Our readings for 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
- Genesis 18: 1-10a
- Psalms 15: 2-3, 3-4, 5
- Colossians 1: 24-28
- Luke 10: 38-42
- A receptive heart
- I don't know about you, but I prefer to have a clear plan for how I'm going to spend my time. I don't know that plans are bad, but I'm beginning to think that getting too attached to a plan leaves me less open, less sensitive, to God's presence and guidance in my life. I would probably have been a little annoyed that someone would approach my camp in the heat of the day, when things typically slow down for a bit.
- When have you been "in the moment" with God? Maybe you had a perfectly fine Confirmation lesson planned, but when you got to class, something totally new, and even better came to mind and you went with it.
- Or maybe you had an "interruption" crop up unexpectedly but you felt led to let that into your schedule anyway, and it turned out to be a real blessing.
- How did you know to "go with the flow"?
- Were your original plans necessarily wrong?
- Why do you think this sort of thing happens to us?
- Redefining success
- It seems as though each generation of us have their own definition of success. My father once told me that at one time he thought that "making it" consisted of wife, two kids, brick house in the suburbs, a late-model Buick in the driveway, and a dog. Not necessarily in that order.
- How do you define success?
- Are you there yet?
- Is your notion of success in this life at all tied to your idea of success in heaven?
- How has your notion of success changed through the years?
- How might your notion of success continue to change?
- Fully mature in Christ
- Maturity doesn't come easily or quickly. I am beginning to suspect that maturity gradually blossoms in each of us at a different rate. Even if we could measure a person's maturity, such a measurement would have little value and less meaning.
- Do you feel that you are more mature today than you were, say, ten years ago?
- What makes you say that?
- How have you achieved that maturity?
- Was any of that intentional?
- Shifting priorities
- Some years back I chaperoned a Confirmation retreat and I had a wonderful time. I realized that was the one place where I did not have to constantly wonder whether I was doing the most important thing for the moment. Life was simple. A rare experience for me.
- I don't think that Jesus felt that Martha's hospitality was a bad thing, I think that her resentment, and her priorities were what concerned him.
- How do you decide how to invest your time each day? Do you have a set schedule that you execute exactly the same each day, do you set goals for yourself of what you want to accomplish, do you set goals for your self of how much time you'll spend at each task, regardless of what you accomplish, ...?
- At the end of the day, how do you tell whether it's been a "good day" or not?
- How might you do that "end of day recap" in prayer?
- Preparation for Reconciliation
- How could you be a better listener to God's call in your life?
- What do you think are God's deepest desires for you?
- How are you partnering with God to grow in your maturity?
- Where has God led you to be generous that you might not have realized?
Apparitions in the heat
I love this time of day.
It's too hot to worry about the flocks.
Most of them are napping about this time.
Supper is hours away.
I love to take this time to review the day.
Ask myself whether I've been a good servant to our God.
Review the day and ask where God has touched me,
And where I accepted that touch.
Often, I surprise myself.
I find God in the strangest places in my life.
Beckoning, me deeper into His embrace.
Inviting me into His love in a new way.
Just when I was settling into meditation,
These three travelers appear out of nowhere.
On a journey when they should be resting.
Looking as though they could use some hospitality.
Quickly I arose, afraid that they would pass by in their haste.
Provided the necessities for them as best I could without warning.
And then we companioned together.
Easy and slow, each of us making time for the others.
I finally realized who they were -
When one of them repeated a promise to me that only God, Sarah and I knew.
A promise that seemed at once amazing and so generous.
Inviting me and Sarah into all of the joys and sorrows of parenthood.
You would think that a promise repeated is more believable.
But Sarah and I had given up hope of ever having a child of our own long ago.
Better to give up, and make peace with that.
Than keep hoping that for a miracle that will never happen.
I've come to see that those three travelers who visited that day -
Were not an interruption to my prayer.
I was able to meet them where they were, at that precise moment -
Because of my prayer in the heat of the day.
Sometimes God's promises just take time to arrive.
Sometimes my faith takes time to mature.
Sometimes miracles happen when you least expect them.
And there is no "sometimes" about God's mercy.
Shalom!
