Celtic Daily Reading (March 4)

[Celtic Daily]

4 March

Feast Day: St. Adrian of Stalbrand & Companions, St. Gistilian of Wales

Theme: God inspired locations

+ 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 78:42-72
They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them
from the foe; when he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in
the fields of Zo'an. He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could
not drink of their streams. He sent among them swarms of flies, which
devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave their crops to
the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust. He
destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost. He gave
over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts. He let
loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a
company of destroying angels. He made a path for his anger; he did not
spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. He smote
all the first-born in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the
tents of Ham. Then he led forth his people like sheep, and guided them
in the wilderness like a flock. He led them in safety, so that they were
not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them
to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won. He drove
out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and
settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. Yet they tested and
rebelled against the Most High God, and did not observe his testimonies,
but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted
like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high
places; they moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God
heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. He forsook
his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among men, and delivered
his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. He gave his
people over to the sword, and vented his wrath on his heritage. Fire
devoured their young men, and their maidens had no marriage song. Their
priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. Then
the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of
wine. And he put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting
shame. He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of
E'phraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he
has founded for ever. He chose David his servant, and took him from the
sheepfolds; from tending the ewes that had young he brought him to be
the shepherd of Jacob his people, of Israel his inheritance. With
upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skilful hand.
Old Testament: 1 Samuel 24
When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, "Behold,
David is in the wilderness of En-ge'di." Then Saul took three thousand
chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men in
front of the Wildgoats' Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way,
where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David
and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men
of David said to him, "Here is the day of which the LORD said to you,
'Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him
as it shall seem good to you.'" Then David arose and stealthily cut off
the skirt of Saul's robe. And afterward David's heart smote him, because
he had cut off Saul's skirt. He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I
should do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to put forth my
hand against him, seeing he is the LORD'S anointed." So David persuaded
his men with these words, and did not permit them to attack Saul. And
Saul rose up and left the cave, and went upon his way. Afterward David
also arose, and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, "My lord
the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to
the earth, and did obeisance. And David said to Saul, "Why do you listen
to the words of men who say, 'Behold, David seeks your hurt'? Lo, this
day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you today into my hand in the
cave; and some bade me kill you, but I spared you. I said, 'I will not
put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD'S anointed.' See,
my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for by the fact that I
cut off the skirt of your robe, and did not kill you, you may know and
see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned
against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the LORD judge
between me and you, may the LORD avenge me upon you; but my hand shall
not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the
wicked comes forth wickedness'; but my hand shall not be against you.
After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue?
After a dead dog! After a flea! May the LORD therefore be judge, and
give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and
deliver me from your hand." When David had finished speaking these words
to Saul, Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" And Saul lifted
up his voice and wept. He said to David, "You are more righteous than I;
for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you
have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did
not kill me when the LORD put me into your hands. For if a man finds his
enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the LORD reward you with
good for what you have done to me this day. And now, behold, I know that
you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be
established in your hand. Swear to me therefore by the LORD that you
will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy
my name out of my father's house." And David swore this to Saul. Then
Saul went home; but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
Meditation:
After his mission in Wales had begun Saint David said to his uncle,
Bishop Guiusdianus, "My angel companion told me that in this place which
I intend to make my base scarcely one person in a hundred will gain
their eternal rewar, but there is another place not far away, where
hardly any of those buried in the Christian cemetery will be cut off
from God." That is how Saint David and his friends were guided by God
to change their plans, and to build a large, permanent centre in the
valley where David was born..
New Testament: 2 Corinthians 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
will of God, and Timothy our brother. To the church of God which is at
Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Acha'ia: Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and
God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we
may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly
in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort
too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if
we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you
patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is
unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also
share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren,
of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly,
unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that
we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not
on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so
deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that
he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many
will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to
many prayers. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience
that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with
holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of
God. For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I
hope you will understand fully, as you have understood in part, that you
can be proud of us as we can be of you, on the day of the Lord Jesus.
Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you
might have a double pleasure; I wanted to visit you on my way to
Macedo'nia, and to come back to you from Macedo'nia and have you send me
on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I
make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say Yes and No at once? As
surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silva'nus and
Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all
the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen
through him, to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with
you in Christ, and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and
given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to
witness against me--it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to
Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your
joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
Closing Prayer:

A shade art thou in the heat,
A shelter art thou in the cold,
Eyes art thou to the blind,
A staff art thou to the pilgrim,
An island art thou at sea,
A fortress art thou on land,
A well art thou in the desert,
Health art thou to the ailing.
... Thou art the joy of all joyous things,
Thou art the light of the beam of the sun,
Thou art the door of the chief of hospitality,
Thou art the surpassing star of guidance,
Thou art the step of the deer of the hill,
Thou art the step of the steed of the plain,
Thou art the grace of the swan of swimming,
Thou art the loveliness of all lovely desires.


Sent out at approximately midnight G.M.T.

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