Our Bodies: Week 11 of Ordinary Time
Look: Adam and Eve, Brian Kershisnik - Source
Listen: His Banner Over Me, Christy Nockels - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
I made us a new playlist! Listen here: Ordinary Time, pt. 2: Love My Neighbor & Myself
Read: (Sunday) Deuteronomy 8:1-10; Psalm 34:1-7; Psalm 34:8-15; Psalm 34:16-22; Ephesians 4:17-5:2; John 6:37-51
Readings for the rest of the week*: Psalm 128; Song of Solomon; Ecclesiastes 9:7-10; Matthew 6:25-33; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Eleventh Week After Pentecost
Almighty God, give us the increase of faith, hope, and love; and, that we may obtain what you have promised, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Do: For this middle seven weeks of Ordinary Time, we’ll consider a cycle of God’s love that alternates between permission to love ourselves and the imperative to love our neighbor..
This week, consider how the expression of God’s loving hospitality informs how we perceive and care for our own bodies. We care for others as we care for ourselves - our actual living, breathing, needing bodies. As you commune with God, consider the following questions:
What is your attitude toward your own body with its needs and pleasures?
Do you need to hear God’s permission to care for and enjoy your body?
Do you respond to your own body with indifference or neglect - giving your time, energy, and money toward habits of your mind or emotional needs only? Or have you noticed that your response to your body is to anxious and indulgent - overspending time, energy, and money?
Register for the second virtual retreat in the Rhythms of Grace Retreat Series for Ordinary Time.
On August 26, I’m hosting Love My Neighbor & Myself. You can read all of the details and register at this link.
*During Ordinary Time this year, I’ll be sharing readings from the excellent devotional guide, Living the Christain Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross. While it’s not necessary to purchase the book to follow along with us, it’s an excellent resource we’ve dog-eared so often the pages are falling out of our copy!