Memorial of Saint Scholastica, Virgin
Intention: For all caregivers in this time of pandemic, that they may be blessed with strength, resilience, and confidence as they continue in their ministry of healing and hope for all those that they serve.
Today’s Gospel | Mark 7:14-23
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
From the Eleventh Meditation for the Time of Retreat | St. John Baptist de La Salle
One of the characteristics and one of the effects of the zeal people have for the well-being and salvation of souls is to reprove and correct those in their care when they fall into some fault.
You too must reprove and correct your disciples when they commit some fault, the more so because it is typical of children often to make mistakes by doing many things without thinking. The reproofs and corrections give them time to reflect on what they have to do and cause them to watch over themselves in order not to keep making the same mistakes. Be exact, then, not to allow considerable faults in them without providing this remedy for them.
Prayer
Eternal Father, each day we must choose whether or not to live our lives with faith and integrity. Fill us today with the determination to turn away from pride and self-deceit, and instead act with the compassion to see without judgment the needs of others. Help us to acknowledge and mend those faults that are within ourselves and to serve you by helping to heal the brokenness in our world. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.