18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
2. Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
3. Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11
4. Luke 12: 13-21

• Let it go

• We've all said to ourselves "if I knew then what I know now, ...".  When were some times that you would have done things differently, or done different things, had you known how it was all going to turn out in the end?
• How do you really know if/whether something that you put your time and energy into is a waste of time?
• Do you think that we are always going to know the full extent of the impact of our actions and words?

• Counting the days - Philip James Bailey perhaps says it best:

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life’s but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.

• By what yardstick do you measure your accomplishments in this life, by what means do you judge yourself?
• What makes for a successful existence in your view of life?

• So what's so bad about passion

• What are some things that you are decidedly passionate about?
• Where do you think that those passions came from?
• Do you think that God can use those passions to guide us?

• One man's riches are another man's rags

• Do you consider yourself rich in one way or another?
• To what degree do you think that you can share those riches with others?
• Would those riches be diminished, or multiplied in the sharing?
• Do you think that, at some level, God calls each of us to be rich in the same way, or is it the case that we each have a different destiny, and different path that defines us?
• Does that have to be an either/or?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to let go of the outcomes of my life?
2. Even though I may have dedicated my life to God, am I still listening for that still small voice?
3. Have I listened to my passions lately?
4. Am I willing to simplify my life to get closer to God?

At Your Service

I'm told that Itzhak Perlman, the great violinist, lives a simple life.
Each day he gets up pretty much at the same time.
Has a light breakfast.
Gets some exercise.
Then settles in for a day of practice.

Everything is at the service of his art, his craft, his destiny.
When contemplating whether to go with the cheesecake or the cobbler,
His first question is "how will this make me a better violinist?"
He exercises because he knows that his craft is best served by a fit body.
And he knows that the world is a better place because he practices.

Call it what you will, your life lodestone, your muse, Dharma or destiny,
Each of us has a center, a genius, a calling.
It is better to fail colossally at our own calling
Than to succeed miserably at someone else's.
The cardinal virtue then becomes integrity to that calling.

As a practicing Catholic, just what is it that you practice?
Are any of us better at living today than we were twenty years ago?
Today, as we arise, do we meet life with twenty more years of experience?
Or one year of experience repeated twenty times?
Were we to meet ourselves from twenty years ago, would they be excited or disappointed?

Shalom!