Monday of the First Week of Advent

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 50 Those Working at a Distance or Traveling
Mass: Is 4:2-6; Resp Ps 122; Mt 8:5-11

Because of the house of the Lord, our God, I will pray for your good.

COME, O LORD, VISIT US IN PEACE, THAT WE MAY REJOICE BEFORE YOU WITH A BLAMELESS HEART.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass) 

I find a connection between the centurion in today's Gospel and something the Holy Father said today to young Catholic business professionals from France gathered in Rome for a conference, "Journey for the Common Good." It is about simply having faith in God. The centurion believed that the Lord would heal his servant. He approached the Lord with a humble simplicity, knowing he was not worthy to receive the Lord. Still, the centurion believed. 

This is what Pope Francis said to the professionals: "Simplicity allows us to stop and taste the little things, to give thanks to the possibilities that life offers without attaching ourselves to what we have or saddening ourselves with what we do not have." Can we go so unencumbered to the Lord and be open to the Divine Healer's gentle touch? Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

Since the first coming brought grace and the last will bring glory, this one indeed partakes both of grace and of glory; for in it, through the consolation of grace, we are given a foretaste of future glory.

(Guerric of Igny)

© Gertrude Feick 2019