The Forward Day by Day Archives
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- Is confession becoming a lost art? We seem to have lost the ability or willingness to be vulnerable—before God and others—or with ourselves. We don’t seem to recognize the value of opening our hearts and souls to God’s great grace.
This doesn’t mean we don’t fr....
- So, where did Jesus get seventy followers? We tend to think there were just twelve disciples, but there were women following him too—and they weren’t there to cook and clean. Several of the women who followed Jesus had money of their own and helped fund his ministry.
MONDAY, October 19 Saint Luke (tr)
I recently led a workshop on spiritual autobiography as part of a daylong retreat on embracing mortality. The focus of this workshop was on the trajectory of our spiritual lives, our awareness of and attentiveness to God over the course of our lives, and our spiritual legacy.SUNDAY, October 18 20 Pentecost
More than twenty years ago, our baby grandson was diagnosed with stage-four neuroblastoma—a cancerous growth the size of a soda can in his fourteen-month-old abdomen. In addition to medical treatment, we rallied the prayer troops—in our church and around the world, as my husband reached out to a....SATURDAY, October 17 Ignatius of Antioch
Perhaps the United States of America has always been an antagonistic society, founded as it was on being against England, against monarchy. Certainly, contemporary American culture seems to thrive on choosing sides and defending them mightily—be it a baseball team, a political party, or a church d....FRIDAY, October 16 Hugh, Nicholas, and Thomas
I’m fortunate to live within a day’s drive of two abysses: Arizona’s Grand Canyon and Wall Street, a desert pathway surrounded by vertical, towering orange walls on a well-traveled hike in Bryce Canyon, Utah.It is virtually impossible to see Wall Street from the top....
THURSDAY, October 15 Teresa of Avila
From the Archives: April 15, 1955In the vision of the cross, death loses all meaning for us since death is coupled to our rising up again. The spoils of Jesus’ cross are ours.
When we seek the will of God in all....
WEDNESDAY, October 14 Samuel I.J. Schereschewsky
Jesus sends the twelve disciples to minister in his name, giving them the same power and authority! I find it startling that Christians don’t talk more about how Jesus shared his healing power so freely with his followers—and how Jesus still shares this power, calling us to be a part of his heal....For the last week or so, we have read in the Book of Acts about Paul’s missionary journeys and the turmoil he caused by preaching about Jesus, which eventually led to his arrest.In today’s lesson, we learn that the Roman authorities were willing to release Paul from p....
MONDAY, October 12 Edith Cavell
We learn about the abuse of power early. Playground bullies and manipulative childhood acquaintances use others’ relative weakness and gullibility for their gain. As adults, we learn there are always unspoken expectations underlying every request, appeal, arrangement, and judgment we make.<....
SUNDAY, October 11 19 Pentecost
Southern Arizona, where I live, has a similar climate to Isaiah’s time and place. When I read this passage, I thought of our summer temperatures, which top out at more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and the microburst (downdraft) that recently tore through our neighborhood, flooding the desert and u....SATURDAY, October 10 Vida Dutton Scudder
Today we remember Vida Dutton Scudder (1861–1954). I learned about her when I lived in the Boston area and attended retreats at Adelynrood, the retreat center of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, of which Vida Dutton Scudder was a beloved member. The child of missionaries, Vida Scud....FRIDAY, October 9 Robert Grosseteste
I remember a time in college when I put my foot in my mouth. Our band was going on tour, and the band director announced the itinerary. He mentioned that we would be stopping in a little town called Boerne. I said, “Bernie? What the heck is in Bernie?” The quiet clarinetist next to me responded,....From the Archive: May 18, 1954The New Testament insists on the resurrection of the body. It refuses to be carried away with the Greek belief in a “spiritual” immortality, whereby we “escape” the prison of the body. Food and digestion may belong to....
WEDNESDAY, October 7 Birgitta of Sweden
Early American evangelist Lorenzo Dow coined the phrase, “You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” condemning preachers who “make the Bible clash and contradict itself.” Dow was a fascinating character who reminds me of John the Baptist. He never washed, his hair and beard never....TUESDAY, October 6 William Tyndale
Paul has been causing all kinds of trouble in Jerusalem and the Roman tribune has had enough, so he sends Paul to Felix, the governor. In responding to this rumor of forty Jews lying in ambush to assassinate Paul, the tribune puts together a force more than ten times that size to protect his prisone....Peaches are my favorite fruit. When my husband and I had been married about ten years, we took a trip together. When we got to our guest casita at a New Mexico hot springs, we began to unload the car. I handed him a peach that we had bought at a roadside stand, warning him to be careful not to bruis....SUNDAY, October 4 18 Pentecost
Sunsets in the desert can be spectacular. The sun emits colors across the spectrum; the different wavelengths of those colors make the sky appear blue during the day. As the sun sets, warmer shades of gold, orange, and red fill the horizon. The particular kind of light present at sunset and sunrise ....SATURDAY, October 3 John Raleigh Mott
Just after college, I spent two years teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. While I had traveled abroad, this was my first time to live overseas. One important thing I learned was not to take my US citizenship for granted. The privileges and power it provided were significant. I remember heatedly ....We don’t know much about many of the Old Testament prophets. Scripture doesn’t detail Hosea’s background and Elijah doesn’t even have a job, much less a backstory. Amos apparently tended trees and flocks before being called to preach God’s message to the powerful; Isaiah was just a small c....
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