Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29
Luke 10:17-24

Reflection:

The Church gifts us this day with an ancient reading from Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, who gives voice to Jerusalem as she bewails and consoles her captive children during the exile.   It is an interesting concept that a city gives voice to the people who live there.  I ponder what New York City would have said to her people after September 11th.  Or even what joyful message could be delivered to its residents from any small town in America on the Fourth of July?   The personification of a town or city may be scientifically absurd, while still being poetically beautiful. For how deeply a town would desire to look after and tend to those who dwell there. I can’t help but picture a tenderness, care, and wisdom a town or city would exhume for its residents.

Jerusalem, Baruch says, do you realize how fortunate you are? Moreover, you need to be attentive to what God is about to do for you. This is very much the spirit of the Gospel. After sending out the seventy-two, they now come back, filled with excitement and enthusiasm. And Jesus asks them, do you realize how blessed you are? You’ve participated in things which societies’ elite couldn’t fathom. And I find great delight in sharing that with you. But your real joy isn’t what you can do because I asked you and gave you the authority. Your real joy excels because you have chosen to know and listen to me.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Scripture:

Baruch 1:15-22
Luke 10:13-16

Reflection:

Francis of Assisi:  Prophet and Poet

Jesus confronted the reality of evil and selfishness with his message of life and love.  Some have received his message with an open heart; others have turned away in a spirit of denial.  Today’s Gospel selection from Luke 10 shares Jesus’ cries of “woe” and challenge to those who remained hard-hearted and closed to his message of Love and Life.  Contrasting is the message of today’s first reading from the prophet Baruch as he prays in hope and humility that God will look kindly upon the people who have turned away in their sinfulness.  Baruch proclaims the goodness and compassion of God, as was later personally witnessed in the life of Jesus.

Today we celebrate the life of a 12^th Century saint who was called to help bring about a renewal in the Church through the personal witness of his life, his “spirit”.  Francis of Assisi heard the personal call of Jesus and gave himself wholeheartedly to Jesus in an exemplary life of praise, sacrifice and service.

The Scriptures came alive for Francis of Assisi.  His carefree youth was radically changed by the call of Jesus; he renounced his personal possessions and redirected his life to evangelical poverty and preaching.  Francis’ life witness was charismatic, compassionate, and loving of all God’s creation.  God used Francis to call others to lives of radical discipleship – and so many responded that Francis compiled a “rule of life” and founded numerous religious communities of women and men.  He lived but 44 short years, sharing the joy of those early disciples of Jesus, sparking a spiritual renewal that continues to inspire men and women today – especially our own Pope Francis!  “Rebuild my church…”

Today Jesus and Francis of Assisi challenge us to generously promote God’s Kingdom.  Our world is dramatically challenged by violence, selfishness, poverty and hunger, hopelessness, injustice, etc.  We are challenged to be faith-filled disciples…to respect God’s presence in all people, in nature and all created things, in the daily events of life.  Simplicity and humility are held up to us as virtues of 21^st Century disciples, witnessing the mercy and compassion which are the heart of God.

The Collect Prayer of today’s feast day Eucharist prays “…Saint Francis was conformed to Christ in poverty and humility; grant that, by walking in Francis’ footsteps, we may follow your Son, and, through joyful charity come to be united with you….”  Like Francis, may we be channels of God’s peace!

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the Vocation Director for Holy Cross Province. He lives at St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12
Luke 10:1-12

Reflection:

I do not intend for this meditation to add to one’s anxiety and stress but there is a sense of urgency in the Word of God today. Ezra assembles all the people, even the “children old enough to understand” what was read from the Torah. Jesus sends forth the seventy-two disciples with no provisions lest they be burdened in their strong and rapid announcement that the “reign of God is at hand.” Faith is a relationship of total reliance upon Him. Anxiety or not, our embracing the Scripture can move us to a heightened mode of consciousness and activity today.

Just contemplating Jesus’ exhortation on sending the disciples out in pairs, and in what manner he sends them is enough to, at least, increase curiosity as to what is in store for us today. Are you ready to accept what God intends for you in the building of the kingdom on earth before he returns? It is curious enough that the “seventy-two disciples” represent the seventy-two grandsons of Noah, who left their grandfather’s homestead, spread out all over the world and thus became the origin of all the peoples that live on the earth. And somehow, that which makes up the light and vision that shows us through the day is the ultimate Good News that we, together, form one family, one Father, one Brother and one Spirit. In the Book of Revelation John describes how he sees all the nations coming together to the New City, the New Jerusalem, each one bringing their own gifts to it. It is the movement started around Him by those seventy-two which continues till now.

The Step Three prayer of AA may be an appropriate way with which to conclude our meditation as we willfully go forth with God today. “God I offer myself to You – to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do your will. Take away my difficulties so that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Your Power, Your Love and Your Way of Life. May I do your Will always.  Amen”

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Community in Detroit, Michigan.

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

Scripture:

Nehemiah 2:1-8
Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Reflection:

At its heart, today’s feast of the Holy Angels is not so much about their existence, rather it is a powerful reminder of how important we are to God.

Our first reading states this so clearly. God promises angelic guidance so that we are guarded and surely led to a place of safety. The angelic guides will speak for God, indeed in the ‘name’ of God, and they will be entrusted to go before us to show us the right path.

In the gospel Jesus reveals that those Angels entrusted to guide ‘the little ones’ (the poor, powerless and dismissed people who Jesus reached out to) stand in the place of closest relationship with God. Their status in God’s eyes is symbolized by the status their angels enjoy in heaven!

We see all of this, too, in the life of Jesus. Angels appear in the gospel accounts of his life at those times of special need – times where Jesus himself is in need or others like Mary need to hear God’s word. At the time of temptation and in his agony, the angels appear to comfort Jesus. At the other times they appear in order to announce the significance of the moment to others – i.e. at the Annunciation, the Angel reveals God’s plan to Mary, and at the tomb the Angel reveals the new life of Jesus on this, the first day of resurrection.

In times past Catholic devotion and prayer focused more particularly on angels. Today that is not so prominent. However, this feast-day does speak to us of God’s longing for us, of God’s desire to protect us and of God’s intention to be with us.

All of this is to remind us today that we too enjoy such love and care on the part of God.

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is a member of Holy Spirit Province, Australia. 

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Scripture:

Zechariah 8:20-23
Luke 9:51-56

Reflection:

Today is the feast of the remarkable saint whose short adult life was spent in a cloistered Carmelite convent in Lisieux, France, but whose spirit captured the world.  She died of tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of 24.  Yet within a very few years her reputation for holiness had captivated the world.  She was canonized in 1925 by Pius XI only 28 years after her death; declared patroness of foreign missions in 1927, and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

The heart of Thérèse’s spirituality was what she called the “little way.”  As she wrote to a friend, Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little mind quickly tires. I close the learned book which is breaking my head and drying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons; perfection seems simple; I see that it is enough to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God’s arms. Leaving to great souls, to great minds, the beautiful books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet.

Therese herself preferred to be faithful in “little things” –every day opportunities for patience, humility, and kindness.  In this way she could count on Christ’s love for her to enable her to achieve holiness.  At the same time, Thérèse had a great soul and was conscious of the world outside her convent.  She felt a deep call to support the missionary activity of the church with her daily prayer and life of quiet fidelity.

Pope Francis cited the “little way” of St. Thérèse in his powerful encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home).  The pope noted that the enormous challenges posed by the environmental crisis can lead us to moral paralysis—what can anyone of us do faced with such complex and serious problems?  How can we offset the corruption and violence that so afflicts our society?  The pope noted that some people are in a position to effect significant change—government and corporation leaders, scientists, etc.—but most of us are not.  But, he said, there are ways we too can exercise our responsibility for our world.  Here he appeals to St Thérèse:

Saint Thérèseof Lisieux invites us to practice the little way of love,
not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship.
An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures
which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness…
Love overflowing with small gestures of mutual care,
is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world.”  (Laudato Si’ #230)

The accumulation of such “small gestures of love,” Pope Francis notes, contribute to the church’s mission of “building a civilization of love.”

The gospel reading for today, although occurring on this day as part of the ordinary sequence of the daily readings and not special for this feast, picks up the quality of Thérèse’s spirituality cited by the Pope. In Luke’s account, as Jesus and his disciples are traveling to Jerusalem, they pass through Samaria, a region traditionally hostile to Judeans.  When some of Jesus’ disciples enter a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, they are not welcomed.  Angry, the disciples ask Jesus if they should pray for revenge— “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”   But Jesus himself rejects such a hostile response and continues with his mission.

Refusing acts of violence and revenge and, instead, offering gestures of reconciliation and love was the way of Jesus in the Gospels and was the path to holiness for a young French woman whose life touched the world.

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P. is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union.  He lives at the Passionist residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Scripture:

Zechariah 8:1-8
Luke 9:46-50

Reflection:

Today’s statement by Jesus is very startling.  “He who is least among you all is the one who is great.”  How can the least among us be great?  Aren’t the great people the rich and famous, the entertainers and sports figures, the elected politicians and business tycoons?  How can a child who just learned how to read and write and hasn’t accomplished anything yet be great?  How can a homeless person barely existing on the streets be great?  How can a humble car wash attendant be great?

The answer comes in the earlier part of Jesus statement.  “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me.”  Jesus unites himself with the poor and lowly, the “least of my people” (Matthew 25:40), as he says in Mathew’s gospel.  True greatness is not the result of accomplishments, good looks, fortune or fame.  True greatness comes from union with Jesus.  We are called to share in his greatness.

At Cana Jesus performed his first miracle, transforming ordinary water into delicious wine.  That was a sign that he came upon this earth to transform us.  He came to lift us up out of our lowly human condition and let us share in the greatness of his life.

Are you looking for Jesus?  Do you want to encounter him today?  Receive a child.  Reach out to the homeless.  Wave at the guy shining shoes.  Praise the gardener for his good work.  Call the cashier by name. Tell a joke to the waiter.  What the world calls “nobodies” are really “somebodies” in God’s eyes.  And these “somebodies” are all around us.  We can encounter Jesus all day, every day.  Wouldn’t that be great?  Wouldn’t that make us great?

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.   http://www.alanphillipcp.com/

Scripture:

Haggai 2:1-9
Luke 9:18-22

Reflection:

For now, hold fast – don’t disclose my identity just yet…wait for the right time.

I have experienced moments in my life that sadden me, from the time I was a child with an abusive brother, a teen with an alcoholic parent who dragged me through the pain of divorce, to adulthood as I try to find where I belong. But, all of those moments have strengthened me, and Christ was always there by my side, through it all. Pray for his guidance for strength, patience, compassion – you are not God, there is only one, and only He can give you the calm you need – the balm to sooth what ails you.

Is he a burden to you? We struggle in our faith to stay true to His word when we become discouraged, disheartened, neglected, or we feel we have been abandoned in our faith by those who we would hope to stand true to their convictions – and in today’s world, it is incredibly difficult to remember His words as we fight our battles. He told us the path would not be easy.  But we are here for Him, we live for Him, we focus on all the good that we do in our lives, and we do all of that good for Him.

Jesus was sent by God as the Messiah – who is Jesus to you? Do you see him as a leader, father, teacher, friend – maybe a combination of several different roles? Pray for clarity in your relationship with Christ. Pray for a renewed commitment to him, through your words and deeds. Stay steadfast in your faith, as you roll through this crazy world, and you may feel you are doubting your faith.  It doesn’t matter to anyone who I say Jesus is, except to me – so, who do YOU say that he is?

Patty Masson resides in Houston, Texas.