nov 6 2006

 

taken nov 5 2006

 

Nov 6 2006

Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Phil 2:1-4 Brothers and sisters: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others.

Ps 131:1bcde, 2, 3 R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty; I busy not myself with great things, nor with things too sublime for me.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O Israel, hope in the LORD, both now and forever.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.

Lk 14:12-14 On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him,“When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The gospel reminds me of the so common situations when people are ever so kind but it is obvious that the person they are being kind to is in a position of power and very likely to reward their actions in a short time. Acts of kindness just to love and to give without counting the cost are what I see being asked of me from this gospel reading. My reward is not necessarily in this life but at he resurrection.

The psalm refrain "In you, O Lord, I have found my peace." is a beautiful prayer in itself which I will pray today. Are my motives truly to help others in all that I do. I pray every morning that I am on the path that God has called me to and that the acts of the day are aligned with the will of God. I do find great strength and peace in my faith. God is my rock and my salvation all else is passing.