Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Intention: For God’s blessing on this week’s gatherings of Lasallian Student Leaders and the Brother John Johnston Institute.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 10:34-11:1
Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.
From the First Meditation for the Time of Retreat | St. John Baptist de La Salle
God wills not only that all come to the knowledge of truth but also that all be saved. He cannot truly desire this without providing the means for it and, therefore, without giving children the teachers who will assist them in the fulfillment of his plan. This, says Saint Paul, is the field that God cultivates, the building that he is raising, and you are the ones whom he has chosen to help in this work by announcing to these children the Gospel of his Son and the truths that are contained in it.
This is why you must honor your ministry and keep trying to save some of these children. Because God, according to the expression of the same Apostle, has made you his ministers in order to reconcile them to him and has entrusted to you for this purpose the word of reconciliation for them, exhort them as if God were exhorting them through you, for you have been destined to cultivate these young plants by announcing to them the truths of the Gospel and to procure for them the means of salvation appropriate to their development.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we are your children, yet we often do not realize what this means. We are your creation, yet we refuse to live as one. We are your voices, yet we often choose to be silent in the face of injustice. We are your hands, yet we do not touch those in need. Forgive us for placing so many things ahead of you and pretending that we do not know who you are and who you made us to be. May we turn away from our sinfulness and welcome you into our hearts, always aware of your presence in one another and seeking only to do your will. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts forever.