Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Intention: For persons living in places of crime and violence, that through the world’s efforts, safety and peace and new promise for their futures will come to them.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 21:33-43
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
From the First Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
You, then, whom God has called to this ministry, work according to the grace that has been given to you to instruct by teaching and to exhort by encouraging those who are entrusted to your care, guiding them with attention and vigilance in order to fulfill toward them the principal duty of fathers and mothers toward their children.
Prayer
Eternal Father, each day we are faced with the challenge of how best to live together. In these times when so much license is being given to indulging ignorance and creating division, help us to do our best to grow in integrity and to live in harmony. Strengthen our desire to be charitable and forgiving toward other, remembering with humility our own shortcomings and sinfulness. We pray that we will be faithful and loving toward each other, lifting one another to wholeness. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.