Daily Prayer: a resource of Forward Movementhttp://prayer.forwardmovement.org/This is the RSS feed for the Forward Day By Day Meditationsen-usForward Day By Day - March 16, 2026This story from Mark’s Gospel can make us Christians deeply uncomfortable. How do we square Jesus’s words and actions with what we know to be true from the rest of the gospels, that Jesus’s ministry focuses on the marginalized.&....

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]]>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 15, 2026Jane, a former parishioner, wasn’t born blind, but she was losing her sight to glaucoma. It was maddening because she had been a very active octogenarian: traveling with friends, volunteering regularly, playing tennis. The slow loss of capacity was awful. ....

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]]>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 14, 2026I attended a Catholic college, and one of the priests who presided at daily mass was an old Jesuit named Father JJ. He was famed for his short homilies. When I celebrate a weekday Eucharist, I still try to keep to JJ’s three-to-five minutes. People like to have time for lu....

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]]>Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 13, 2026There’s a certain loneliness for Jesus in this section of Mark. His followers do not understand the meaning of the miracles. The crowds seem more interested in the works of wonder than the message. The words “the people recognized him” come with a certain irony....

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]]>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 12, 2026The word sacred means “set apart.” When we call a place sacred, we choose to move, speak, and act differently within that space. For millennia, the desert has been considered such a place. The earliest Christian monasteries were in the desert, with that quiet place b....

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]]>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 11, 2026I like to think of this story of Herod and Herodias as “the Real Housewives of Galilee.” This episode in Mark’s Gospel has all the intrigue of modern reality television. The story is also a violent distraction from the ongoing story of the gospel. ....

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]]>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 10, 2026After a service in which I talked about Harriet Tubman as an agent of God’s liberation, a friend came up to me and said, “Mike, you confused me a moment. You were preaching about Harriet Tubman, and I had to check my calendar because I thought, ‘Wait, this isn&....

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]]>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 9, 2026I knew a seminarian who had the words “Talitha cum” tattooed on her arm. She had grown up in an evangelical church. Reading this passage, where not one but two women find healing, was a key moment in her decision to seek out a faith that was more affirming of her cal....

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]]>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700Forward Day By Day - March 8, 2026Water, where I live, is scarce. When it does come, water can also be fast and deadly. There is a deep ditch a few hundred yards from our house in Albuquerque. For many months in the winter, it is bone dry, with the mud cracked in a lattice. The monsoon ....

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]]>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 7, 2026There is a theme in the stories of Jesus’s healing. Often, as with the demoniac of the Gerasenes, Jesus restores a person not only to health but also to community. Jesus tells the man, “Go home to your friends.” This, perhaps, is as much a miracle as the physic....

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]]>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 6, 2026Jesus is speaking to the wind when he says, “Peace! Be still!” But we might imagine that these words could also be directed to the disciples who have whipped themselves into a frenzy. Sometimes our inner storms are as violent, or more violen....

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]]>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 5, 2026“Taking refuge” is a theme that recurs in scripture. A quick review shows at least a dozen mentions in the psalms. This repetition is no accident. Taking refuge asks us to treat our faith not as a simple set of intellectual propositions or s....

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]]>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 4, 2026When you read Paul’s letters, a picture sometimes arises of the saint that is, shall we say, judgy. Paul is frustrated with sexually immoral people, revilers, drunkards, the greedy, and anyone pursuing a lawsuit. I wonder if Paul had particular people in Corinth in mind wh....

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]]>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 3, 2026It is common today to talk about “chosen family.” Some of us may no longer speak with a member or members of the family of our birth. Instead, we celebrate holidays, significant life events, and the day-to-day with friends, chosen family who share our values. Today&r....

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]]>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 2, 2026Abundance is often thought to be a blessing, but the late theologian Walter Brueggemann points to the story of Joseph storing up grain for Pharaoh as a turning point in the Bible. The story in Genesis is the first time in the Bible someone says, “there’s not enough,&....

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]]>Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - March 1, 2026In 2005 and 2006, I served with the Young Adult Service Corps of the Episcopal Church in an impoverished neighborhood at the edge of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I lived with the kids at El Hogar, a foster care home and school. The nights were loud. The tropical sun goes down at 6 p.m....

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]]>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 28, 2026I was expected to dream. My mother had a very active dream life, and she expected her children to have the same. Each morning, she would ask us at breakfast, “Well, what did you dream last night?” Later, she would ask the same of my children. ....

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]]>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 27, 2026When I read this story of the Pharisees questioning Jesus about eating with tax collectors and sinners, I want to jump right into the story and ask Jesus, “Who in the world is ever well? Are there such people? Am I well?” People may look wel....

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]]>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 26, 2026Truth be told, I often like working alone. I can set my own schedule, and things get done my way. It’s less of a hassle sometimes. Yet aloneness is not what we are created for. Remember, in the very beginning, God says that it is not good for anyo....

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]]>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 25, 2026Mark’s passage ends with Jesus and a leper. The leper tests Jesus, saying, “If you choose, you could make me clean.” Everyone is watching; his ministry is just beginning. This is not the time to walk away. So, Jesus heals the leper. Th....

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]]>Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 24, 2026The selection of Matthias is interesting in many ways. First, he is chosen by lots, perhaps the tossing of dice. There is no mention of a conversation with him to see if he is willing…or, afterward, if he will serve. It is all a done deal. The other person nominated (Jose....

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]]>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 23, 2026Ps 41, 52 * 44 | Genesis 37:1-11 | 1 Corinthians 1:1-19 | Mark 1:1-13 I am eight years old. My dad’s friend stops by after a trip to Mexico and brings gifts. Mine is a ceramic angel with brown hair and a pink dress dotted with “gold.” ....

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]]>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 22, 2026There our story begins. God tells the man that he may eat of everything in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From then on, God speaks to humanity, humanity listens (sometimes!), and then we humans decide what we will do. The temptation to follow our own d....

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]]>Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 21, 2026It is often said that Episcopalians are not big on the word evangelism. We could zoom in and unpack this statement, or we could consider not the word but the action. I once had a young Chinese woman in my parish. She grew up knowing nothing of God or Je....

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]]>Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800Forward Day By Day - February 20, 2026I am sitting in a hospital room. An elderly parishioner is lying in the bed, unconscious; his granddaughter sits across from me. We are talking about her grandfather, life, and her future. In the quiet, I notice that Charlie has stopped breathing. I say softly to my companion, &....

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