Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For parents sending children back to school this week, especially those doing it alone or on a tight budget, that they have what they need and are not made to feel judged for what they do not.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 23:23-26
Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”
From the Fourteenth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
What you say and do need not be as great a concern in the account you will have to render to God as the intention and the manner of these actions. For the faults of speaking and acting are usually more tangible and come more readily to your mind.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son named the trade we make when we are scrupulous about small things and careless about judgment, mercy and fidelity. Show us where we have been meticulous about the wrong things. Turn our attention to the inside of the cup. Let what is visible in our work be an accurate report of what is underneath it. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.