This Daily Devotion is to help our members and others reflect on the understanding of Christian service to our Lord.
Devotion for Monday, December 13, 2021
The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite, Msgr. George Appleyard
An Invitation to Prayer
The people who walked in the dark have seen a brilliant light;
on those living in a land of gloom a light has shone,
you have brought them great joy, O Lord,
an exceeding great joy!
-Come, let us walk in the light!
Mem
Oh, how I have loved your law, O Lord,
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commandments have made me wiser than my enemies,
for they are mine forever.
I understand more than all of my teachers
because I study your pronouncements.
I understand more than the elders
because I pursued your judgments.
I have kept my feet from every path of evil,
that I might keep your decrees.
I have not deviated from your rules,
for you have directed for me.
Your dictates are sweet on my lips,
sweeter than honey in my mouth.
I understand because of your pronouncements,
and so I hate every path of iniquity.
A reading adapted from Basil’s, On the Human Condition
As you possess the image in being rational, you become the likeness by being kind. The Scripture tells us to develop a kind and compassionate heart that we might be vested in Christ. You draw close to Christ by those things you undertake out of sympathy, and approaching him is approaching God. The story of creation is a story of human life. If God created you in his likeness (instead of having you develop it in yourself), what would be yours to give to him? What would be your merit? The image is given and the likeness left incomplete so that you might finish your own creation and become worthy of being repaid by God.
A Prayer
O God, more than the excitement and joy of a bride or groom dressing for their wedding, you have provided a lasting happiness for us by entrusting to us a glorious work, that we should “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and in that make ourselves like you. May your Spirit lead us to think as Jesus did, to have his attitude and dispositionPhil. 2:5, so that we will not simply act like him, but be like him, that we might share his exaltation in glory.
Amen!
Note
Today Saint Lucy (whose name means light) is remembered in East and West. Among Scandinavians it is a particularly joyful day because-on their old calendar-it coincided with the winter solstice.