7 October 2026 - teach us to pray

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

It is noteworthy that it was the way Jesus himself prayed, and also what they knew about the prayer of John the Baptist, that inspired them to ask Jesus to teach them to pray. It was clear that there was a reality to the spiritual conversation Jesus and John were having with God that did not necessarily characterize prayer as it was commonly practiced. For Jesus, prayer was personal, intimate, and effective. It was not rote or routine. If, for us, the Our Father has become a set formula, it is precisely because it is a crystallization of the wisdom we have from Jesus about prayer. In a way it is unsurpassable, something which our own words can never replace. But of course it is not meant to compete with our dynamic spontaneous prayer. It is meant to be the source, the mountaintop stream that flows down into all other forms of prayer. It can be so for us if we prayer it with attention and understanding. Of course, it is a given that when we pray it so often there will be lapses in our attention. But as long as we manage to pay attention sometimes we can know that it will bring a virtual intentionality to what we do habitually. Our wills won't be as engaged directly or effectively. But it won't be nothing either.

Father, hallowed be your name

Jesus taught us to call God Father. Previously in the history of Israel it was common to think of God as the Father of the nation. But Jesus understood this relationship in a uniquely personal way and invited his disciples, including us, to share in that relationship. Thus the posture with which we begin prayer is one of childlike receptive trust. This is contrasts with the anxious uncertain doubtfulness with which we often actually begin. It is important to have the right starting place because beginning with doubt and desperation is not going to bear fruit.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (see James 1:6-8).

We ask for God's name to be hallowed, in our hearts, as reflected in how we live, and in the wider world. We don't ask to hallow it ourselves, but that God himself will do what is necessary. We can't really affect the holiness of God's name. He is unimpeachable. Even in our own hearts we lack the power realize what we are asking him to reveal. In our lives we need his grace to live based on that revelation. And it is clear the world cannot change without his help. But we desperately need to recognize the holiness of God at all of these levels. Otherwise we will treat him as something other and less than God. If we do that there is really no hope for things going well, since they will be at odds with their origin and purpose. His holiness, his otherness, prevents us from taking him too lightly or assuming that we don't really need him after all. And we really do need him if we hope to see anything like the coming of his Kingdom in our midst.

your Kingdom come.

Jesus taught us to seek first the Kingdom, which is, in one way, anywhere he himself is present and reigning in peoples' hearts. Wherever love and mercy prevail the Kingdom is present and active. If Jesus is the King of the Kingdom than there are nothing better than his own words, the words of the Word himself, to bring it to bear among us. When  we seek first the Kingdom we receive all else besides. This is why we go on to trust in God for our daily bread.

Give us each day our daily bread

We must trust God for our daily bread because otherwise we will be at risk when the devil tempts us to obtain it by other unholy means. When we rely on God we recognize the priority of the hidden bread of God's word and of the daily manna of the Eucharist even above and beyond our physical needs. This allows us to receive the provisions from God in proportion to our needs as embodied spiritual creatures, addressing us at every level of our being. Without remembering the meaning of this petition we tend to get the proportions wrong.

and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

We forgive debts because the coming of Jesus marks the year of the true Jubilee when all debts must be remitted. This is not merely an obligation, but the necessary prerequisite for the celebration Jesus intends for us. He came so we need no longer be trapped in sin ourselves and insists that we afford the same grace to others.

and do not subject us to the final test.

As we continue our pilgrimage toward the fullness of the Kingdom we recognize our own weakness and dependence. If God permits a test to overwhelm us, well, it will do so. The reason we stand, if we stand, is because we remember and rely on the grace he never ceases to offer. The alternative is to overestimate ourselves and try to pass such tests without help. But that is a recipe for disaster. Let us return to the beginning of the prayer, to our childlike trust in God our Father, and live from that place of peace and protection.

Praise the LORD, all you nations,
glorify him, all you peoples!

 

 

Matt Maher - As It Is In Heaven

 

6 October 2026 - only one thing

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 

The story of Mary and Martha isn't an excuse for laziness or a reason for us to avoid hospitality. The work Martha did was important. But the way she related to it in her spirit was problematic. The thorns of worldly anxieties crowded the seed of the word of God and fought with it for her attention. Not that the work of hospitality and welcome didn't need to be done. They did. But for her they were so all consuming that had the potential to become disruptive and undermine the good they were meant to enable. Insofar as her actual actions went, did she actually do anything wrong? It is unclear if she could have also sat at the feet of Jesus before beginning her work of serving without in some way failing to meet her obligations. Perhaps she too could have first come to Jesus and only then proceeded with her work. This seems to be the desirable sequence when it is possible. But where things became more obviously problematic for Martha was when she began to compare and complain. She compared her level of effort and engagement with the apparently lazy Mary who seemed to be shirking in her own obligation to be hospitable to guests in their home. Martha disrupted the whole moment of those receiving teaching from Jesus to protest about how this was unfair.

The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

Martha no doubt wanted to reply that there were some other things that were also important, things that they would miss if she ignored them. But Jesus hadn't actually said that she ought not do anything that she had done. Mary had chosen the good not so much because she was not presently doing housework but because her heart was centered on Jesus. It was impossible for a heart like that to have its reward taken from it by the thorns of worldly anxiety. But Martha's heart was not fixed on the one for whom she ostensibly worked so hard. It was fixed on the things themselves. It seems to us that if she had simply done these with a different perspective and state of mind it would not have experienced service as a burden but as a privilege. She would have realized that at some times people sit at the feet of Jesus and at other times people are active in service. But it wasn't her job to figure out who should do what when. If her own relationship to her service felt less like a burden she would not have even thought to try to take the moment Mary was experiencing away from her.

We tend to fight for Martha because we similarly recognize the necessity of our work. But if we always insist on our own actions as the absolute priority we will never make time to come to Jesus and receive. When he is not the center we have no center. We are pulled from this to that to the other thing with ballistic violence. It is like this with all of our resources, whether time, talent, or treasure. If we use our treasure to do good things like feed the poor we may never support our local church community. Jesus doesn't demand all that we have. He just demands the best and the first of what we have, which in turn sanctifies our other offerings.

It is not for us to judge Mary's decision, especially since Jesus did not judge it. But her moment with Jesus does not give us a free pass to avoid jobs we dislike or would prefer to avoid. She instead reminds us that we will do such things better, with a better spiritual and even emotional disposition, when Jesus is central and first. When we seek first the Kingdom, which in a real way is Jesus himself, we get everything else as well for the bargain.

 

 

Jesus Culture - One Thing Remains

 

5 October 2026 - who is my neighbor?

 

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 
“And who is my neighbor?”

The man knew what needed to be done, what was required of him by the law. He probably hoped to hear a narrow definition of neighbor, one that would allow him to say that he had been discharging his moral obligation toward those included faithfully. But we imagine that even he himself suspected that more was required. He was, to some degree, aware of what his attempts to justify himself had produced in his life thus far. If he looked at the state of his own heart and inquired about whether it was fit to dwell eternally in the presence of the all holy God he could not help but be aware on some level that something was lacking. The scope of his own ability to love and show mercy to his neighbor was limited to situations that were convenient and those to whom he had a naturally predisposed sympathy. This isn't that unusual or horrific. We too often place limits on the mercy we will show. We try to justify ourselves and insist that we are doing our best on a human level. But we can't shake this nagging awareness that we need greater purification if we are to become capable of living and enjoying eternal life with God. So, with this scholar of the law, we can bring our attempts at self-justification before Jesus so that he himself can unravel them and set us right.

A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Insofar as we fail to show mercy to others we are the priest and the Levite in this story. But we are also the wounded man, stripped and beaten by sin, spiritually half-dead and unable to rise. People representing the other solutions of religion, philosophy, and ideology, that exist in the world notice our predicament, but go out of their way to avoid us since they have nothing to offer, and risk tarnishing the reputations by even making the attempt. Fortunately Jesus comes to us, like the Samaritan, as an unexpected outsider, and is moved with compassion at the sight. He is not overwhelmed by the intractability of what he sees because his limitless compassion gives him the power to do all he needs to do to heal us. He uses the oil and wine of the sacraments and delivers us to the inn of his Church for ongoing care. His two natures of humanity and divinity are the silver coins that are more than enough to purchase all the grace we need for us to recover and thrive.

Importantly, we are not merely healed to the level of the priest and the Levite and others who believe they have more important things to do than mercy. The mercy Jesus shows us is precisely to rehabilitate and restore our own ability to show mercy. We can begin our encounter trying to justify ourselves like the scholar of the law. But Jesus does not desire to leave us in the rigid confines of a narrow and self-serving definition of mercy. Others, who could not address the diseased nature of the human heart, had no choice but to pass by. Only Jesus is capable of addressing the root of the problem. Only he sees clearly to do it. And does and will do so for all who are willing. Strengthened by the grace we receive we become more free to live in accord with our purpose. This was the secret that allowed Paul to say:

Am I now currying favor with human beings or God?
Or am I seeking to please people?
If I were still trying to please people,
I would not be a slave of Christ.

People pleasers pass by on the other side of the road. But we who have been healed by Christ and not free to do so. And hopefully, we don't want to. The Lord has never and could never forget us. Let us try to learn to love our own neighbors as he himself has demonstrated.

The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.

 

Maranatha! Music - Here I Am To Worship

 

4 October 2026 - vineyard crimes

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

  

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.

The landowner showed marvelous care for his vineyard by how he provided for it. Yet he did entrust it to tenants, people who were meant to share his concern for it that he had, but who did not do so. The fact that the landowner himself was not present during the seasons of growth and preparation led the religious leadership, the tenants to begin to treat the vineyard as that it belonged to them rather than to another. It probably also made those normal people who were meant to be under the care of the tenants to feel abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. One might be tempted to assume that the landowner did not in fact care that much. If he had, could he not have stayed and overseen the vinting himself? Yet we cannot conclude that he did not care, for a landowner that did not care would never have taken the step of sending his only son. He probably wouldn't even have taken the step of sending a second or third round of messengers. But this landowner clearly cared about the tenants themselves and not only the produce. God cared about the people he had put in charge. They were not merely set up to fail. To mix metaphor's, God also valued those shepherds who were failing at their job of being shepherds, and not only the neglected sheep. He desired a world in which religious leadership would be able to be shepherds after his own heart (see Jeremiah 3:15) who truly cared for the sheep. Thus his plan was not to reverse his previous decision and take things over directly in a purely unmediated fashion. His plan was to establish leadership built on the new foundation of Jesus himself, the stone which the builders rejected.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

The tenants who were selected first were imprisoned by their own egocentric desires. They tacitly acknowledged that the vineyard of Israel belonged to the Lord. But they lived as though this were not the case. They chose to cling to God's benefits while forgetting about tho one who gave them. There was a real way that they could not help but do so, since, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (see Romans 8:8). Jesus was offered to them as a new and solid foundation on which they could be built as living stones and thereby becoming pleasing to God. Only on that edifice could they arise as a new temple capable of offerings pleasing to the Lord, the harvest meant for him. But many of them preferred their own self-interest to the benevolent plan of God. 

 

Since it was insufficient to merely keep asking the old entrenched and self-interested leadership to change, God deemed that something more seismic was necessary. He would lease the vineyard to the new tenants of in his Church, herself built on Jesus himself as her one foundation. It would not always and absolutely be the case even in that environment that the tenants would always be found faithful. But it was the case that it was the only foundation were true faithful was even possible. Not only that, but the graces that were available in the age of the Church were actually capable of changing hearts. The Spirit himself was the chief agent who would bear fruit in this new reality. 

Why not simply skip the step of the vineyard that God must have known was ultimately doomed to fail? As a partial answer we may say that he wanted us to see that we can't make it work on our own. It wasn't that the structure was wrong. It wasn't even that the execution was wrong. It was that the foundation had to be something more stable than our flesh, our selfishness, and our sinful tendencies. If we did not see this clearly we would always risk trying to take matters back into our own hands. And even still, we sometimes try to take matters back into our own hands. But at least now there are precautions in place to help us remember to avoid such temptations. For instance, we sometimes try to take God's role upon ourselves because of our anxiety, and our resulting need to feel like we are in control. But built into the fabric of the new foundation we have in Christ Jesus are the Scriptures, including the command of Saint Paul to the Philippians.

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Insofar as we are tenants, let us remember that the fruit belongs to God. Insofar as we are grapes, let us be turned into the wine of joy in the vineyard of his Church. Insofar as we are stones, let us be built upon Jesus as our one foundation. When we are tempted to take things into our own hands let us remember that we are meant to give everything, not just our fruits, but even our worries, to God. He, in turn, will give us all we need.

 

Shane And Shane - Psalm 23 (Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy)

 

 

 

3 October 2026 - lightning crashes

 

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

“Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”
Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.

Jesus could see the end of the war even while the disciples were still fighting the battles. For their part, they rejoiced because of victories in individual skirmishes against the powers of darkness. But Jesus explained that those skirmishes were a part of his larger victory against Satan. So certain was the victory of the Kingdom of Jesus over the kingdom of darkness that he could assure the disciples of the power "'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy" and that nothing would harm them. But we have to realize that it wouldn't always look that way. Their would be times when the immediate successes did not seem to outweigh the failures, when their message was rejected more than it was accepted, when those to whom they ministered weren't open to healing and deliverance. It would be natural even for these seventy-two to have second thoughts as they faced martyrdom. Had the power that Jesus had given them over darkness only been imagined? Thus it was important to prioritize the fact that their names were written in the lamb's book of life rather than their resume of success against the demonic spirits. If they only rejoiced when the Gospel seemed to meet with success they would not be able to fully follow in the footsteps of their master. 

I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.

They had come as far as they had with Jesus thus far by being childlike. When they occasionally deviated into the realm of pride and ego Jesus had corrected them, and they received that the correction from him. Childlike trust in God's providence was how they successfully carried out the mission entrusted to them by Jesus, without money bag, sack, or sandals. It was by remaining small, trusting, and dependent, that they would be able to remain faithful to him in the future. It was only being small in that way that allowed them to be open to the full revelation of the identity of Jesus. As long as they were deeply rooted in the truth of that identity than it was a fact that the full force of the enemy could not harm them and their names remained written in the book of life. The risk was that they would try to become mature and independent and lose sight of the truth of who Jesus was. Then they would once again be at risk from Satan's power even to the extent that the promise of having their names in the book of life was no longer guaranteed. The only guarantee they had was their faith, their childlike trust in Jesus himself, the revealer of the Father, and the giver of the Spirit.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

The disciples needed to remember and treasure the memory of how privileged they were, and how great a gift they had been given, to be alive in the time of Jesus, and to be numbered among his followers. This was true even during the dark hour of the cross, because the cross was linked inexorably with the resurrection. It was not invalidated no matter how challenging were the circumstances that they would go on to face. Even if their call included sufferings greater than those of Job so too did the blessings of knowing Jesus outweigh Job's eventual reward.

Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job
more than his earlier ones.

 

Graham  Kendrick - For This Purpose

 

2 October 2026 - child protection

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

There are many ways in which we are called to become like children. Yet we know that children often seem imperfect to us in our actual experience. It isn't that children aren't occasionally competitive or that they don't want to be seen as the greatest. But even when they have such motivations the reason they want to be greatest is usually different from our own need to be first. We strive for the first place because we want to be seen as superior to others. We want our own worth and value to be unassailable and obvious, so we set it alongside that of others. We benefit when others are seen as weak or inferior. We don't always say it out loud or celebrate it but we take pleasure that we at least appear to be better than they. Children are competitive primarily to because they desire the attention and appreciation of the adults and friends in their lives. For us, competition to see who can please our heavenly Father the most is a slightly less degenerate form of competition. But it is far better when our efforts don't stem from a place of insecurity, better when we are motivated to please God, not because we think we have to in order to earn his favor, but in order to delight him. It is in this way that well adjusted children may still sometimes seek to win. They don't do so because it puts other people down, but because they assume that everyone will be thrilled and rejoice together with them. When they sometimes discover that they have hurt others along the way who didn't do as well they often go to great lengths to try to assuage their sadness. Greatness is the Kingdom is the truest version of success, one that does not require trampling over others to obtain. We can seek to be the best, not because of the anxious need to prove ourselves stemming from our self-doubt, but because we are confident in who we are as sons and daughters of the Father, confident that he delights to see us win. After all, victory in this game is his gift to us.

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (see John 16:33).

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (see First Corinthians 15:57).

And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (see First John 5:4).

As spiritual children we are meant to let go of our doubts and uncertainties and embrace are identity of children of the Most High. We can safely assume that because the Father loves us our success in the truest sense is all but assured. But since we are children and prone to make mistakes, even dangerous ones, he does not merely unleash us on the world without any help. He has sent angels to keep charge over each one of us, to help us to know his will and follow his way. They help to keep us safe when our good-natured confidence gets us in trouble or even when blameworthy choices or omissions put us at risk. They do this whether or not we thank them or acknowledge them. But they can do more for us if we pay attention. Rather than saving us from a near death accident on the highway imagine that they help us to avoid it in the first place. The closer we seek to be to our guardian angels the further we will be from harm. Let us celebrate these guides, these gifts of God's providential care.

For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways. 

 

 

David W Morris - Let Us Exult His Name

1 October 2026 - i know my redeemer lives

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.

When Jesus sends us out on mission the purpose of our work is to prepare the way for him to visit himself. It is not as though we look to ourselves to bring about the conversion and transformation of anyone. Rather we are sent out so that we can be used as agents of grace in the lives of people who might one day believe. This should lessen the pressure we face somewhat, but not entirely. The stakes are still high, and the possibility of ultimate refusal and rejection still exists. So what we hope to find in others is definitely not rejection, but not necessarily immediate success either. We hope to find open hearts that we can encourage to remain open.

Once we receive the call of the master of the harvest we might assume that our path would go from one success to another, and from strength to strength. But this is to ignore the warnings Jesus gave about the wolves that surround all efforts at spreading the Gospel message of light and life. It also ignores the fact that we are basically guaranteed that some towns will not receive us, that some amount of rejection is inevitable. In order to carry out our mission in a world that is hostile to our message our strategy should not be reliance on worldly resources or excessive preparation. One might think that if wolves are going to pursue us that is all the more reason we need to bring, not only money bag, sack, and sandals, but swords and shields as well. But rather than a strategy of self-reliance we are meant to learn to depend on providence, on the master of the harvest who has ordered our steps and arranged our paths. We look, not to our own stores of resources that we leave behind at home, but ahead, to the good works prepared and arranged for us in advance, that we find as we proceed in faith and obedience. 

‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.

As Christians we should not regard the gift of faith we have been given as trivial. The peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding is meant to guard our own hearts and minds (see Philippians 4:6-7). But it need not remain with us alone. It can transform that situations and circumstances into which we enter as disciples. Have we ever had the experience where we enter into a situation fraught with tension, but manage to remain peaceful and discover that, eventually, the atmosphere changes? This is the sort of thing people notice. This is what makes others ask what about us is different. It prepares the way for the one who is himself the giver of our peace, our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us remain in peace, not just for ourselves, but for the world, which is already thoroughly saturated with anxiety, anger, and outrage. Those are modern wolves that are indeed hostile to our message.  But they only have power over our peace if we let them. So let us treasure and protect this gift of peace, rooted in the reality described by Job, the message we want of which we want to convince the world:

But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see:
my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him

 

Little flower, pray for us! 

 

Vineyard Worship - My Redeemer Lives