Thursday, October 17, 2019
Good morning, St. John’s students, faculty, and staff. Let us pause in our day to pray. In today’s Gospel, Jesus chides the scholars of the law, and their response can only be described as mean-spirited; the text says “hostile … lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.” How often do we see this in the public sphere today? Someone speaks out about an issue, and news anchors or anonymous internet users overanalyze every aspect of the speaker’s life, questioning intentions, and seek to invalidate and dismiss the person. At the start of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius encourages others to be “more ready to put a good interpretation on another’s statement than to condemn it as false.” This can be a model for our interaction with others, especially those we don’t like being around.
(Pause)
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve You as You deserve;
To give, and not to count the cost;
To fight, and not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and not to seek for rest;
To labor, and not to ask for reward,
Save that of knowing that I do Your will.
Amen.
Thank you and have a joyful day.
