Eventide & Altar

They wept and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, grieving most because they would not see his face again. That grief is love named honestly. Three years of tears and admonishment and night-and-day vigilance produced a community that could not let go of the man who gave it. The weeping at Miletus is the fruit of the faithful ministry.

Jesus prays: I do not pray that you take them out of the world. That prayer is worth sitting with in the evening of life. You have not been prayed out of the world. You have been prayed into it with protection and consecration. The truth that keeps you is not a removal from difficulty but a foundation that holds while the difficulty comes. Consecrate them in truth; your word is truth.

The psalm: sing to God, kingdoms of the earth; sing praise to the Lord who rides the heavens. Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the skies. The God who appointed Paul's overseers by his Spirit is the God who rides the ancient heavens, whose voice is thunder, who gives power and strength to his people.

The Glorious Mysteries move through the Resurrection and Ascension toward Pentecost and Mary's glorification. The Spirit who appointed the Ephesian elders is the Spirit of the third Glorious Mystery. Pray them tonight as a meditation on the Spirit who tends the Church and consecrates its members in truth.

• For those who tend a flock with tears and night-and-day vigilance, that the Lord would reward the watching-over that no one else sees, we pray to the Lord.
• For those consecrated in truth who are currently in the middle of the world's opposition, that they would be kept from evil without being removed from the witness, we pray to the Lord.
• For all keeping the novena, that the Spirit who appointed overseers would renew each one before Pentecost, we pray to the Lord.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Tonight, name one thing you have received in your life that you have not yet given back - a gift, a grace, a knowledge - that is waiting to be passed on to someone. Name it. Then ask: to whom?