Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

07-28-2019Weekly Reflection©2019 Liturgical Publications, Inc.

Are you guilty of spiritual stockpiling? Spiritual stockpiling isn't an endless rotation of rosaries and novenas. It's accumulating emotional "goods" to meet your needs. Perhaps it's a collection of material objects you treasure. Maybe it's a preoccupation with money. It could also be relationships, making sure there's always enough friends and connections to never really feel alone. It's our tendency to let things add up so that we won't quite need God to fulfill our inner life. Yet in this Sunday's Gospel, we have that inescapable petition from the Our Father. "Give us each day our daily bread."

READ MORE

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

07-21-2019Weekly Reflection©2019 Liturgical Publications, Inc.

As I get older, what really matters to me changes. I remember being in high school and having to wear certain brands and to look a certain way. Now, many days I simply wear what is clean! I used to collect certain things that I no longer seem to care about much now. I wanted certain things for my children, and now I am happy if they are happy, regardless of what happens. I have changed political stances a few times. I even follow different sports teams today than I did when I was younger. Time, circumstance, wisdom, and even disillusionment all play a part in my ever-changing attitude toward what really matters in life.

All has changed except my faith. My faith is the one constant in my life. It is the most precious of all the gifts God has given to me. Life hasn't been a constant high, and there have been several low valleys along the way. It has been my faith that has seen me through all times, good and bad. If anything has changed, it is that Jesus matters more today than he did yesterday.

READ MORE

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

07-14-2019Weekly Reflection©2019 Liturgical Publications, Inc.

Loving isn't too difficult, right? Many of us are surrounded by kind, lovely people trying to do the right thing. Indeed, to "love ? your neighbor as yourself" seems like it should be easy enough. Treat people like you would like to be treated. Bring the new neighbors some baked goods (normal and gluten-free, just in case). Chat with the bank teller about his holiday weekend. Write an occasional card to your sister "just because." There were probably varieties of these acts of kindness in Jesus' day. Perhaps substituting figs for cookies. But "exchange pleasantries with the traveling cloth merchant" isn't the example Jesus gives.

"A man fell victim to robbers... they stripped him and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead." The righteous pass by the scene of the dying man. The hero of the story is the one on the margins of Jewish society, who perhaps would not have been welcomed, in other circumstances, by the man now in the ditch. His neighborly love causes him to halt his journey, to tend wounds, and to pay for the man's care out of his own savings. Are we interruptible? Are we attentive to the hurts of others? Are we generous with our money and possessions?

READ MORE