Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For a greater respect for human life, particularly for the unborn and for those living with disabilities, so that we will open our hearts to the sacredness of all life in all of its expressions.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
From the Fourth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
In carrying out your service to children, you will not fulfill your ministry adequately if you resemble Jesus Christ only in his guidance and conversion of souls. You must also enter into his purposes and goals. He came on earth, as he said, only that people might have life and have it to the full. This is why he said, in another place, that his words are spirit and life. By this he meant that his words procure the true life, which is the life of the soul, for those who hear them and who, with gladness over what they have heard, act on them with love.
This must be your goal when you instruct your disciples, that they live a Christian life and that your words become spirit and life for them. Your words will accomplish this because 1) they will be produced by the Spirit of God living in you, and 2) they will procure the Christian spirit for your disciples.
In possessing this spirit, which is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, they will live that true life which is so valuable to us because it leads surely to eternal life.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we pray to you to help us in our moments of unbelief, when we are distracted by the seductiveness of our world, by all the voices telling us to go this way or that and confusing us about the truth. Take from us our blindness. Help us to see as you see and to love as you love. Teach us to do your will, to follow your ways, and to be signs of your presence to all, especially to those who are most in need. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.