Thirty-Second Day

Esther 2.15b-18

The book of Esther is something of a hybrid - a Hebrew original with later Greek additions, some of which duplicate the Hebrew text. For the purposes of reading Esther this week, we read from both versions in segments that fall roughly in chronological order, but the verse numbering will not always be sequential. As an indicator, any text set in brackets will be from the Greek additions.

Even a casual reading of the two versions will reveal significant differences between them. One important difference is that the Hebrew account is famous for never mentioning God, while the Greek text does; portions of the Greek additions, probably because of their more overtly religious language, are used in the Roman Catholic liturgy, while the Hebrew sections are not; and the Greek sections make explicit what is only implicit in the Hebrew story.

2

15 ...Esther soon won the esteem of everyone who saw her. 16 She was brought to Ahasuerus at the palace in the tenth month, Tebeth, during the seventh year of his reign. 17 Ahasuerus liked Esther more than all the others - none of the others found as much favor with him. So he placed the crown on her head and proclaimed her to be queen in place of Vashti.

18 Then Ahasuerus gave a great feast in her honor for all the governors and government officials, proclaiming a holiday in all the provinces and making bounteous gifts with royal abandon.

"In Night, When Colors All to Black Are Cast"

by Fluke Greville (1554-1628)

found in The Mind Has Cliffs of Fall: Poems at the Extremes of Feeling (WW Norton, 2019)

In night, When colors all to black are cast,

Distinction lost, or gone down the light,

The eye, a watch to inward senses placed,

Not seeing, yet still having power of sight,

Gives vain alarums to the inward sense,

Where fear, stirred up with witty tyranny,

Confounds all powers, and through self-offense

Doth forge and raise impossibility,

Such as in thick depriving darknesses

Proper reflections of the error be,

And images of self-confusednesses,

Which hurt imaginations only see;

And from this nothing seen, tells news of devils,

Which but expressions be of inward evils.

Today’s Art Practice

What You’ll Need

From Your Home:

• Glue, tape or other adhesive product.

From Your Envelope:

• Sheet of art paper.

• Sheets of purple tissue paper.

Directions: Find the different shades of purple tissue paper in your envelope. Tear those sheets into size and shape pieces as you are being called to do.

When you're ready attach the pieces to a sheet of art paper from your envelope using glue, tape, or your favorite adhesive product to create a purple collage.

If you like, this playlist can help you keep track of time. Once it stops playing, 20-minutes will be over.

Let’s Pray…

Partnership Prayer

by Miriam Therese Winter

We thank You, O God Within and Beyond us,

for linking our lives

in so many ways,

making a chain of hope

and compassion

long enough

to circle the globe.

When we walk hand in hand,

when we work side by side,

the impossible becomes

the next challenge before us,

and we know we can do

what we dared not attempt.

May mountains of misery melt

with Your Word of concern

which we put into action,

and may there never again be despair or denial

of Your saving grace.

Amen.