Wednesday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

All the Saints of Ireland
All the Saints of Africa

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 30 The Correction of Young Children
Mass: Rm 13:8-10; Resp Ps 112; Lk 14:25-33

Well for the one who is gracious and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.

St Paul's words in his epistle to the Romans are clear: "Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law" (Rm 13:8).

To love God is to live of Him, for Him, for what He is and for what He does. And our God is donation without reservations. He is unlimited forgiveness; He is a relationship that promotes and makes one grow. Therefore, to love God means to invest one's energies every day to be His collaborators in serving neighbor without reservations, in seeking to forgive unlimitedly and in cultivating relationships of communion and fraternity.

(Pope Francis, from a 2018 Angelus Address)

The love of which St Paul and Pope Francis speak does not come without crosses. Yet we know that is our call: Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. We pray this day with William of St Thierry (1075/1085-1148), Benedictine abbot of St Thierry, theologian, mystic, later a Cistercian monk: Teach me the language you speak, O God and make me understand those little signs, by which you give understanding hearts to know what is your will.

The Pope's Prayer Intention for November 2019:

In the Middle East, concord and dialogue among three monotheistic religions is based on spiritual and historical bonds.

The Good News of Jesus, risen out of love, came to us from these lands.

Today, many Christian communities, together with Jewish and Muslim communities work here for peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

Let us pray that a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Middle East.

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND, ALL THE SAINTS OF AFRICA,

PRAY FOR US.

© Gertrude Feick 2019