Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For students returning to Lasallian schools this week, that they find in their classrooms teachers who know their names and expect good things of them.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 4:31-37
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.
From the Third Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
Since you are ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ in the work that you do, you must act as representing Jesus Christ himself. He wants your disciples to see him in you and receive your instructions as if he were giving them to them. They must be convinced that your instructions are the truth of Jesus Christ who speaks with your mouth, that it is only in his name that you teach, and that it is he who has given you authority over them.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son spoke with an authority that did not need to raise its voice, and what was destroying a man let go of him. Teach us to speak in ways that free people rather than bind them. Guard our classrooms and our conversations from words that shame. Where something has taken hold in us and will not loosen, command it out. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.