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The Forward Day by Day Meditation for May 20, 2013

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MONDAY, May 20

Psalm 1. Happy are they…like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.

Yesterday we celebrated Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Today, we enter the long season that is often called “ordinary time.” It is also a day for fresh starts. In our readings, we go back to the beginning of the Psalter, start the Book of Ruth, and begin the First Letter of Paul to Timothy.

These new beginnings remind us of God who, through the Holy Spirit, is constantly renewing our lives, giving us a fresh start over and over again. It is the good news of the resurrection, true for us every day.

Perhaps you are feeling lifeless or burdened today. Like the fig tree in today’s reading from Luke, maybe you feel like your efforts are not bearing fruit. The good news is that, like the gardener, God can dig around you and throw manure on you. Not literally of course, but it is the same God present in those living streams, always offering us a fresh start.

It is easy to get bogged down in the ordinary. Today’s readings remind us that even ordinary time can be extraordinary. Through the Holy Spirit, God is right here with us, like a stream of living water, sustaining us and giving us new life. Once again, it is a fresh start.

PRAY for the Diocese of North East India (North India)

Today the Church remembers Alcuin, Deacon, and Abbot of Tours, 804.

Ps 1, 2, 3 * 4, 7; Ruth 1:1-18; 1 Timothy 1:1-17; Luke 13:1-9