Daily Devotion

December 20

An Invitation to Prayer
O Key of David, mace of the house of Israel,
who opens and none can shut,
who shuts and none can open,
come and lead the captives from their prison,
those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. –O come, and we shall follow you!

Resh

Look on my humiliation and deliver me for I do not forget your law.
Judge my case and acquit me
and by your word preserve my life. Salvation is far from sinners

because they would not seek your ordinances. Your tender mercies are many, O Lord,
by your judgment preserve my life.
Those who pursue me and harass me are many, but I have not turned from your regulations.

I looked at the apostates and grieved,
because they did not keep your word.
Look how I loved your precepts;
enliven me in your mercy, O Lord.
The totality of your pronouncements is truth,
and all your judgments are righteous forever.

A reading adapted from Basil’s, On the Human Condition
The “eighth day” is said to be the age of judgment, in which a sinner will be punished sevenfold, and the extreme sinner seventy times sevenfold. The just person will be honored sevenfold, the heroically just person seventy times seven. Now the kindness of God shows us a glimpse of the things to come through enigmas, but at the time of the second coming the truth will be clear and apparent. It will reveal who is worthy of recompense. Accordingly, the Lord grants the remission of our debts sevenfold to us sinners if we appease him with confession and repentance.

A Prayer
Make us ever mindful of our mortality, O Lord, and that we must give an account of ourselves before you for all the opportunities you have provided to us, not that we should live in craven fear, but in the holy courage you provide through your Spirit. Let us be mindful that our campaign must be completed in due time to be successful so that we will not squander the potential you have invested in us. Amen!