Daily Primer — June 20, Amsterdam — Netherlands

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stage. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability and that may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow. Let them shape themselves without undue haste. Do not try to force them on as though you could be today what time - that is to say, grace - and circumstances acting on your own good will, will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit gradually forming in you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our Loving vinedresser. Amen.

Florilegium is the Medieval Latin word for bouquet, or more literally flowers (flos, flor-) which are gathered (legere). The word florilegium was used to refer to a compilation of writings, often religious or philosophical. These florilegium are literary flowers—beautiful words/prayers/thoughts I have gathered.  During my sabbatical they will give me something to ponder each day. — PHL.

Lord, you promise to make your home in us if we keep your word.  Help us when our courage flags and our zeal fades, because we find your words to be so hard to accept: to love our enemies; to forgive seventy times seven times; to give to everyone who begs from us; to turn the other cheek . . . your word points us to a very different way of being in the world.  Though your word challenges us, we do hope that we will find our true home with you, so help us who are lost to find our way back home.  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have Mercy.

Lord, have Mercy.


       Lord of the Sabbath, you stopped what you were
doing that first Friday night and entered into a
time of joyful rest. Give me such faith in you and
such trust in your compassion that I may dare to
stop what I am doing too, and enter into the joy of
sabbath-keeping. Still my anxious thoughts.
Calm my restless soul. And silence in me any
voice but your own. Give me your peace, I pray
to you, Lord of the Sabbath and Prince of Peace.
Amen.