10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. 1 Kings 17: 17-24
2. Psalm 30: 2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
3. Galatians 1: 11-19
4. Luke 7:11-17

1. Putting it all on the line
• If you read the first part of 1 Kings 17, you see that Elijah had announced a drought on the land, and had gone to a widow in Zarephath to live during the drought.  God had provided their food and water needs miraculously up until the time of today's reading.
• What do you think that God's long term goals are for your life?
• How do you think that He is accomplishing that in the near term?
• How much of God's plan do you need before you feel comfortable trusting God with your life?
• What can you honestly say that you're certain of about God's direction for your life, given your experience so far?
• Are you scared yet?
2. Count your blessings
• We probably all can relate to a definition of God's grace as "the unmerited outpouring of God's love on each of us and all of us."  But how do you break that down?
• What expressions of God's grace have come your way lately?
• What are the graces of God at work in your life, day in, and day out?
• What are some of the things about you that truly define you, that you can thank God for?
• How are those graces transforming you today?
3. Position of authority
• What would you think of someone who didn't have the time to read anything, but who wrote prolifically?
• Do you think that each of us is called to greatness in one measure or another?
• What role do you think prayer plays in the lives of such folks as Dorothy Day, Pope Francis, Mother Theresa, Richard Rohr, or any other prophet of our day?
• What is keeping you from greatness?
4. Healing touch
• One thing that strikes me about Jesus is that He's never late for an engagement, and the Gospels never mention Him consulting his pocket watch.  After all, this was a long time back, I'm certainly not silly enough to think He'd have a cell phone.
• How do you think that Jesus always managed to be at the right place at the right time?
• How much advance warning do you think that He had that his day was going to include things like raising someone from the dead?
• How can we be more in tune with the Spirit's guidance?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to serve God, even if there's no guarantee what the immediate outcome will be?
2. How is God making a better person of me, stretching me, helping me grow?
3. What am I doing this week to achieve the greatness that God has in mind for me?
4. How am I learning generosity toward others?

At this rate I'll never get there in time

Artaban is reputed to have been the fourth wise man to set out long ago to greet his savior.
Packing his treasures, he set forth, but never seemed to have things go according to plan.

One after another, needs crossed his path, empathy moved him, and gradually he gave away
All that he had, in both time and possessions, helping others who needed him.

He missed Jesus in Bethlehem because the Holy family had fled to Egypt.
He tries to follow Jesus to Egypt and never catches up to him.

Finally, all but spent, poor Artaban finds Jesus, on the cross,
Both their pilgrimages at an end.

Artaban bitterly disappointed that he's not been able to give the Savior of his treasures,
Until he realizes that's exactly what he has spent the past 33 years doing.

It's often who we are, how we give, whom we heal along the way,
That defines us, makes us whole, shows Jesus to the world.

Goals and objectives, timetables and schedules are all very fine as a starting place,
But the true pilgrimage of our days is often written by a hand other than ours.

Shalom!