Daily Devotion - The Grand Priory of America

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

Devotion for Friday, January 17, 2025

The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite, Msgr. George Appleyard

An Invitation to Prayer

“All this I will give you if only you worship me.”
-We shall worship only the Lord our God,
and pray and invoke you, Lord Jesus,
that we never be seduced by the allure of power
and never seek to lord it over others.^{Cf. Matt 4:9-10}

Psalm 17/18:26-31

With the honest, you will be honest;
and with the blameless, you will be blameless.
With the outstanding, you will be outstanding,
and with the devious, you will be devious.

For you will save a humble people
and you will humble the eyes of the proud.
You will light my lamp, O Lord;
you will illumine my darkness, O God.

For you will rescue me from a pirate band,
and I will scale a wall with my God’s help.
The way of my God is blameless,
the dictates of the Lord are fire-tried.

He is the protector of all who hope in him.
For who is God if not the Lord;
and who is God if not our God?

A reading adapted from Basil’s, Homily on Proverbs 1:1-5

“The thoughts of the just are judgments,” Solomon says later^12:5. So then, within our thoughts’ hidden court of justice we must be eager to render unbiased judgments about the matter at hand. Our intellect should be like a scale, weighing each course of action impartially. Whenever something commanded and its opposing vice are brought to you for judgment, hand down a verdict for the law of God rather than for sin. Are greed and equity being judged? Condemn the desire to have what belongs to another and give the verdict for virtue. Are insult and patience pitted against each other? Hold insult in contempt and patience in esteem. Hatred and love? Disdain the former and make the other your own. Pretence and simplicity? Bravery and cowardice, prudence and foolishness? Justice and injustice, moderation and intemperance, indeed, every virtue and every vice submitted for your judgment? Then evidence rectitude in your judgments!

A Prayer

Lord Jesus, my loyalties are often divided. I know justice demands that I be equitable in distributing to many in my life their due, to provide for my family, to do my duty to the Order, and to contribute to the common weal. By your Holy Spirit enable me to do this justly and also generously. But beyond the pale of the good and noble, I have sometimes given to my own fancies and pleasures, even to sinful indulgence, what should have been distributed elsewhere. Correct me by your Holy Spirit so that it will be you alone that I worship by living the kind of life that makes me your image and likeness.
Amen!