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Today's Devotional

Holy Scripture bids us “run with patience the race that is set before us” [Hebrews 12:1].

One might have anticipated that energy or zeal would be the word, rather than patience: but no, it is patience.

If not even a race, then surely nothing that appertains to duty should be done in mere hurry or depend upon impulse. Our race is for life or death, yet must it be run peacefully.

One element of excitement is far removed from it. A race it is, yet only to attain a goal, not to outstrip competitors. On the contrary, there is scarcely a greater help to one’s own running than to lend a hand to a halting brother or sister.

Our mighty Forerunner whom no saint follows except at an infinite distance—Christ who in all things has the pre-eminence—ran his mortal race with glory as of the sun, and alacrity as of a bridegroom, and strength as of a giant: nevertheless he ran it with such peace and patience that he vouchsafed to become as one who carries lambs in his bosom and gently leads the feeble ones.

As in the past to our forefathers, so today he says to us: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you” [Matthew 11:28,29 ESV]. Now a yoke is not for standing still, but for toiling forward: and thus he promises us rest while we toil, even as he requires of us patience while we run our race.

About the author and the source

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) earned recognition as one of England’s finest poets. Unlike her more sensual  brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (leader of the pre-Raphalite painters) she was deeply imbued with Christian sensibility and wrote such books as Called to be Saints. Today’s selection is adapted from her daily readings, Time Flies.