Celtic Daily Reading (March 14)

[Celtic Daily]

14 March

Feast Day: St. Talmach of Lough Erc

Theme: The fervent Spirit

+ 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 110:

(1) A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand,
till I make your enemies your footstool."
(2) The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the
midst of your foes!
(3) Your people will offer themselves freely on the day you lead your
host upon the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning like dew your
youth will come to you.
(4) The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest
for ever after the order of Melchiz'edek."
(5) The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of
his wrath.
(6) He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with
corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
(7) He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up
his head.

Old Testament:2 Samuel 24
Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited
David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah." (2) So the
king said to Jo'ab and the commanders of the army, who were with him,
"Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and number
the people, that I may know the number of the people." (3) But Jo'ab
said to the king, "May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred
times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see
it; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" (4) But the
king's word prevailed against Jo'ab and the commanders of the army. So
Jo'ab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the
king to number the people of Israel. (5) They crossed the Jordan, and
began from Aro'er, and from the city that is in the middle of the
valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. (6) Then they came to Gilead, and
to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and they came to Dan, and from
Dan they went around to Sidon, (7) and came to the fortress of Tyre
and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites; and they went out
to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba. (8) So when they had gone through
all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and
twenty days. (9) And Jo'ab gave the sum of the numbering of the people
to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who
drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand. (10)
But David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David
said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O
LORD, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have
done very foolishly." (11) And when David arose in the morning, the
word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, (12)
"Go and say to David, 'Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you;
choose one of them, that I may do it to you." (13) So Gad came to
David and told him, and said to him, "Shall three years of famine come
to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes
while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your
land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who
sent me." (14) Then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress; let us
fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not
fall into the hand of man." (15) So the LORD sent a pestilence upon
Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and there died of the
people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. (16) And when the
angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD
repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was working destruction
among the people, "It is enough; now stay your hand." And the angel of
the LORD was by the threshing floor of Arau'nah the Jeb'usite. (17)
Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was smiting the
people, and said, "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but
these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against
me and against my father's house." (18) And Gad came that day to
David, and said to him, "Go up, rear an altar to the LORD on the
threshing floor of Arau'nah the Jeb'usite." (19) So David went up at
Gad's word, as the LORD commanded. (20) And when Arau'nah looked down,
he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him; and Arau'nah went
forth, and did obeisance to the king with his face to the ground. (21)
And Arau'nah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?"
David said, "To buy the threshing floor of you, in order to build an
altar to the LORD, that the plague may be averted from the people."
(22) Then Arau'nah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer
up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and
the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. (23) All
this, O king, Arau'nah gives to the king." And Arau'nah said to the
king, "The LORD your God accept you." (24) But the king said to
Arau'nah, "No, but I will buy it of you for a price; I will not offer
burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." So David
bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
(25) And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded supplications for the
land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

Meditation:
As a beardless adolescent I was captured before I knew what to look for
and what to avoid. I was like a stone lying deep in the mud; but he that
is mighty came and lifted me up in his mercy, and raised me to the top
of the wall .... More and more the love of God and the fear of God came
to me, so that my faith was strengthened and my spirit was moved. In a
single day I would pray as often as a hundred times, and nearly as often
at night, when I was staying in the woods and in the mountains. I would
rouse myself before daylight to pray, whether in snow, frost or rain; it
made no difference, and I felt no bad effects. Because the Spirit in me
was fervent, I knew no sluggishness. - The Confession of Patrick [quoted
in the Celtic Daily Light)
New Testament:Luke 18:1-8
And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart. (2) He said, "In a certain city there was a judge
who neither feared God nor regarded man; (3) and there was a widow in
that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Vindicate me against my
adversary.' (4) For a while he refused; but afterward he said to
himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man, (5) yet because
this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by
her continual coming.'" (6) And the Lord said, "Hear what the
unrighteous judge says. (7) And will not God vindicate his elect, who
cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? (8) I tell
you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man
comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Closing Prayer:

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me.

Christ to right of me, Christ to left of me, Christ in my lying, my
sitting, my rising.

Christ in heart of all who know me, Christ on tongue of all who meet me,
Christ in eye of all who see me, Christ in ear of all who hear me.
- Saint Patrick's Breastplate.


Sent out at approximately midnight G.M.T.

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