The Daily Pearl
On Renewal
A pearl kept from the brand’s mornings: a verse to hold, a prayer to say and a word to carry.
“It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3 : 22-23
A Prayer for This Morning
Father, your mercies did not run out at midnight; they were replenished. Meet me at the start of this day with compassions that have never yet failed. Make me new enough to try again.
Affirmation
This morning's mercies were made this morning, and so, in a sense, was I.
The Reflection
The most quoted line of Lamentations sits in one of the least quoted books: a poem written in the rubble of a burned city. Great is thy faithfulness is not the conclusion of a good year. It is what a grieving man found still standing when everything else had fallen, and its placement is the whole argument. Mercies renew in ruins, or they are not mercies at all.
New every morning is a maker's claim. The compassions of God are not durable goods, produced once and slowly wearing out; they are daily bread, baked fresh, never served as leftovers. Which means yesterday's failure was covered by yesterday's mercy, and today arrives fully provisioned. Dawn is heaven's oldest habit. It has never once been broken.
In Her Company
St Mary Magdalene
Delivered by Christ and first to the empty tomb, she is the morning witness of the Resurrection. Every renewal since has begun the way hers did, before sunrise.
Mary Magdalene followed Christ from Galilee after he delivered her, and she stood by the cross when most had fled. In every Gospel it is she who reaches the tomb first, and to her the risen Lord first spoke. The Church calls her the Apostle to the Apostles, and keeps her feast on the twenty-second of July.
Image Rogier van der Weyden · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
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