This Daily Devotion is to help our members and others reflect on the understanding of Christian service to our Lord.
Devotion for Thursday, December 24, 2020
The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite, Msgr. George Appleyard
Thursday before Ash Wednesday
An Invitation to Prayer
Let us remember your beloved David
who committed murder for his adultery.
—Let us know the joy of repentance
and accept our prayer for pardon.
The Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:18-22
Tsade
The Lord is right,
I have disobeyed his decree.
Listen, all you people,
and look at my suffering.
My young men and women
have gone off into captivity.
Qoph
I called my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders
died in the city
while searching for something
to keep them alive.
Resh
Look, Lord, at how I am afflicted,
at how my insides churn.
My heart beats hard within me,
for my terrible rebellion.
Outside the sword deals death,
and at home the plague.
Shin
Listen to my groaning,
there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my plight
and gloat because you brought it on.
Now set the day and the time
to do to them what you did to me.
Tau
Summon all their evil before you
and deal with them
as you dealt with me
for all my sins.
My groans are ceaseless,
and my heart is sick
From St. Basil’s Letter #46: To a fallen nun
Now is the time to quote the words of the Prophet Jeremiah 9:1 and say, “Oh, that I had a head full of water for a fountain of tears in my eyes that I might weep for my people night and day, for the slain daughter of my people.” Though felled by a fatal blow and now wrapped in profound silence, lying unconscious from their misfortune and robbed of all sense of feeling, at all costs I must not let such a fall go unlamented. If, to Jeremiah, it seemed that those whose bodies had been wounded in war were worthy of so much lamentation, what shall be said of such a disaster of souls? As Isaiah says 22:2, “Your slain men were not slain with the sword, nor did they die in battle.” I am mourning the sting of the real death, the grievousness of sin.
A Prayer
“Now it is time to awake from sleep.” Heal the wounds of my soul, O God, and rouse me to shake off laziness. Let me prepare myself for the lent that stands before me, so that when I enter the arena I am prepared to do all to win the prize. Amen.