When I sit down each week to write my lectionary mediations, I start with the collect for the day to discern the theme of the lessons to follow. Then I read each of the lessons appointed for the day (see above), starting with the lesson from the Hebrew scriptures, as we do in our liturgical practice, and proceeding through the responsorial psalm, the epistle, and culminating with the gospel. As I read, my aim is to be open to a word or phrase that grabs my attention, much as one does in lectio divina. If something doesn’t speak to me on my first pass through, I‘ll read them again, perhaps aloud. Sometimes what I notice is how one theme flows through several or all of the passages, and I sit with that for a while to see where it leads me. Sometimes I get started down a path and hit a brick wall. The inspiration dries up; there’s nowhere to go with that idea, so I start over. Sometimes I start out thinking I’m going in one direction, and when I finish, I realize that I have ended up somewhere else. Always, I entrust the results to God. Today, for example, in the collect I see Christ as the light of the world, illumining us with God’s Word and Sacraments that we may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory throughout the world. Then I turn to the prophet Isaiah and see we are to be called by a new name, “My Delight Is in Her,” as we become “a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of God.” Few of us envision ourselves in such glory; if only we could see ourselves through the eyes of God and from that perspective recognize how the Lord delights in us, how different life might be. Two verses of the psalm stand out for me today: “For with you is the well of life, and in your light we see light” and “How priceless is your love, O God! Your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings.” Separately they speak to me in different ways, but together, for me, they point to the blessing of both light and shadow in our lives. In the epistle, the idea that the gifts of the Spirit are called forth from us for the common good—to glorify God—fleshes out the collect for me. The gospel resonates with the signs of God’s presence, a reminder that it is in the common, ordinary problems and celebrations of our lives that we can expect to experience God with us and begin to shine with Christ’s radiance in the world.

For me, Light shines through the process. May it be so for you!