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.

Prayer for a World in Trouble--Aug. 12, 2012



We are anxious for ourselves
and for others who are perishing.
By word or by deed we rejected you,
but in deep trouble now we come back.

Yes, God, you are the one who made us;
and well you know it was from dust.
Like flowers we have flourished;
save the flowers coming after.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 103; 150; 117; 139
Judg. 11:1-11, 29-40
2 Cor. 11:21b-31
Mark 4:35-41

Selected Verses
Ps. 103:14-15
For [the LORD] knows how we were made;
      he remembers that we are dust.
As for mortals, their days are like grass;
      they flourish like a flower of the field…

Judg. 11:7
But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father's house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?"

2 Cor. 11:28
And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.

Mark 4:38
But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and [the disciples] woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

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