Day by Day

Acts 2:42-47
By Rev. Heather J. Blais, Rector

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the life of the Church. We gathered at Christ Church Cathedral in Springfield for the consecration and ordination of our tenth bishop - the Rt. Rev. Miguelina Howell. Drawing a record 51 bishops, and hundreds of clergy and lay leaders across our diocese and the wider Church. 

Bishop Howell is truly so many firsts for our diocese. The first female bishop. The first mother raising young children. The first afro-latina. The first native Spanish speaker, born in the Dominican Republic. These are all important parts of who she is, and the perspective she will bring. Yet what has made her an exceptional leader, and some of the core reasons the Spirit guided us to elect her as our new bishop are her gifts for strategic mission; her wisdom; her relational nature; and most importantly, her profound faith and love of Jesus Christ. 

Bishop Howell embodies her faith and love for Christ in the way she prays. 
Whether it be in a liturgy, one on one, or any number of times during the day pausing to turn to God for wisdom and clarity. When someone tries to offer her praise, she’ll often say - to God be the glory. Redirecting those she is with back towards God. Her approach to faith lives into what we see in Acts of the Apostles. She devotes herself, and the flock she now shepherds, “...to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). 

As the Church, we are called to devote ourselves to these same tasks, to keep learning and growing in faith; to come together as a community, sharing our lives; to break bread together in shared meals and in the eucharist; and to nurture a life of prayer. The passage in Acts goes on to describe the fruits of such devotion: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home, and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” (2:46-47). 
When we devote ourselves to a life of faith, to a greater good, there is abundance. Not just enough to get by, but abundance. While it's easy to fall into worrying, this passage reminds us what is possible. When we get out of our heads and live into our faith in body, mind, and spirit the Spirit will move and God will provide in abundance. Our call is to lean into that faith with trust, confidence, joy, and hope. 
As I meditated on this passage earlier this week, an image arose. In my childhood home, in my mother’s room, there was a rocker next to a book shelf that she and my father had stained. There rested a Forward Movement Day by Day reflection booklet. These little booklets feature a verse from scripture and a daily reflection written by a wide variety of folks across the Episocpal Church. It is a tool meant to help the Church of today, emulate the values of the early Church with daily prayer, reflection, and scripture study - knowing others are doing the same each day across the Church. 

Alongside my mother’s Day by Day booklet, there were items clearly in regular use: her prayerbook, a card with the serenity prayer, rosaries, seashells, photos, and a candle. Whenever I had cause to be in her room, I was drawn to this little corner. There was a specific kind of energy there, and I knew it was a space set apart. 

Looking back, I can see that energy was the result of hours of prayer. Prayer offered in devotion, and when seeking strength and renewal. She was a single parent, and if you haven’t noticed,  I can be a lot. If anyone had reason to seek peace, quiet and prayer - it was her! Yet in this little prayer corner, she would read to soothe her nerves, she would regularly turn to God in prayer, deepening the roots of her faith.  It is this regular practice of deepening and strengthening the roots of our faith that lets us face whatever the day has in store, and trusting the challenges we face into God’s care at day’s end. 

Over the years I found myself creating a similar prayer corner in our home, as well as prayer on the go tools. Signs and symbols that remind me to tend and care for the roots of my faith. Because if we are going to be the Church, we need to keep growing in our faith by deepening our prayer life. The world is hungry for hope, and we have hope to offer in Christ, and the dream and knowledge of a better way, a Way of Love. We are best able to share that hope when we live into what the early Church embodies in today’s epistle. Day by day. Inch by inch. The repetition of our commitment to learning and growing in faith; of gathering together in community while serving our neighbors; of breaking bread and praying together brings abundance. 

Our call is to:

• commit to the action, 
• commit to showing up, 
• commit to holding space and time for devotion and prayer; 
• commit to being open to being changed as our faith reshapes us.
• commit to being an embodiment of God’s love and part of the abundance. 

When we pray, we root ourselves in God’s Love, and we become agents of God’s healing love in the world. This week I  invite us to reflect on the role of prayer in our lives. 

• What does rooting our lives in prayer look like for us?
• Where do we find it meaningful to pray?
• What tools remind or equip us to pray? 
• Do we notice a difference when we begin or end our day with prayer?
• What abundance have we experienced as a result of our prayer lives?

 
Let us pray

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you,
so guide our minds,
so fill our imaginations,
so control our wills,
that we may be wholly yours,
utterly dedicated unto you;
and then use us, we pray you, as you will,
and always to your glory and the welfare of your creation;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
(BCP, p. 831-832, adapted)

---