Celtic Daily Reading (March 5)

[Celtic Daily]

5 March

Feast Day: St. Ciaran of Saigher, St. Piran of Padstowe, St. Colman of
Armagh, Buried by Saint Patrick, St. Caron, Bishop of Tregaron,
Cardiganshire, Wales

Theme: Working for good.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Declaration of faith

To whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life,
and we have believed and have come to know
that You are the Holy One of God.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ,
King of endless glory.

Psalm 80:
To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony of Asaph. A Psalm.
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou who leadest Joseph like a flock!
Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth before E'phraim
and Benjamin and Manas'seh! Stir up thy might, and come to save us!
Restore us, O God; let thy face shine, that we may be saved! O LORD God
of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people's prayers? Thou
hast fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in
full measure. Thou dost make us the scorn of our neighbors; and our
enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts; let thy face
shine, that we may be saved! Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt; thou
didst drive out the nations and plant it. Thou didst clear the ground
for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were
covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; it sent out
its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. Why then hast thou
broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its
fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the
field feed on it. Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and
see; have regard for this vine, the stock which thy right hand planted.
They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at
the rebuke of thy countenance! But let thy hand be upon the man of thy
right hand, the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself! Then
we will never turn back from thee; give us life, and we will call on thy
name! Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! let thy face shine, that we may
be saved!
Old Testament: ! Samuel 25:1-35
Now Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they
buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the
wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Ma'on, whose business was in
Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a
thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the
man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Ab'igail. The woman was of good
understanding and beautiful, but the man was churlish and ill-behaved;
he was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing
his sheep. So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men,
"Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus
you shall salute him: 'Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and
peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers; now your
shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed
nothing, all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they
will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes; for
we come on a feast day. Pray, give whatever you have at hand to your
servants and to your son David.'" When David's young men came, they said
all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited. And Nabal
answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There
are many servants nowadays who are breaking away from their masters.
Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my
shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?" So
David's young men turned away, and came back and told him all this. And
David said to his men, "Every man gird on his sword!" And every man of
them girded on his sword; David also girded on his sword; and about four
hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the
baggage. But one of the young men told Ab'igail, Nabal's wife, "Behold,
David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he
railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no
harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long
as we went with them; they were a wall to us both by night and by day,
all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know
this and consider what you should do; for evil is determined against our
master and against all his house, and he is so ill-natured that one
cannot speak to him." Then Ab'igail made haste, and took two hundred
loaves, and two skins of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five
measures of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two
hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she said to her young
men, "Go on before me; behold, I come after you." But she did not tell
her husband Nabal. And as she rode on the ass, and came down under cover
of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she
met them. Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I guarded all that
this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all
that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to
David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all
who belong to him." When Ab'igail saw David, she made haste, and
alighted from the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed to
the ground. She fell at his feet and said, "Upon me alone, my lord, be
the guilt; pray let your handmaid speak in your ears, and hear the words
of your handmaid. Let not my lord regard this ill-natured fellow, Nabal;
for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him;
but I your handmaid did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.
Now then, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the
LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt, and from taking vengeance with
your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil
to my lord be as Nabal. And now let this present which your servant has
brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. Pray
forgive the trespass of your handmaid; for the LORD will certainly make
my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the
LORD; and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men
rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall
be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the LORD your God;
and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a
sling. And when the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good
that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over
Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief, or pangs of conscience,
for having shed blood without cause or for my lord taking vengeance
himself. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember
your handmaid." And David said to Ab'igail, "Blessed be the LORD, the
God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your
discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from
bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! For as surely as
the LORD the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting
you, unless you had made haste and come to meet me, truly by morning
there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male." Then David
received from her hand what she had brought him; and he said to her, "Go
up in peace to your house; see, I have hearkened to your voice, and I
have granted your petition."

Meditation:
Live out your days with confidence in God's love for you. Recognize
that each day is a gift in which your life can make a difference by the
way you choose to live it. Put hope in a future in which God will be all
and love will consume your spirit. Choose life, not the darkness of
pettiness and greed. - [concerning the 'Little Way' of Ste Therese of
Lisieux]

New Testament: 1 Peter 2:1-10
So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all
slander. Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by
it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the
Lord. Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's
sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built
into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in
scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen
and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame." To
you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not
believe, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head
of the corner," and "A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that
will make them fall"; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as
they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful
deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not
received mercy but now you have received mercy.
Closing Prayer:
I see to the fridge in the presence of the angel of the loveliest delights.
I see to the washer in the presence of Mary of the pure-white demeanour.
I see to the garage in the presence of Joseph of the fine workmanship.
I see to the office in the presence of the Creator of order. I see to
the people I shall meet in the presence of the all-freindly Christ.
I see to the things that will batter my mind
in the presence of the Spirit who brings calm. - Ray Simpson


Sent out at approximately midnight G.M.T.

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