A Reading from Wisdom 7:22-8:1
22 for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.
There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy,
unique, manifold, subtle,
agile, clear, unpolluted,
distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen,
23 irresistible, beneficent, humane,
steadfast, sure, free from anxiety,
all-powerful, overseeing all,
and penetrating through all spirits
that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle.
24 For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
25 For she is a breath of the power of God
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
26 For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
27 Although she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God and prophets,
28 for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.
29 She is more beautiful than the sun
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be more radiant,
30 for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail.
1 She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other,
and she orders all things well.
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Meditation
[Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God.
We have been reading about the mysterious personification of God’s wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures. Who is she? Different scholars answer that question in various ways, but I cannot help but think of the Holy Spirit when Lady Wisdom is described as a “breath of the power of God.” In both biblical languages, ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek, the word “spirit” can be rendered as “breath.”
The writer goes on: “Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.” Again, Lady Wisdom sounds like the indwelling Holy Spirit to me.
I have a friend who teaches quiet or contemplative prayer. When she leads times of prayer with groups, she asks participants to concentrate on breathing, inhaling the love of God and exhaling God’s love into the world. We are but three weeks away from the great feast of Pentecost when the Church celebrates God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit on believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen and life-giving Lord. As we breathe in God’s love, how is God specifically calling you to exhale divine love into a broken world that God loves so much?
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Michael G. Smith served as bishop of North Dakota for 15 years and is currently assists in the dioceses of Dallas and Albany. He is a Benedictine Oblate and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Ten wonderful grandchildren call him “Papa Mike.”
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Church in Wales
St. Joseph of Arimathea, Hendersonville, Tennessee
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