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.

With Every Breath--October 31, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 103, 150, 117, 139
Zephaniah 1:1-6
1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13
Matthew 18:21-35

II. Selections
Psalm 150:6
Let everything that breathes praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD!

Zephaniah 1:2
I will utterly sweep away everything
      from the face of the earth, says the LORD.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Matthew 18:33
“ …‘Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ …” [In Jesus’ parable, the lord reprimands his unforgiving slave]

III. Meditation

Let us, with every breath we breathe, praise you—
praise you for your great mercy. Though we sin,
you have not swept us from the face of the earth.

You have had mercy on us; teach us to have mercy.
More than that, teach us how to love: to be patient
and kind; not insistent on our own way; not full of

irritation or resentment; rejoicing not in wrongdoing,
but in the truth. In love teach us to bear all things,
believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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