Monday January 25, 2021
We’re not quite in the middle of winter – that actually occurs next week on February 2, the day when people from an otherwise obscure town in Pennsylvania will look for a gopher to poke his head out of the ground to determine whether we have six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
The observance of this date goes back to pre-Christian Britain with the Celtic festival of Imbolc, dedicated to Brigid, the goddess of fertility, poetry, and crafts, What we look for in the dead of winter are signs of recurring life. Last spring our desire for recurring life was destroyed by the number of deaths from Covid.
As we come into this year of remembrance and mourning of the lives we have lost, may we give them honor by caring for those who face challenges from the past year: the unemployed, the hungry, those who have been evicted, and those who have been so overwhelmed by the events of 2020 that they have lost hope.
Prayer for the Day
Acknowledging our uncertain hopes, we come to you, O God of life,
For we remember the many lives lost to the raging virus;
Longing for new life as we are already thinking of spring,
We pray that this spring will have more life than death.
O great Healer, be with us as we struggle through this time
And help us rebuild a new society dedicated to mercy and justice.
In the name of him who is our hope,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.
- Guy de Maupassant, French writer (1850-1893)
I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.
- Virginia Woolf, British writer (1882-1941)
I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds,
I meditate on the works of your hands
I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 143: 5-6