Morning Devotion for the season of Eastertide
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
The Invitatory
Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia."
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
It’s one of the most frightening traps we set for ourselves. In all our best efforts to strive for the good of all (ourselves included) we inevitably risk the very real possibility that we – either actively or passively – might be thwarting the very source of goodness. In Paul’s striking admonishments offered in his final lines to the community at Thessalonica, I find myself destabilized by the command: “Do not quench the Spirit.” It serves as such a troubling command since the same things which Paul suggests we do – and which ostensibly seem like life-giving enterprises: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…” – can themselves become means of quenching the Spirit.
The Spirit gives life and sculpts the shape of the same. Sometimes the Spirit moves with eruptive forces capable of tearing the seams of heaven and earth. In these “thin spaces” we can be pretty certain that God is up to something. Other times, the Spirit travels like a whisper across generations. In these cases, we may only be able to intuit the Spirit’s activity long after the fact. Regardless of the mode of communication, the Spirit is always speaking. Our greatest joy in life is the opportunity to cooperate with that same Spirit.
The paradox of the spiritual life, as told by so many of the great mystics, is that our overemphasis upon living the spiritual life often becomes the greatest inhibitor of the same. Viewed as a task to be accomplished, the command “Rejoice always,” becomes a joyless chore; “pray without ceasing,” can become the command that leads to a life of scrupulosity; “give thanks in all circumstances,” can become a proscription upon the freedom of human feeling. Viewed as objectives, Paul’s great commands become means of death rather than life; means of quenching the Spirit rather than the fruits of cooperating with it.
The Spirit is more readily quenched when we ourselves presume to know how to entice it. We are utterly incapable of employing the Spirit for our good or that of others, but we are abundantly capable of receiving it in self-emptying humility. Oddly enough, perhaps this is why we are often most capable of identifying the Spirit within others before we can name its longstanding, permanent residence within us. With eyes truly opened, and ears properly attuned, one can begin to intuit the Spirit’s incessant burning across the world. Once this happens, it is quite difficult to quench such a raging fire within us.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
