On Hope

“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”
Hebrews 6 : 19

A Prayer for This Morning

Lord, when the surface of my life is all weather, remind me that hope is not a mood but a mooring. Anchor me where the water is still. Hold me steadfast until the sky clears, and even if it does not.

Affirmation

My hope is not a forecast; it is an anchor, and it holds.

The Reflection

Scripture's image for hope is deliberately unglamorous. Not a sunrise, not a wing: an anchor, the heaviest and least visible object on the ship. Hope, the writer to the Hebrews insists, is not optimism, which lives on deck and checks the sky. It is tackle. It does its work out of sight, below the waterline, fastened to something the waves cannot reach.

This matters on the days when a woman cannot feel hopeful, and there are such days. An anchor's holding power was never a function of the crew's emotions. Sure and steadfast describes the mooring, not the sailor. The question in rough water is not how do I feel but where am I fastened; and the second question, unlike the first, can have a settled answer.

In Her Company

St Monica

She prayed seventeen years for her son Augustine, and lived to see him become one of the great saints of the Church. Hope, in her keeping, simply refused the calendar.

Monica was born in North Africa in 331 and married young into a difficult household. For seventeen years she prayed for the conversion of her brilliant, wayward son. She lived to see Augustine baptised at Milan in 387 and died at Ostia on the journey home, at peace. Her son became one of the greatest teachers the Church has known.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

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The Strand

Pearls of other mornings

Each day the brand draws one pearl from a strand of twenty-one. Here is the whole strand, for the mornings you missed and the ones you wish to keep.

On Worth
Matthew 13 : 45-46
On Light
Isaiah 60 : 1
On Rest
Matthew 11 : 28
On Courage
Joshua 1 : 9
On Kindness
Proverbs 31 : 26
On Trust
Proverbs 3 : 5-6
On Joy
Psalm 30 : 5
On Purpose
Ephesians 2 : 10
On Peace
John 14 : 27
On Gratitude
Psalm 103 : 2
On Hope
Hebrews 6 : 19
On Gentleness
1 Peter 3 : 4
On Provision
Matthew 6 : 28-29
On Community
Ecclesiastes 4 : 9-10
On Wisdom
Proverbs 3 : 15
On Renewal
Lamentations 3 : 22-23
On Service
Colossians 3 : 23
On Patience
James 5 : 7
On Forgiveness
Ephesians 4 : 32
On Beauty
Ecclesiastes 3 : 11
On Love
Jeremiah 31 : 3

St Monica

She prayed seventeen years for her son Augustine, and lived to see him become one of the great saints of the Church. Hope, in her keeping, simply refused the calendar.

Image via Wikimedia Commons