Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter
human personality and change it.
-- J. B. Phillips, Plain Christianity
(Do you believe this? What would you like God to change in you? Humbly and sincerely ask for this gift.) |
Jb 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Ps 88:2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8 Lk 9:51-56 When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,
he resolutely determined to journey to
Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him.
On the way they entered a Samaritan village
to prepare for his reception there,
but they would not welcome him
because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?”
Jesus turned and rebuked them,
and they journeyed to another village. Reflection on the Scriptures
You know that feeling. Some days, you might wonder why you even got out of bed.
Nothing is going right. The world seems stacked against you. Even your prayer is dry and seems to fall on deaf ears. That seems to be what Job is feeling in today’s first reading. I don’t want anyone to feel that way, but, in a way, I am glad I am not the only one. I am encouraged by what I read in today’s Gospel. Maybe what I have to do is to do what Jesus instructed the apostles to do. The apostles wanted to lash out against those who would not welcome them. Jesus rebuked them and instead,
they took a different path to avoid those who would not welcome them.
Instead of being overwhelmed, maybe we need to take a different path. This is not to say we don’t face real problems. Difficult, if not impossible choices. Life events and people that wear us down. Sometimes we need professional help. We can still ask God
to help. He is there. He is with us and loves us when we are overwhelmed and when we are feeling good.
Let me take a deep breath and breathe in gratitude instead of resentment. Can I try a different prayer? Can I center myself and listen for God?
- Carol Zuegner
The Existence of God by Francois Fenelon SECTION
XXIII. On the instinct of the animal What is beyond all question is, that there are in beasts a prodigious number of motions entirely indeliberate, and which yet are performed according to the nicest rules of mechanics. It is the machine alone that
follows those rules: which is a fact independent from all philosophy; and matter of fact is ever decisive. What would a man think of a watch that should fly or slip away, turn, again, or defend itself, for its own preservation, if he went about to break it? Would he not admire the skill of the artificer? Could he be induced to believe that the springs of that watch had formed, proportioned, ranged, and united themselves, by mere chance? Could he imagine that he had clearly
explained and accounted for such industrious and skilful operation by talking of the nature and instinct of a watch that should exactly show the hour to his master, and slip away from such as should go about to break its springs to pieces?
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