Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love" Concludes

Last day of the 10th World Meeting of Families "Family Love: A Vocation and Path to Holiness"

In other years: Blessed Mary Josephine Catanea (1894-1948)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 19 The Discipline of the Psalmody

Mass: 1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21; Resp Ps 16; Gal 5:1, 13-18; Lk 9:51-62

With Him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Follow me.

(Lk 9:59)

An anonymous "someone" in today's Gospel says to Jesus: "I will follow you wherever you go" (Lk 9: 57). May that someone be each one of us. And may we really mean it. Otherwise, as Jesus said: No one sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God (Lk 9:62). Heart of Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, have mercy on us. Help us to live by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) and follow You wherever You go, resolutely.

Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 48)

Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ Himself sent me as apostle and witness ...

I never cease to speak of Christ for He is our truth and our light; He is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother ...

Remember: [it] is Jesus Christ I preach day in and day out. His name I will see echo and reecho for all time even to the ends of the earth.

(From a homily by Pope Paul VI in Office of Readings, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

When one follows, the way cannot be lonely. despite its dangers and uncertainties. When one follows, at least two are involved. What is demanded of the disciple is not brilliance, moral perfection, or knowledge of the way, but fidelity and courage.

(Erasmo Leiva Merikakis in Fire of Mercy: Heart of the Word: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew)

We must be disciples of Jesus in earnest, with real determination and not, -as an elderly lady I knew used to say-"rosewater Christians". No, no, no! [We must be] serious Christians.

(Pope Francis, Angelus Address, June 26, 2022)

BLESSED MARY JOSEPHINE CATANEA,

PRAY FOR US. 

Today's photo: Keep me, O God, for I take refuge in You.

© Gertrude Feick 2022