“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all – Emily Dickinson
Friday 31 October
‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is
your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of
sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 15:55-56
God help us
If our world should grow dark;
And there is no way of seeing or knowing.
Grant us courage and trust
To touch and be touched
To find our way onwards
By feeling. Michael Leunig
Saturday 1 November
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable,
always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you
know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. 1 Cor
15:58
Divine Journeyer,
I am in a strange, unsettling place
in my transitory life.
I have left much behind me.
I have questions about the changes
and wonder if I will be alright.
Assure me of your nearness.
Clothe me with a garment of hope.
Teach me to be patient
as I find my way in life. Joyce Rupp
www.sjp.org.uk
Tel: 020 7734 4511
NB. Contributions for non-Biblical readings are much
needed and rarely submitted! If you have some
favourite quotes or “bon mots” you would like to see
included in HOTTS, please email them to:
[email protected]
St. James’s Church, Piccadilly
Holding on to the Silence
2014
Weekly Collects and Daily Readings from
Sunday 19 October to Saturday 1 November
Collect for Sunday 19 – Saturday 25 October
God of all trust, may we who confess your faith prove
it in our lives, with abundant joy, outrageous hope
and a dependence on nothing but your word alone;
through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Collect for Sunday 26 October – Saturday 1
November
Merciful God, teach us to be faithful in change and
uncertainty, that trusting in your word and obeying
your will we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus
Christ our Redeemer. Amen.
Daily Readings:
Sunday 19 October
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then
at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes
the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the
Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every
authority and power. For he must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet. 1 Corinthians 15:2325
If the only prayer you say in your whole life is “thank
you,” that would suffice. Meister Eckhart
Monday 20 October
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has
put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it
says, ‘All things are put in subjection’, it is plain that
this does not include the one who put all things in
subjection under him. When all things are subjected to
him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the
one who put all things in subjection under him, so that
God may be all in all. 1 Cor 15:26-28
At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the
garden of His creation, and if we let go of our own
obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all,
we might be able to hear His call and follow him in
His mysterious cosmic dance. Thomas Merton
Tuesday 21 October
Otherwise, what will those people do who receive
baptism on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not
raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?
And why are we putting ourselves in danger every
hour? I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and
sisters, as my boasting of you—a boast that I make in
Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Cor 15:29-30
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly.
Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to
us.
They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be
better.
For they existed. Maya Angelou
Wednesday 22 October
If with merely human hopes I fought with wild
animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? If
the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die.’ Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company
ruins good morals.’ Come to a sober and right mind,
and sin no more; for some people have no knowledge
of God. I say this to your shame. 1 Cor 15:32-34
Prayer as a creative lacuna, as an ancient free form and
as a marvellous, stablilizing idea, intrigues me greatly.
Michael Leunig
Thursday 23 October
But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With
what kind of body do they come?’ Fool! What you sow
does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what
you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a
bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 1
Cor 15:35-37
I am a swimming galaxy tonight. Angels prowl
around me hoping I will toss them a fresh piece of
light – here, dears, for my sack is full. Meister Eckhart
Friday 24 October
But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each
kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is alike, but
there is one flesh for human beings, another for
animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 1 Cor
15:38-39
My favourite thing to do is to go where I’ve never
been. Diane Arbus
Saturday 25 October
There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but
the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the
earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.
1 Cor 15:40-41
The beginning of prayer is praise...To worship is to
join the cosmos in praising God...Prayer is
meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to
overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness,
hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. Rabbi A J Heschel
Sunday 26 October
So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown
is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown
in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical
body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical
body, there is also a spiritual body. 1 Cor 15:42-44
There is no frigate like a book. Emily Dickinson
Monday 27 October
Thus it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a
living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving
spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the
physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was
from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from
heaven. 1 Cor 15:45-47
We ordinary people must forge our own beauty. We
must set fire to the greyness of our labor with the art of
our own lives. In this kind of creation, every day
becomes a pure enjoyment. Kenji Miyazawa
Tuesday 28 October
As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the
dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are
of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man
of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of
heaven. 1 Cor 15:48-49
Abiding happiness and peace is theirs who choose
goodness for its own sake - without expectation of any
reward. Zoroastrian saying
Wednesday 29 October
What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor
does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I
will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will
all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will
be changed. 1 Cor 15:50-52
A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being
what God means it to be it is obeying Him.
It “consents,” so to speak, to His creative love. It is
expressing an idea which is in God and which is not
distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree
imitates God by being a tree. Thomas Merton
Thursday 30 October
For this perishable body must put on imperishability,
and this mortal body must put on immortality. When
this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this
mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that
is written will be fulfilled: ‘Death has been swallowed
up in victory.’ 1 Cor 15:53-54