How Deep Is Your Love?

The Old Testament reading appointed for the daily prayer of the Church is taken from the 10^th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy where we hear what God’s law is truly about:

So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.  Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven. (Deut. 10: 12-22).

The creator of all that is, the very source of life for the universe, God, is concerned for those who are vulnerable.  God wants his people to care for the widow and the orphan, to love strangers, to clothe and feed those who have nothing, and to trust God.  How we treat the most vulnerable among us is a sign of how deep (or shallow) our love for God is. 

Let us pray:  Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

The next Wednesday Lenten Series will be at Grace Episcopal with the Benedictine monks, Fr. Peter and Br. Michael.

Absalom Jones Day Eucharist at Hope Episcopal Church, 1613 West 43rd Street, Houston, Texas on Saturday, 23 February 2013 at 3 pm.

DOK Quiet Day at Trinity in Dickenson on Saturday, 16 March from 9 am to 2 pm led by the Rev. Nan Doerr. Contact Teresa Antley at 281-802-5881 or the Rev. Stacy Stringer at 281-337-1833.

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

Your servant in Christ,

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550