17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Genesis 18: 20-32
2. Psalms 138: 1-2,2-3,6-7, 7-8
3. Colossians 2: 12-14
4. Luke 11: 1-13

• Knowing your place in the world
• We used to say "that's decided way above my pay grade" as a way to tell others that whatever they were asking about was not our choice, that we were there to implement, not set direction, and that it was pointless to take issue with the direction.
• When you pray, is it a conversation?
• Some folks in authority reject any attempts on the part of those under them to question their authority, question their decisions.  What about God?
• Do you think that God punishes those who are audacious enough to ask Him the tough questions?
• What makes you say that?

• God's answers to prayer
• Sometimes you can hear someone say to another "you are an answer to prayer."
• Who are some of the people in your life who are an answer to your prayers?
• What were you praying for when they came into your life?
• How did their presence in your life bring you closer to God?
• Who might you be an answer to prayer for?

• Daily baptism
• No one gets baptized a second time, even if it looks as though the first one didn't "take".
• How do you find yourself renewing your baptismal vows?
• One family that I know used to light their baptismal candle on the anniversary of their baptism, and say a short prayer together as a way to remember their baptism.  How else might you do the same?
• How is it that our celebration of our baptism changes through the years?
• How does it stay the same?

• Help me be hospitable
• Hospitality is serious business in many parts of the world, to the extent that folks in those cultures regard hospitality as an essential part of their nature.  I'm sure that most folks try to be ready for the unexpected visitor as much as they can.
• The example of prayer that Jesus gives us is that of a man who needs help to be hospitable, who needs help to be faithful to his very nature, who needs help to fulfill an element of God's call in his life.
• When you pray, how do you know what to pray for?  At bottom, do you pray for success, appreciation, guidance, consolation ...?  And behind those things, what really lies at the bottom of your prayer life?
• What do you think is the driver when Jesus prays, His ultimate motivation?
• In general, what do you think is the ultimate goal of prayer itself?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Do I trust God enough to be honest with Him?
2. How am I answering someone's prayer today?
3. How does my baptism inform and illumine my life today?
4. How does the rest of my life sustain my prayer life?

An Answer to Prayer

I have found, late in life, that humility is the hardest virtue of all.
Hard to learn, even harder to continue in, harder still to see the need for it.
Humility runs against some of our deepest instincts.

I had heard to be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
And yet I prayed for humility, because I see so much of it in Jesus,
I see humility walking among God's people in His servants.

My answer came to me in a gaggle of nuns one day.
I was privileged to go to Mass at Little Sisters of the Poor
Among God's aged children and the nuns helping them.

And I saw those sisters gently, patiently, helping their charges
In to the chapel for Mass, in all their glory.
Wheelchairs, walkers, braces, oxygen bottles, water bottles and all.

No matter how slow their patients move
No matter how feeble their arms and legs
Those nuns saw straight through to the beautiful soul in each one.

And celebrated the Christ at the heart of each pair of shuffling feet
Each palsied pair of hands
The eyes dimmed by age.

These servants of God didn't look for thanks, or acclaim, or appreciation.
What they sought after was closeness and meaning
As they poured out their lives, one day at a time.

Never asking where else they might be instead,
Never fearing for what they were missing,
Always knowing that they were right where they belonged.

Shalom!