April 14/Tuesday in the Octave of Easter Our soul waits for the LORD, who is our help and our shield. ~ Ps 33.20 Participating in church services, book clubs, happy hours on Zoom. Streaming Pure Barre or Core Power yoga classes online (and hoping the kids or the dog don’t walk in). FaceTiming friends and family across the country, or…
Author: Betsy Cahill
Easter Tidings 1: And Then . . .
April 13/Monday in the Octave of Easter I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. ~ Ps 16.8-9 Having read every one of the Hardy Boys mysteries to my youngest child some years ago (there are…
Song 40: On the Verge
April 11/Holy Saturday You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made…
Song 39: Broken
April 10/Good Friday For all my foes I am an object of reproach, a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends; they who see me abroad flee from me.I am forgotten like the unremembered dead; I am like a dish that is broken. ~ Ps 31.12-13 When I was a little girl I had a treasured doll…
Song 38: What to Give the God Who Has Everything
April 9/Holy Thursday How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? ~ Ps 116.12 With the advent of apps like Venmo, we can now repay small debts with a swipe of the screen. But squaring up with God is not quite so easy — in fact, it can’t be done. …
Special Announcement
Dear Friends, Many of you have commented that the daily Lenten reflections I have been offering have been especially helpful during this year’s season of uncertainty. As you know, I have traditionally limited these reflections to the confines of Advent and Lent. While I am not able to continue indefinitely, I am going to do something new this year. I…
Song 37: Darkness Visible
April 8/Wednesday of Holy Week Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak, I looked for sympathy, but there was none; for consolers, not one could I find. I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving. ~ Ps 69.21, 31 Haven’t we all been there — isolated, broken-hearted, and alone? “I looked…
Song 36: Our Help in Ages Past
April 7/Tuesday of Holy Week For you are my hope, O LORD; my trust, O God, from my youth.On you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength. ~ Ps 71.5-6 Not long ago, a childhood friend sent me a photograph of her 10th birthday party, a modest affair at which my sisters and I gave…
Song 35: Dominus Illuminatio Mea
April 6/Monday of Holy Week The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid? ~ Ps 27.1 It feels darker than ever, this Holy Week. Sidelined by COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to share the joyous and hopeful community celebration of Palm Sunday. The borrowed donkey,…
Song 34: Banished for Life
April 4/Fifth Saturday of Lent The LORD shall ransom Jacob, he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings. ~ Jer 31.11-12 All of us, these days, suffer from the “condition we call exile,” to borrow the title of an essay by the late Russian…