Transformed by the Inner Light

Devotional Reflection, Friday, June 13, 2025

The Week of Pentecost Sunday

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection in today’s Epistle reading:

6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

(You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.)

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 968)

AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32

Ezekiel 34:17-31;  Hebrews 8:1-13;  Luke 10:38-42

Today we celebrate the Feast of the First Book of Common Prayer. (See below.)

David’s Reflections

I am, you anxious one.

Don’t you sense me, ready to break

into being at your touch?

My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.

Can’t you see me standing before you

cloaked in stillness? #

In his Book of Hours Rainer Maria Rilke poetically expresses the prayers of a Russian Orthodox monk and God’s speech to the monk. Here, God addresses the monk.

God’s absence and inactivity can feel like a dark, silent cave, with us feeling our way along the wall in the blackness without any light or any knowledge of what the next step might bring.

In today’s epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 3, Paul describes coming to awareness of God’s inner presence like a light coning on in our darkened inner being. He might be alluding to his awakening to Christ’s inner presence as described in Galatians 1 and Philippians 3. In Galatians 1:15-16, he says, “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by grace to reveal  God’s Son in me.” Note, IN me, not TO me. @ It was as if, once Christ’s light shined within him, he became aware that Christ had been there all along. This does not eliminate an outer vision, of course. Paul refers to having seen Christ more than once (See 1 Corinthians 15:3-10.). But, he does, in some passages, like Galatians 1, Philippians 3, and 2 Corinthians 3, seem to underline the inner experience.

How might that change our spiritual quest—if we became convinced that Christ’s presence lurked inside us like a spirit lamp about to ignite? What if we became convinced that everything we need and want spiritually already is there within us, at our fingertips?

Perhaps we then could pray for that Christ lamp to ignite in whatever ways God chose to reveal Godself within us. We could welcome the release of a presence already there without trying to be like someone else. We could pray that we might become awakened to the divine love and presence within in ways unique to our individual selves. And, like Paul, the outer revelation of God and the inner illumination might coalesce. And, like him, we might not be able to make hard and fast distinctions between the outer and the inner (see 2 Corinthians 12 for the most prominent example.)

Those lines have a haunting quality, don’t they?

Don’t you sense me, ready to break

into being at your touch?

Something Gerald G. May once wrote comes to mind. “"God is far more intimate with us than human parents ever could be, even closer than a pregnant woman is to her unborn child.  God's love pervades us, flows through every molecule, vibrates every particle of our being.”+

#Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours:  Love Poems to God, trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, intro by the translators (New York:  Riverhead, 2005), p. 81.

@Note: Most translations read “to,” but the grammar yields to either rendering. I believe the Galatians translators are affected by the Acts accounts of an outer vision. Without them, we would be more prone to render the preposition as “in” not “to.” Paul never describes an outer vision on the Damascus road, as does the Book of Acts.

+Gerald G. May, Addition and Grace (New York:  Harper, 1988), p. 122.

Collect of the Day: Pentecost Sunday

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the

earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 228)

Today we celebrate the Feast of the First Book of Common Prayer.

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/BCP.htm

Collect of the First Book of Common Prayer

Almighty and everliving God, who, through the Book of Common Prayer restored the language of the people in the prayers of your church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with the understanding, that we may worthily magnify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 97)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.   (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Epistle, 2 Corinthians 4:1-12

4Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer 

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer 

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer