Daily Primer — June 28, Flåm — Norway

The Sabbath is unique among the days.  Of the seven days outlined in the Hebrew creation-story, only the Sabbath is named.  All the others are simply numbered in relationship to Sabbath.  Also, the Hebrew Sabbath is a radical rejection of previous ways of thinking about time, which were all connected to planting and harvest and which ultimately referenced the cycles of Sun or Moon.  The idea that every seventh day (without regard to the "season") was special and set apart for rest was new in human history. To organize time around planting and harvest is to organize time in categories of production and consumption.  To organize time around rest is indeed a radical change!

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.

God, whose foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and whose weakness is stronger than human strength:  you keep surprising us — by arriving in the vulnerability of an infant born to peasants in a backwater district of the empire — by living the precarious life of a wandering preacher — by eating with outcasts — your way led you inevitably to suffering, and that surprises us as much as it did the initial disciples.  Help us, Lord, to cultivate a heart of compassion like yours — a heart that leads us to engage in ministry with and for those who suffer.  We pray this in the name of the one by whose wounds we are healed. Amen.

O God of life, darken not to me Thy light,

O God of life, close not to me Thy joy,

O God of life, shut not to me Thy door,

O God of life, refuse not to me Thy mercy,

O God of life, quench Thou to me Thy wrath,

And O God of life, crown Thou to me Thy gladness,

O God of life, crown Thou to me Thy Gladness.