As regular visitors to the blog know, I frequently invite people to have a look at our diocese’s spirituality site. We feature daily meditations, chosen from spiritual writings. Today’s meditation is from the works of Jean Vanier and closes with this verse:
Blessed are you because you have allowed
your own conscience to develop;
you have not been swayed by what people might say about you
and you have acted as a free individual;
you have accepted persecution;
you have not been afraid to proclaim the truth.
The site also has flash meditations on scripture. I mention that because one of them is called “Candlemas” which Episcopalians, Catholics and the Orthodox churches (anybody else?) celebrate tomorrow, Feb. 2. It is referred to by some as the feast of The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, and by others as the feast of The Purification of the Virgin, but both titles refer to the event which inspired the scriptural passage that those who say the Liturgy of Hours know as the Nunc Dimits :
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared before the face of all people, To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”
If you are intereted in the Liturgy of the Hours, also referred to as the Daily Office, visit the meditations and readings page of the spirituality site and click on the daily office link of the appropriate day.