8 November 2026 - preppers

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Is it a problem to conclude a parable where everyone fell asleep by summarizing the lesson with a command to stay awake? Not really, since what mattered to Jesus was not that the virgins kept their eyes open until the bridegroom came, but rather that they remained spiritually aware, alert, and awake. Because five of them did this they were ready to meet the bridegroom when he came. The five of them who failed to manifest this spiritual attention where not prepared. The wisdom that aided the five who were prepared was a vision of the bigger picture. They didn't get lost in the moment but saw their whole lives in the context of being ready for the coming of the bridegroom. This wisdom led them to ask what if questions that helped them to take practical steps in the face of possible challenges. It occurred that they might need a surplus of oil just in case. 

The five foolish virgins naively assumed they could make do without any extra. It is as though they hoped that their condition was good enough, while the wise five recognized that the coming of the Lord might require more from them if they were to give him a fitting reception. The wisdom of the five wise virgins allowed them to be prepared even in spite of natural human weakness, whereas natural human weakness become the final straw that prevented the necessary preparation for those who were foolish. The problem wasn't their human weakness in itself. It was their lack of awareness and failure to take it into account that was their undoing. It was as if the foolish virgins didn't realize they were the sort of people who could fall asleep, but believed they could be ready for anything at a moments notice. But the wise virgins knew the limits of their own abilities and so took appropriate precautions to be ready even if weakness overtook them.

The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. 

It has been said that our lamps are our faith and the oil makes that faith visible through good works. Jesus wants to find us faithful at his coming. But perhaps there is a way in which keeping our lamps alight goes even further in making us recognizable to him when he does. If the light is the result of faith working in love then it illumines both our own face and that of our neighbor, revealing the presence of Jesus in us both. Therefore, when we serve the lowest and the least of his brethren, in whom Jesus himself his present, he comes more and more to recognize our face. He takes our gestures as done not only for our neighbors but for him. And so we become unforgettable to him, by virtue of our response to the grace of his call.

When we have wisdom like the wise virgins we can have peace even amidst the hardest times in our lives. We may grieve, but not "like the rest, who have no hope". Instead, we see the big picture recognizing that "God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep".

We are reminded that it isn't really so much that we are chasing this wisdom so much as that it, or she, is chasing us.

because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her,
and graciously appears to them in the ways,
and meets them with all solicitude.

Ike Ndolo - Awake, O Sleeper

 

7 November 2026 - the secret

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances;
I know also how to live with abundance.

We probably do much better with an abundance, or at least we seem to. Having more than enough seems easy, while having even a bit less than we would like sometimes feels impossible. But how does it go with our spiritual lives? When we do in fact have enough, are we thankful? Do we actually remember the source of our blessings? Or do we instead fail to be trustworthy with the wealth of this world, which is dishonest wealth insofar as we forget its temporary nature? If we trust in our wealth we cannot be trustworthy with our wealth. By contrast, when we struggle to get by, when life is difficult, when illness or other unfortunate circumstances occur, are we not sometimes more likely to turn to God? Have not some of our most difficult times contained some of the moments during which we were the closest to God in sincerity and truth? In good times we may be able to content ourselves with pretense and facade in matters of religion, but not when we are truly in need. There is a lesson our circumstances are trying to teach us, a lesson which Paul already learned and passed on to the Philippians.

I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.

Paul didn't try to manage the bad times on his own. Neither did he allow the good times to make him forget about his constant need for Jesus. Sometimes an abundance could cause one to end in the flesh, relying on the things of this world, after having begun in the Spirit. But not Paul. Paul was absolutely trustworthy with the wealth that was not his own because he looked forward to true treasure in heaven, a reward better than anything the world could offer.

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (see Second Timothy 4:7-9).

The Pharisees love for money made them antagonistic to anyone who might lay claim on it. It ultimately made them antagonistic to God himself, as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, who laid claim, not so much on their wealth, but on their hearts. They weren't interested, were in fact scandalized by this, since their hearts were already slaves of their wealth. Had their wealth still been serving them this might not have been such a problem. But it was clear that they were willing to ignore the joy, freedom, and healing present in the person of Jesus in order to continue to pursue the false promises of mammon. It hadn't yet provided them true happiness. And we can see that it could not do so in the future. Perhaps on some level they even realized this themselves. But they weren't free to acknowledge it. They responded to external claims on their abundance, to their right to their excess, as though they were existential threats, threats to their own survival. They sneered in response to Jesus as though he were impossibly foolish and naive, in order to signal to others that they were intelligent and wise. And to many they may have appeared so. But they could not fool God.

“You justify yourselves in the sight of others,
but God knows your hearts;
for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”

Are we slaves of the things we claim to own? Or do we use them in the service of God? Are we slaves to the opinions of others, to what is of human esteem? Or do we care what God thinks above else? Many of us are still on a constant rollercoaster of highers of abundance and lows of privation. But we can get off the rollercoaster when have we learned the secret taught by Paul, the secret that allows us the sufficiency to face anything life might throw our way. Let's read it again.

I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.

Without him we can do nothing. But with him there is nothing we cannot do. Amen and amen.

Owl City - In Christ Alone

 

6 November 2026 - using things for people, not using people for things

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do,
now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.

The steward recognized that, apart from his stewardship, he didn't really have anything else. There was nothing that was purely his with which he could pay his debt, neither strength nor wealth. 

I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’

The steward also recognized that the debts owed by his master's debtors were not ultimately his own. It would have been foolish to cling to such things even in the face of impending judgment from the master. He resolved to let go of such debts, even though they may have been the only things that gave him a sense of wealth and power, in order to try to earn the favor of those who owed them. Then he would have something truly valuable, the friendship of others. Thus when his own work came up short and he was found wanting there would be something on which he could fall back, that being the charity of his friends.

We too are supposed to recognize that nothing we have is truly our own in the strict sense. We have it all on loan, as stewards. Since we can't cling to it indefinitely, in the face of death and impending judgment, we ought to use it for the sake of bringing others into the Kingdom, making friends whose prayers can benefit us in this life and beyond. But, unlike the deceitful but prudent steward, we are often foolish in that we fail to recognize the urgency of our situation and ignore the fact that our privilege, power, and possessions, and abilities, are insufficient to save us. We can't use them as though they were are own, over and against the master, to escape our obligation to him, since they were his gifts to begin with. But if we put them to use so as to make spiritual friends he will commend our prudence. Obviously we must not cheat our fellow servants on earth. But when we freely use the gifts of God he is not cheated and cannot be. He has an infinite abundance, and supplies us with all we need for every good work (see Second Corinthians 9:8). 

We are meant to announce to our fellow servants that their debts are forgiven and that the true year of Jubilee has begun. This is in fact what God desires. He is not overly eager to collect. But those things to which we cling as though they were absolute goods will inevitably be torn from us. When we instead seek first the Kingdom it is then that we receive all else besides. This will keep us safe from the fate Paul describes for those others whose "minds are occupied with earthly things":

Their end is destruction.
Their God is their stomach; 
their glory is in their “shame.”

Rather, we are meant to remember that the source of our value and strength is not from earthly things, but from heaven.

But our citizenship is in heaven, 
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Christians we have the privileges and protection accorded to citizens of heaven. This world, its power, and its judgments, have no ultimate say over us and our destinies. Therefore let us be prudent with the things of earth and "stand firm" in the way of Christ.

 

Matt Maher - Lay It Down

 

5 November 2026 - priority one

Today's Readings
(Audio)

What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?

Why does it almost seem that Jesus loves the one lost sheep more than the ninety-nine? It strikes us as somewhat unfair that those sheep who did not stray were deprived of the shepherd so that one who had could benefit. But the Pharisees also felt this way. Jesus did not lavish praise or attention on them but instead went to seek those who knew they needed him. He constantly directed his attention to those who did not yet know him, and those who shared his heart followed in his footsteps. It was not just the Pharisees, but all those who were not lost, or who perhaps did not realize they were in fact actually also lost, were not as open to receiving the love of Jesus as were those who were lost and who knew they were lost. It was precisely these later who were capable of making the most profound response to Jesus, the ones who could most experience having been loved much and then, in turn, love much themselves.

And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy

In bringing back the lost sheep Jesus fulfills his mission to seek and to save the lost (see Luke 19:10). What is it about this that fills him with such joy? It is doubtlessly the love he is able to lavish on the sheep, open as they are to receive it, and his assurance of the way that love will transform them. 

We may be among the ninety-nine safely home. We may not be at immediate risk of predation. But we may still be at risk of complacency and a lukewarm response to the shepherd in our midst. Jesus, no doubt, is happy we aren't being consumed by wolves. But he would probably prefer if we learned to value his presence just as much as the one who was lost valued it. Honestly, we need him no less than the lost one. For we remain in the sheepfold only because he has taken care for the sheepfold to abide in safety. The only reason we don't stray ourselves is not from our innate goodness, but rather a gift of divine providential protection. The trick for us is to be grateful for every sin we avoid and virtue we pursue as gifts from the shepherd to his sheep. Then we can in some measure share the appreciation of the lost sheep for Jesus and never entirely lose the zeal of new converts.

The more we recognize our need for Jesus the more he delights to fill that need. Nothing gives him greater joy. Nothing has more potential to transform our lives. This is why, for us, as for Paul, it should be our number one priority.

But whatever gains I had,
these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ.
More than that, I even consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Britt Nicole - The Lost Get Found

 

4 November 2026 - cost of discipleship

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion? 

We are called to consider realistically the difficulty of what we are being asked to undertake for the sake of Jesus and for his Kingdom. We are being told, as Paul puts it, to work out our "salvation with fear and trembling". This is probably almost enough to make us want to give up. In terms of our human resources we are definitely outmatched in the battle. If we start this tower with only what our abilities and possessions it is probably going to end up just like it did at Babel. What we want to do, rather than fighting for ourselves and our egos independently of Jesus, is to find out what are his terms for peace. We must remember that the construction of the tower and the victorious life are not things we can accomplish. They are only possible for us to share through participation. To do so we must keep in mind that "God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work".

When we recognize the limits of our own efforts and abilities we will more frequently resist the temptation to fall back into operating at the level of the flesh rather than the Spirit, of settling for the merely human, when what we need is the assistance of divine grace.

In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.

It is not merely our own possessions that we must renounce but even our claim to our own lives. There must be nothing, not wealth, not even family, that we would choose over and against Jesus himself. No matter how necessary preferring the things of this world sometimes seems to us, doing so is to participate in the losing side of a battle, whose ending is already written and known to us. Family that does not have its foundations in Christ is destined to dissolve. Anything we strive to build, any legacy we hope to leave, apart from Christ, will ultimately prove to be an unfinished tower. This explains the why it is necessary to carry our own cross. It is not about self-hatred. Rather, it means that we must find our true place and discover our true purpose in Jesus himself, and nothing less. It requires us to share in the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus who humbled and emptied himself for our sakes. Put simply, it means consciously deciding to give God himself the first place in our lives and in our hearts.

The upshot is that, when we count the cost, and realize we can't pay, we can understand that we were never meant to do so. Jesus paid it all. We can't win the fight. But Jesus already has the victory. We must now put our pride aside so that he can manifest that victory in our own lives and make us "shine like lights in the world".

Matt Maher - Shine Like The Sun

 

3 November 2026 - bad excuses

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.”

We face the risk of recognizing the possibility of this blessedness in the abstract but then failing to respond to the invitation. The banquet sounds amazing, the facilities impressive, and the menu delicious. But the realities of our daily life seem too pressing. We may think we are simply putting it off, or we may be hoping for a different, still better invitation in the future. And yet, no matter the form the invitation takes we never seem to respond with our whole hearts. We seem content to allow our mundane daily existence to keep us preoccupied and trapped.

But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.

The things we choose instead of the wedding banquet of the Kingdom aren't even necessarily that good. We may have some sympathy for the person who was just married. But what about the guy who wanted to go and inspect some property he just acquired? What made him choose that over a fabulous feast? It seems easy to pass judgement on such characters through the safe lens of a parable. But we are basically like them. Somehow the feast seems to lack a sufficiently robust reality in our minds to motivate us. We consider it something more than imaginary, but not quite on the same level as worldly relations, transactions, and business. Really, quite the opposite is true. The worldly realities are the ones that are only temporary, destined to pass away. The thickness of the reality of the banquet is because its roots are in eternity and it shall never end. If we wonder why this is so hard for us to get our heads around we ought to look to those who do seem to get it, to see what distinguishes them.

Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.

The people who get it are often the people who are not sated with the things of this world. Among them there are those who find it impossible to be satisfied with the world because of the circumstances of their lives. And there are also those who refuse to be satisfied, because they know that too much satisfaction with this life is a trap, based on a false promise. These are all people of the beatitudes who are not addicted to wealth or pleasure or power. Their pure hearts are able to see through to the truth of the invitation. Others of us, whose hearts are preoccupied with earthly things, lose the ability to see spiritual things clearly. Earthly things are bright and blinding, loud and deafening. Spiritual things do not overwhelm our senses in this way. They are subtle and require discernment and attention. If we spend too much time focusing on the former we will found ourselves unable to see the later.

The master then ordered the servant,
‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows
and make people come in that my home may be filled.

The master wants people who want what he has to offer. He is not planning to send soldiers to force people to sit rigidly and quietly at a banquet they do not wish to attend. And so, if we do desire the banquet at some level, we must become people capable of responding to the invitation. We must find a way to leave room in our hearts, even in the midst of everything going on around us, and all our pressing concerns, to truly hear and comprehend what the master is offering. The only way to ensure this is to "Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus", willing to let go of our rights and prerogatives because we are confident that God has something better still in store for us.

Dan Schutte - Table Of Plenty

2 November 2026 - its about him

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

On this commemoration of all of the faithful departed we celebrate our communion with those who have gone before us united to Christ in the hope of the resurrection, but who are still undergoing their final purification before they seem him face to face. The focus is not so much on the fact of the purification as it is on the certainty of the hope. On one level there might be some helpful fear that can motivate us to get our own acts together so that we can avoid as much of purgatory as possible. But today is really more about confidence in our hope because of our communion with these deceased brothers and sisters.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.

Confidence is actually a more robust motivation to help us in our pursuit of holiness than is fear. Fear might be potent in the short-term. But when we feel fear we might have the mistaken sense that it all comes down to us and our efforts. Thus when things become difficult, or feel impossible, we are more likely to give up if fear is all we have on which to rely. We are right to fear our fallen sinful human nature, our ability to ignore or squander the grace that God desires to give us. We are right to acknowledge that his holiness is a consuming fire. But our confidence helps us to realize that his strength is even greater than our weakness, that it is ultimately far more about him than it is about us.

But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

When we pray for the dead who are still being purified we acknowledge the fact that, for them, hope is certain. They know that it is only a matter of time before they see Jesus face to face. In our union with them they help us to share in their own unclouded vision, their view of the end of the race. They know what it means to let the grace of baptism have its full effect and help us to see how worthwhile it is to give ourselves entirely over to that gift in our own lives.

We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, 
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, 
we too might live in newness of life.

As long as we don't give up on Jesus he won't give up on us. From the faithful departed we learn a sense of urgency for responding to the call of Jesus, one that is not primarily motivated based on fear and avoidance of punishment, but rather based on our growing awareness of the magnitude of his unstoppable love.

For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.

Brian Doerksen - Refiner's Fire