1. Mike is joined for the first time in a long time by Wade (it's not clear how Mike feels about this). The two sit down in the middle of summer 2019 to discuss the importance of reading widely for both the laity and for pastors.
  2. On this day, we remember the feast of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha of Bethany. On this day in 1793, the Bethel American Methodist Episcopal church was dedicated. Our reading is "Blind Bartimaeus" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
  3. On this day, we remember J.S. Bach, who died in 1750. We also remember Jesuit priest and preeminent posthumous poet G.M. Hopkins. Our reading is "Pied Beauty" by G.M. Hopkins.
  4. We remember The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, whose rarely recognized feast is today. On this day, notable Anglican and evangelical John Stott died in 2011. Our reading is from Stott, "the Cross of Christ."
  5. On this day, we remember the death of William Jennings Bryan. It is also the feast of Jesus' grandparents, Anne and Joachim. Our reading is from Steve Brown, "Radical Grace."
  6. Today is the feast of St. James the Greater, son of Zebedee and brother to John. Today is also the day that Thomas A Kempis died in 1471. Our reading is "The Kingdom of Heaven Compared to a Mustard Seed" by Christopher Smart.
  7. On this day, we remember the birthday of once slaveowner and later abolitionist John Newton, and also the death of C.I. Scofield, famous for his reference Bible. Our reading is "The Old Testament Gospel" by William Cowper.
  8. On this day, we recognize the feast of St. Bridget of Sweden. We also remember John Day, 16th century English printer, who died in 1583. Our reading is by George MacDonald, "The Holy Thing."
  9. Today is the feast day for St. Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the Apostles. We also remember the death of Richard Cameron, leader of the Covenanters. Our reading is an excerpt from Robert Farrar Capon's "Between Noon and Three."
  10. On this day, we remember Kazimierz Swiatek, the cardinal who defied Stalin and who died in 2011. We also recognize the Roman Catholic encyclical of 1773, "Dominus Ac Redemptor," which banned the Jesuits. Our reading is "Christ's Childhood" by a Jesuit, Robert Southwell.
  11. We remember on this day the death in 1566 of De las Casas, the original Renaissance man, and the birth in 1304 of Petrarch, the apostle to the Indies. Our reading is "Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud" by John Donne.
  12. On this day, we remember George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade. Our reading is "Hope" by Ann Brönte.