After two funerals and another death and comfort service, and then the Sunday routine, I slept like a log... except for the two dogs crowded around my hips, who couldn't press close enough. Thankfully, Joel took them out for the morning run while I fixed the hotel-room-coffee, which really isn't coffee at all, but might contain something resembling caffeine to get us going. And we did the coffee--dog cookie routine...
And, there we are. Grateful for the blue sky. Grateful for the good company and time together. Grateful for our life together.
At prayer this morning (Canticle: Song of Zechariah, Benedictus Dominus, Luke 1:68-79)
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; *
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior, *
born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old,
that he would save us from our enemies, *
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers *
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, *
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear, *
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God *
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, *
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Yesterday, I talked some about the 'old' covenant because of the first reading about Abraham. Then about the 'new' covenant we pray about in the Eucharistic prayer. The 'old' covenant has been fulfilled, paid off, is null and void (for Christians, anyway). We have a new relationship with God.
--and that is participating in Christ's eternal priesthood.
--just sayin'.
Peace out.
1 comment:
But would you really want to be a priest forever and ever (meaning a priest in the way the NT writers would have understood it)--a life dominated by two things: sacrifices and ritual purity--always worried about keeping yourself pure and telling other people if they met the standards or not, and if the animal they wanted to sacrifice met the standards--and then of course performing the sacrifice: making sure you got your share of the tithes and the sacrificial portions. And because you happened to be a male born in a line of males that reached back to one guy--Aharon ben Amram--everyone else being disqualified simply because they weren't.
Why not the eternal prophethood, experiencing and encountering God directly, and mediating God's Word to everyone else without the need for formal structures and without the need of keeping anyone from hearing what you had to say. And it was open to anyone, male or female, even to Gentiles, and directly depending only one's own spiritual life.
Speaking of course from well within the "old" covenant.
Kishnevi
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