Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Today’s Gospel reading from Mark is familiar -

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

It may conjure songs or images for you like it does for me, maybe “This little light of mine” or of the lights of a city built on a hill or Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech .

An image that struck me when pondering this familiar text is the one set into this email, from “Prayer: Forty Days of Practice.” The prayer that matches the image in the book says “May I never grow tired of starting over or helping other to do the same. My hope is always in renewal and resurrection.” I think this imagery recognizes the call to hope and the hard work thereof. The pattern of reaching toward the light as the tree does here resonates with the call to hope is grounded in the hope of the resurrection, of God who renews and restores the world for the sake of love. I hope it might be a helpful image in your reflections today on the calling to be salt and light in the world even in the midst of challenge and growth.

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor

Prayer 29 in Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson’s Prayer: Forty Days of Practice