Daily Devotion

This Daily Devotion is to help our members and others reflect on the understanding of Christian service to our Lord.

Devotion for Monday, December 9, 2024

The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite, Msgr. George Appleyard

An Invitation to Prayer

Let us make our pact with the Lord of heavenly armies,
and hold him in awe and deepest respect,
for he shall be a snare and an obstacle,
and a stone over which to trip.^{Cf. Isaiah 8:13}
-Come, let us accept our Lord and Master!

Yod

Your hands made me and fashioned me;
give me insight and I will learn your commandments.
Those who fear you will see me and be glad
for I have hoped in your word.
I know that your decisions are just, O Lord,
and that you humbled me with truth.
I pray that your mercy comfort me,
just as you said to your servant.
Let me have your compassion and I shall live,
for your law is my meditation.
Let the arrogant be put to shame for they have maligned me unjustly;
but as for me, I study your commandments.
Those who fear you turn to me
and those who know your testimony.
Let my heart be blameless with your decrees,
so that I may not be shamed.

A reading adapted from Basil’s, On the Human Condition

“Grow.” That means grow up. If we grow in the first seven years, and then again in the next seven years, we are not obligated to grow in every successive seven year period of our life. The first seven years is childhood. Then comes the next period of growth, culminating at age fourteen. First came the child, and then the youth, and then comes the adult. If you live to be a hundred, growth is different at different periods, as designed by Providence. So what is the point of this command, “Grow.” Grow and multiply. “Grow,” so that creation may not be limited to one condition. “Multiply,” so that it may not be solitary, but communal. “And fill the earth,”-not by occupying all of it-or then we would be crowded out-but fill it by the authority that God has given us to govern the world.

A Prayer

O Lord, Jesus Christ, the one Simeon declared to be the cause of the rise and the fall of many in Israel^{Luke 2:34}, may we never stumble in our faith, may we never fall in our sins, may be never flee the battleground in the war against evil, but may we walk upright with you, and be faithful in all we have promised, that our eyes, too, may see your salvation.
Amen!