Friday - May 19 2023

SCRIPTURE Acts 9:11-14 The Lord said to Ananias, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” WORDS OF HOPE A crew of zealots with orders in their hands and hate in their hearts enter the city. For the established citizens, this is cause for celebration, for these violent men are here to arrest and harm those who do not belong among the privileged. They are led by a particularly extremist man who is an upcoming star in the administration. He is loyal to the despotic leadership and has a reputation for cruelty and efficiency. His current mission: To arrest and harass anyone who dares oppose those in charge. This could be a description of what is happening in cities across this country when ICE and DEA agents descend into neighborhoods. However, it is a narrative about what is about to happen when a man from Tarsus named Saul, with authority from the chief priests, arrives in Damascus. However, on his way to that city, Saul of Tarsus has an encounter with the risen Christ who confronts Saul with the question “why do you persecute me?” Suddenly, Saul finds himself blinded and led to the city where he ponders for three lonely days and nights the dramatic appearance of Jesus and his future life as a blinded man. Meanwhile, a faithful follower named Ananias receives a command to go to Saul, the very man known for breathing threats and violence against the church. However, where Ananias sees danger; God sees purpose. “Go,” the Lord says, “for he is an instrument whom I have chosen.” God does not deny Saul’s past. Instead, God reveals a transforming future shaped by grace. Ananias goes. His courage is quiet but costly. He enters the house, lays hands on Saul, and calls him “Brother.” With that single word, Ananias embodies the gospel—naming kinship where others would only see threat. Sight is restored, the Spirit fills Saul, and baptism follows. Healing flows through obedience. Acts 9 reminds us that God often heals and calls through ordinary believers willing to trust beyond their comfort. We are not asked to approve of harm or ignore wisdom, but to remain open to God’s redemptive work—even in people and places that unsettle us. Sometimes the miracle is not only what God does in them, but what God forms in us as we go. PRAYER God of surprising grace, give us ears to hear your call and courage to follow. Help us trust your vision when ours is limited by fear. Make us instruments of healing, in Jesus’ name. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR  Thomas Riggs

SCRIPTURE  Proverbs 3.3-4 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and humanity. WORDS OF HOPE Love can consist of many gifts, but what is a gift that is not given? Unless the gift is given it can never become what it was meant to be. One does not smile from the inside, but it stretches across the lips from cheek to cheek for all to see. When we smile at others, we give a gift that comes from the heart. Then, once that gift is received by another, her love grows and responds with a smile of her very own. She will have then learned to smile, and not only that, but will find someone new to give her smile to. Today, there are many smiles all around the world because God first smiled at us. God created us because God wanted someone to give that love to; God wanted to show that smile to the Creation. The love of God gives life, otherwise, why would God have ever given the gift? Love hurts sometimes, and we all hurt sometimes. A baby cries when she wants to be held. Once the baby is in the arms of her mother, however, she stops crying because she craved love. As the baby lives off the mother’s milk, so too does she need love from the one who gave her life. Milk is for the body, but love is for the spirit. Jesus said, “Humankind shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The “word” that Jesus spoke of is, in essence, the love of God. Without love, God’s words would be soundless, unheard, and of no effect. If God made humankind because God wanted to give us a gift, then we, by nature, were meant to receive that gift. My Earthly father taught me that love is not love unless it is given, because love has always been, and always will be, an expression of the heart. PRAYER Bless You Lord for Your precious love. You smiled at us, and now, we smile too. Protect these hearts that learned how to smile so that we, in kind, can give it back. Thank You for showing us the way. You have so much love for us, but it is not always understood. Help us to understand Your great love toward us. Show us how to love others as You have loved us. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Jonathon McClellan Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

SCRIPTURE  Ephesians 3:18-19 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. WORDS OF HOPE Today’s passage comes from a letter of Paul written to the Ephesians. It is a prayer that ends the letter and is given to encourage hope within the readers. Probably written while Paul was in prison in Rome around AD 62, it resembles other Pauline letters and was essentially an “inner-office” memo to the church in what is now Turkey. Though the message was for a specific group of believers, the sentiment still resonates with me today. The idea that “the love of Christ surpasses knowledge” speaks volumes. It tells me that God’s love is something mystical, something beyond my meager reasoning. I have thought about this a lot recently as I look at the newest photos from the Vera C. Rubin telescope. The images are the highest resolution ever taken and reveal a vastness of the universe that puts in perspective how small and precious life on Earth is. They also fill me with awe at the inconceivable fullness of the universe. My power to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of creation reminds me that I can never know it all, and that is alright with me. I am content to marvel at creation and live in the mystery of it all. It’s mystery also reminds me that the spirit of love and creation which I know as God is always with me, even in the vastness of our universe. PRAYER May we find the spirit of God in our lives and the love of Christ which sustains us. Amen DEVOTION AUTHOR Hardy Haberman

SCRIPTURE Matthew 6:25-27 Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? WORDS OF HOPE Happy New Year! Who’s ready to do a little house cleaning? When I was young, each church revival service would include my pastor's admonition that we must "clean out every closet in our life and let God's Spirit fill all of our life". To a little boy, it was very dramatic; however, it took teenage years and older experience for that to really have potent meaning. If we are honest, we all have areas of our life in which God does not rule. The entrances to those "closets" are blocked by old junk which we have piled up there for the purpose of keeping those areas private and off-limits from outside change. They're our personal places of unforgiveness, greed, dishonesty, etc. (you can fill in the etc. yourself). We all know that the Holy One is a God of absolute perfection, purity of goodness, forgiveness, love and kindness. And that God wants our lives to manifest as much purity of motive and action as possible for us to achieve. Now, there is the rub... "for us to achieve". Even with our best efforts, by ourselves we usually fail to fling open those closet doors and let the goodness and forgiving light of Christ Jesus flood those spaces of living. It requires divine help and forgiveness for us to unstack and remove the piles of junk (excuses, delays, distractions, etc.) which have blocked God out of those life areas. With the help of divine power, you can pitch out a lot of garbage which is not worthy of a garage sale and thus open wide all aspects of your life to God's presence. The Holy One can work only in areas of life which we make available for the divine living presence! We need to regularly seek out those closeted areas and pray that God's presence will "fill every nook and cranny" of our life! And a brand New Year is the perfect place to start. PRAYER Throughout 2026, may the Living Presence of Christ Jesus fill every nook and cranny of my being to grow me to be a more effective and faithful servant of yours. DEVOTION AUTHOR Donald (Luke) Day Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

SCRIPTURE Joshua 1.9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. WORDS OF HOPE Today’s Scripture reading wraps up the first chapter of the Book of Joshua and references the transition of the leadership of the ancient Hebrew people after the death of Moses. Joshua had been Moses’ assistant, confidant, and communicator of the commandments throughout most of their wilderness wanderings. He was now given the honor and task of leading them into the Promised Land. Today we interpret the Promised Land in many ways. In Christianity, the Promised Land is spiritually and metaphorically symbolic of divine promises fulfilled. In Judaism and Islam, it is seen as the same divine fulfillment, except literally, and the land they are talking about is the same land. Therein lies the conflict as God-ordained ancestral homes become geopolitical conflict. That was the problem facing Joshua as he was about to step into a much-coveted territory that would begin a 3,000-year long dispute that has yet to see a viable settlement. He had to be strong and brave, without fear, and had to guard against discouragement. To be confident that his God would be with him throughout his journeys and military confrontations within this new homeland he had been promised. How much of the Book of Joshua is fact and how much of it is retro-fitting God’s will into a conflict over territory we can’t ever know, but the Book does teach us that even in what may seem to be an impossible situation we can be encouraged to aspire for the same strength, bravery, courage, and drive that Joshua demonstrated in this book about wars within ourselves and with others. This is Twelfth Night, the last night of Christmastide, and we stand thankful for the gifts of God during the now completed year. As we stand at the beginning of another New Year, as fresh as Joshua was as he received the mantle of Moses, we must remember that eternal promise made to him is the same one made to us today: “the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” 2026 is our current Promised Land from God. The rest is up to us. PRAYER God of Promises, thank you for the opportunities, challenges, lessons, and learnings, trials and triumphs of the exciting year before us. May we always carry the assurance that you will be with us wherever we go. Amen DEVOTION AUTHOR Dan Peeler Order of St. Francis and St. Clare