Week of Last Epiphany, Year Two
[Go to Mission St Clare for an online version of the Daily Office including today’s scripture readings.]
Today’s Readings for the Daily Office:
Psalms 25 (morning) // 9, 15 (evening)
Proverbs 27:1-6, 10-12
Philippians 2:1-13
John 18:15-18, 25-27
In the past month, two people who are dear to me have sought treatment for very rare tumors at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Both are young women. Both, oddly enough, have the same first name. One is having a craniotomy this week. She’s a single mom to her own son, and she has been teaching and caring for my son for two years. Mercifully, her prognosis is fairly good.
In these circumstances, I’m doing my best to take the first words from our first reading to heart, and not to let them glide by me like so many clichés. These words from Proverbs tell us, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” Despite our plans and protective measures, we have no idea what today will bring us. And the arrival of tomorrow is yet one more uncertainty.
I hope that this Proverb doesn’t intimidate us, but instead invites us to be as present as possible to the good things in our lives and to God’s work in our hearts. Today is here, and we have no idea what it will bring. We, however, might as well bring our fullest and truest selves to today instead of saving them up for tomorrow.
Lora Walsh blogs about taking risks and seeking grace at A Daily Scandal. She serves as curate of Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs and assists with education, young adult ministry, and campus ministry at St. Paul’s in Fayetteville, Arkansas.