Daily Office Reflection: Holy Women, Holy Men

The Nativity of John the Baptist

MP: Psalms 82, 98; Malachi 3:1-5; John 3:22-30

EP: Psalm 80; Malachi 4:1-6; Matthew 11:2-19

The readings set forth above are, as usual, The Daily Office readings assigned for today, which is the feast of John the Baptist's birth. Instead of reflecting on one or all of those readings today, I am taken this morning with the new book Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints, which was waiting for me on my arrival home from church yesterday evening.

This is the General Convention 2009 sanctioned revision o Lesser Feasts and Fasts. Holy Women, Holy Men contains a bit over 100 additional individuals whose lives have shown the movement of the Holy Spirit. whose impact changed these people and the world and time in which they lived. I am very excited about this updated addition to our lectionary cycle and will continue my habit of incorporating the prayers for these individuals in my Rule of Life and in the weekday Eucharist.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, retired Presiding Bishop, wrote a Foreword, part of which states: "Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints seeks to expand the worshiping community's awareness of the communion of saints, and to give increased expression to the many and diverse was in which Christ, through the agency of the Holy Sprit, has been present in the lives of men and women across the ages, just as Christ continues to be present in our own day. Faced with circumstances most often very different from our own, these courageous souls bore witness to Christ's death-defying love, in service, in holiness of life, and in challenge to existing practices and perspectives within both the Church and society.....The men and women commemorated in the Calendar are not simply examples of faithfulness to inspire us: they are active in their love and prayer. They are companions to the Spirit able to support and encourage us as we seek to be faithful in our own day."

I commend this book to you.

jfd+

Copyright 2010, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.