Recently Brother David Allen, SSJE, died. Brother David was an Episcopal monk at the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge. I didn’t know him that well, but Brother David to me was a person who always greeted me warmly always remembering my name when Beth and I would worship there, or I was on retreat, and he greeted all guests and strangers with compassion, sincerity, and a twinkle in his eye. David was 90.
Since February, David entered into a long-term care facility shortly after which went into lockdown. A few weeks afterwards, David wrote the Brothers saying: “I have come to know my present attitude is one of joy and peace…and that I have accepted with joy what has happened to me…accepting my life as it has become, so cut off from what it had been. Each morning I wake up reciting a line from the psalms: ‘This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.’” (Psalm 118:24)
In the midst of your life right now, can you still say that line from the Psalms? No worries if you can’t, it may take some practice. But try it, what is there to lose? The Psalms are among our greatest spiritual technologies, opening to all who might use them to encounter the Divine Presence around us, among us, within us. Say it, start your day every day with this psalm and see what happens to your day. “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
In Christ,
Jon+
