Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):
Joseph, husband of Mary
2 Samuel 7.4-16 | Psalm 89.19-30 | Romans 4.13-22 | Matthew 1.18-25
Of the day:
Numbers 21.4-9 | Psalm 102.18-22 | John 8.21-30

REVELATION

Could Be

The voice that was
as the remains of a smile
on the sky's face said:
'Listen.' And I replied:
'I know. You are the ventriloquist
who once sat Christ
on your knee and made us imagine
you were where you were not.

Will you continue to torment us?
If you are ubiquitous, why
not be here, when we say: Now?
The electron's confinement gives
birth to excess of speed.
You, who are without limits,
are exempt from time and could move,
if you wished, so gradually
about your being as to appear
to us, when we are furthest off, always
to be in the same place.'

The Word

Enough that we are on our way;
never ask of us where.

Some of us run, some loiter;
some of us turn aside

to erect the Calvary
that is our signpost, arms

pointing in opposite directions

to the same place, so impossible
is it to escape love. Imperishable

scarecrow, recipient of our casts-off,
shame us until what is a swear-

word only becomes at last
the word that was in the beginning.

—R. S. Thomas. Mass for hard times.
Highgreen: Bloodaxe: 1992.

"The voice that was as the remains of a smile on the sky's face said: 'Listen.'"

Prayer

Creator God, for the well-being of our earthly life
you have put wholesome desires of body and spirit into our hearts.
Increase and establish in us the grace of holy discipline and healthy self-control.
May we fulfil our desires in good and godly ways that you have taught us.