Tuesday - September 12, 2017
"I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people."
— Saint John Henry Newman
TODAY'S READINGS
September 12, 2017
Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 438
Reading 1COL 2:6-15
Brothers and sisters:As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
rooted in him and built upon him
and established in the faith as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy
according to the tradition of men,
according to the elemental powers of the world
and not according to Christ.
For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,
and you share in this fullness in him,
who is the head of every principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision not administered by hand,
by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead in transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
despoiling the principalities and the powers,
he made a public spectacle of them,
leading them away in triumph by it.
Responsorial PsalmPS 145:1B-2, 8-9, 10-11
R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
AlleluiaSEE JN 15:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.I chose you from the world,
that you may go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 6:12-19
Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.
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Preparation in Prayer!
As the scene opens in today's Gospel reading, Jesus knows that it's time to discern which of his disciples should be trained as future leaders of the Church.
It was such an important decision that he had to surrender all of his logical thinking and his emotional feelings about who was best qualified. He had to look past their worldly credentials. He had to narrow the number down to a mere twelve out of many who could have been chosen. So he went away on a "retreat" and separated himself from all distractions, to pray. He gave his time to no one but the Father. He even devoted the entire night to the Father -- the entire night!
When we face important decisions, when we need to discern the right direction, when we prepare to do something important, do we spend enough time in prayer? Or are we easily distracted? Worry and indecision are usually signs that we haven't spent enough time alone with God.
Do we know God so well that we need less time alone with the Father than Jesus did? Conversely, is the Father such a stranger that we don't know how to get deeply in touch with him?
Usually, it seems impractical to separate ourselves from family, work, or ministry long enough to go away on a prayer retreat or even to attend daily Mass or meditate in a garden or sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament. There's always something else that begs for our attention. So, why do we even hope to hear God?
Can we really make the best decisions by guessing at God's will and trusting our own ideas? How can we proceed successfully, ready and prepared to face obstacles, if we've not already established a good connection to God's wisdom?
The more important the decision, the more necessary it is to get away from all distractions, including (or especially!) the distractions of our own will and desires. This is only possible when we slow down and pray long enough to ascend above our worldly and self-centered thinking.
Communing with God doesn't require constant chatter with him. Jesus might have slept through part of the night, but even in sleep he remained united with the Father, because he took the time to be alone with him. To empty ourselves so that our souls are alone with him, we need to silence all that is not of God, even our burdens. We have to slow down and pray long enough to release our worries to him.
Do you recognize your soul's hunger for this? How much time alone with God do you need today to better prepare for whatever you're facing -- or rather, so that he can prepare you for whatever you don't even know you'll be facing?
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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