Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For the gifts of integrity, dedication, and compassion for all who serve as educators, formators, and caretakers of the young.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 10:1-12
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”
From the Sixteenth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
The holy King David says that he will be filled with gladness when God will grant him the grace to see him and to enjoy the glory of heaven. For the sight of God fills all the powers of a person’s soul in such a way that all consciousness of self is lost, so to speak. The person is entirely present within the divinity and totally penetrated with God. This is the happiness that will be possessed in heaven by those who have procured the salvation of souls, who have done this in a way that has been useful to the good of the Church, who have by their care restored the robe of innocence to a great number of their disciples, who might have lost it through sin, and who have helped preserve the innocence of many others who have never lost it.
Prayer
Eternal Father, in doing the daily work of our lives, we often forget that we are called to also make of it your work, to bring to it the faith and vision that will help to build your Kingdom. We pray that you will continue to break into our lives and reveal to us the needs of our world, and that we might accept the wisdom and summon the courage to be instruments of your truth. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.