Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees

In other years: Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:10-18

Mass: Ezk 18:25-28; Resp Ps 25; Ph 2:1-11; Mt 21:28-32

Your ways, O Lord, make known to me, teach me your paths.

HEART OF JESUS, PATIENT AND FULL OF MERCY,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

We rejoice on this Sunday and sing with the psalmist: Lord, make known to me your way, teach me your paths, guide me in truth and teach me (Ps 25). We seek God, we want to be closer to Him, we want to follow His teaching. That said, with our shortcomings and failings, we distance ourselves from the Lord. We stumble, we fall, we get up and try again. Thankfully, Our God is patient and full of mercy. He longs for us as we long for Him. And He waits for us as Saint Benedict writes in the Prologue of the Holy Rule: "The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, His holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds. As the Apostle says: Do you know that the patience of God is leading you to repent (Rm 2:4)? And indeed the Lord assures us in His love: I do not want the death of a sinner, but that he turn back to me and live (Ezk 33:11). Let us pray for the grace to follow the Lord with humility of heart as we continue to sing with the psalmist: Good and upright is the Lord; thus He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble His way (Ps 25). So, immersed in Saint Benedict's chapter on humility, we climb the ladder of humility, now with the first step of humility: While we guard ourselves at every moment from sins and vices of thought or tongue, of hand or foot, of self-will or bodily desire, let us recall that we are always seen by God in heaven, that our actions everywhere are in God's sight and are reported by angels at every hour (RB 7:12). Thankfully, in the sight of Our God, ever patient, ever merciful, whose love endures forever. 

God asks us to convert, yet He is patient with us. He does not tire, He does not desist after our 'no'; He leaves us free even to distance ourselves from Him and to make mistakes. But He anxiously awaits our 'yes', so as to welcome us anew in His fatherly arms and to fill us with His boundless mercy.

(Pope Francis, Angelus Address, September 27, 2020)

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL,

PRAY FOR US.

© Gertrude Feick 2020