The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, priest, religious
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ezra 9:5-9
Tobit 13:2, 3-4a, 4befghn, 7-8
Luke 9:1-6
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
In the First Reading, and indeed every time we read Sacred Scriptures, we have the opportunity to meditate on God's Word and to strike up a loving conversation with Him about what kind of thoughts and responses the words evoke.
Today, for me, it is to realize that my many sinful ways have towered so high above my head that like Ezra, I hardly dare lift my eyes to heaven. Yet, I do lift my eyes and in spite of my guilt, call on the name of the Lord. I acknowledge the error of my ways and know with a knowing that defies reason that I am forgiven.
This is what meditation on Holy Scripture is like. It is finding a phrase or word, a concept or image that engages our intellect, musing on it and then striking up that "loving conversation with Him, who we know, loves us." (St. Teresa of Jesus' definition of payer)
In today's case it is saying, "I'm sorry," and telling God, "how I wish I had never sinned. "It is begging for forgiveness and asking for His help; to live in reparation for past sins and to do what is possible for my salvation and that of others.
God, for His part, responds, and through His Word He enters into the dialogue -- reassuring, comforting, strengthening.
Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, priest, religious
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ezra 9:5-9
Tobit 13:2, 3-4a, 4befghn, 7-8
Luke 9:1-6
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
In the First Reading, and indeed every time we read Sacred Scriptures, we have the opportunity to meditate on God's Word and to strike up a loving conversation with Him about what kind of thoughts and responses the words evoke.
Today, for me, it is to realize that my many sinful ways have towered so high above my head that like Ezra, I hardly dare lift my eyes to heaven. Yet, I do lift my eyes and in spite of my guilt, call on the name of the Lord. I acknowledge the error of my ways and know with a knowing that defies reason that I am forgiven.
This is what meditation on Holy Scripture is like. It is finding a phrase or word, a concept or image that engages our intellect, musing on it and then striking up that "loving conversation with Him, who we know, loves us." (St. Teresa of Jesus' definition of payer)
In today's case it is saying, "I'm sorry," and telling God, "how I wish I had never sinned. "It is begging for forgiveness and asking for His help; to live in reparation for past sins and to do what is possible for my salvation and that of others.
God, for His part, responds, and through His Word He enters into the dialogue -- reassuring, comforting, strengthening.
Thus our God has brightened our eyes and has given us relief in our servitude. For slaves we are, but in our servitude, our God has not abandoned us.
(Ezra 9:8)
~ Donna Raye Nelson, OCDS
