While looking for something completely different, the webmistress stumbled upon an online edition of Day by Day, the popular and accessible prayer guide. The booklets are available for “takeaway” on the table on the right as you enter the sanctuary. There are two online versions; the one quoted below comes in a 30-day format, and both will be added to the links . There is a great deal of other useful information at the Forward Movement site as well.

Since today is February 1, it seems a good time to start at the beginning:

Day 1
Psalm 121:1. I will lift my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?

The Psalmist looked around at the dry, barren, bleak, forbidding hills of his native land, hills that supported no life and were the source of absolutely no hope or encouragement of any kind, and he asked, “From where is my help to come?”

Sooner or later, and right now is a time when the need is immediate, we realize that there is no source, none, for our help other than God.

Everything that begins ends. Disaster, desertion, failure, death; the loss of everything we know, everything we value or fear is absolutely inevitable. Nothing is forever. Only God is the source of our help and refuge.

My help comes from the Lord. So it is that today, in the midst of loss and desolation and unexpected disaster, we know from whence our help comes. Our help comes from the Lord.

O Lord, arise, help us;

And deliver us for thy Name’s sake.

We humbly beseech thee, O God, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and, for the glory of thy Name, grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living, to thy honor and glory; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.