St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer for Monday: Pray for our Children, Youth, and Family ministries, those who teach our children and our youth; the music program at St. Paul’s, it’s leader and choirs.

Feast day of Evelyn Underhill.  Click HERE for help with the daily readings

Some pretty familiar and important lessons for us today – from 1st Samuel the story of Hannah praying the Lord would give her a male child and promising to dedicate him to God, coupled with the depiction of Jesus’ Ascension in the book of Acts. After reading those I was struck by this line from the General Thanksgiving: “that we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives”. Hannah teaches us the power and persistence of prayer, while the angels teach us to then go forth and live as followers of Jesus when they ask the disciples why they continue to gaze up into heaven after Jesus has ascended. It’s one of my favorite lines in Scripture: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven?” In other words – get busy, Jesus needs you more than ever.