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.

Bounty, from Our Bountiful God--Nov. 8, 2013


 Lord God the Almighty,
God of our ancestors,
King of the nations:
great and amazing are your deeds.
You crown the year with your bounty,
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
We eat and are full, with baskets of leftovers.
Most amazing, you have created us to be holy.
In gratitude for your bounty we give
ourselves to you in a freewill offering,
that we may share your bounty with others.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 51; 148; 142; 25
Ezra 7:27-28, 8:21-36
Rev. 15:1-8
Matt. 14:13-21

Selected Verses

Ps. 65:11
You crown the year with your bounty;
          your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

Ezra 7:28
And I [Ezra] said to [the twelve leading priests and ten of their kin], "You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your ancestors.  …"

Rev. 15:3b
Great and amazing are your deeds,
          Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
          King of the nations!

Matt. 14:20  
And all [in the crowds] ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

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