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.

I Pray, No Stumbling Block--May 7, 2021

[From May 27, 2011 archive]


Almighty God, I am one who waits for your return,

concerned that you have forsaken the work of your hands.


And I am also one of your foolish and senseless people, prone

to forget that you are the Father who created and established us.


God, let me resolve that I will never allow my foolishness

to put a stumbling block in the way of someone else.



Lectionary Readings

Ps. 96; 148; 49; 138

Deut. 31:30-32:14

Rom. 14:13-23

Luke 8:40-56


Selected Verses 

Ps. 68:19

 Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation.  Selah


Jer. 33:7

I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first.  [The LORD to Jeremiah]


Rom. 14:7-8

We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.  If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.


Luke 8:37

Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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