teacher suffered for his calling;
but he was not ashamed, because he knew you,
and because in you he had put his trust.

Your waves and billows have gone over us,
and we have suffered in the thundering deeps.
We may have brought this suffering on ourselves;
whatever the cause, it has taken us to the depths of life.

The many poor suffer from neglect, and do not ask the cause;
they only know that they are hungry, homeless, naked.
You hear their cries, turn back our worship on us,
admonish us to first address their suffering.

And there are the little ones, your favorites-
we must remember them. No stumbling blocks
before their feet; better for the offender to have tied
around his neck a millstone, and be thrown into the deeps.