Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For migrants and refugees arriving in the communities this District serves, that they be met with welcome rather than suspicion.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 6:43-49
Jesus said to his disciples: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
From the Seventh Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
Without comparing yourself to this great saint (and keeping in mind the due proportion between your work and his), you can say that you are doing the same thing, and that you are fulfilling the same ministry in your profession. You must, then, look upon your work as one of the most important and most necessary services in the Church, one which has been entrusted to you by pastors, by fathers and mothers. This means that you are called to lay the foundation for the building of the Church when you instruct children in the mystery of the most Holy Trinity and the mysteries accomplished by Jesus Christ when he was on earth.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son distinguished between the house dug deep and the one set on the surface. Both looked the same until the water came. Give us patience for foundations, which no one sees and no one praises. Let what we build in these children hold when it is tested. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.