Bible Saturday 12/16: Mary

Studying this morning's four readings from the St. James Daily Devotional Guide (click to subscribe), I examined myself with these questions. Where is your self-examination leading today?

Psalm 30:1-12. Verses 5 and 11 sound good, but are they pollyanna? Isn't some mourning too deep for any consolation? How does this apply to my deepest sorrow, or that of a loved one?

Daniel 9:1-27. Is this wrenching confession and contrition, personal and communal, familiar to my own Christian walk, or rather foreign? Practiced at my church? Prayer point for today?

Revelation 16:17-21. What is the "Babylon" of our time, that must feel God's wrath and be destroyed? How safe am I when that day of reckoning comes?

Luke 1:26-38. Am I properly grateful for the Virgin Mary, respectful of her, instructed by her? Which is the greater spiritual danger, making too much of her or making too little of her?

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To go deeper, see interpretive notes by Bible scholar Patrick Reardon for many of this week's readings.