21 November 2025 - dedicated to worship

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”

The temple was meant to be a place of relationship, of encounter with the living God. It was meant to be a reflection of the openness of God's arms to his people. But it had become instead a reflection of the closedness of his people's hearts to him. Instead of being a place that elevated those who entered to a spiritual mode of being, it dragged them down to a base material one. If people had to choose between serving God and mammon, a dispassionate assessment would likely conclude that mammon had been chosen. The focus, the excitement, and the energy all seemed to be on monetary exchange, to the degree that the court of the Gentiles had no room to welcome anyone. Nor was that area a helpful spiritual gradation in which people could easily prepare themselves for to meet God. It was instead loud and transactional. 

 We probably know how different the experience can be between entering a quiet, pious church versus a noisy one filled with socialization. Even if there is something appealing seeing a lot of friendly people conversing, it is not necessarily conducive preparing to do what we came to do. This is especially the case since the hearts we bring with us, whether to a church that is quiet or one that is loud, are themselves not easy to silence. There is no readily accessible volume dial that can do it automatically. So without availing ourselves of every possible advantage it can be difficult not to bring our own base concerns, even our own idols, with us into worship. 

Jesus did not sell short the importance of environment in preparing for worship. But he knew that environment alone was insufficient if the hearts of the people who entered were not also open and attuned. But he also knew that human hearts, even more than the temple, needed cleansing and purification to achieve this state. Our hearts were meant to be temples of his presence, but our default condition was one with no vacancy for his coming to dwell in us. Hence, in him, the old would need to be torn down, by his crucifixion. Then and only then could the new arise in the resurrection, as he joined us to himself as living stones in the temple of his Body. The problems in the old physical temple were merely symptomatic. But in his Passion he treated the root cause. Thereafter the temple itself was no longer necessary, since the sign it was meant to be had given way to the reality. People were now free and empowered to worship anywhere, in Spirit and truth. Even the joyous celebration of Judas and his brothers in First Maccabees was only a dim foreshadowing of the joy meant to be ours in the Church established by Jesus, of which he himself is head and cornerstone.

 

John Michael Talbot - Exodus 15

 

20 November 2025 - the things that make for peace

Today's Readings
(Audio)

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,
he saw the city and wept over it

We can't assume that our cities fare better when Jesus draws near to visit us. It may be the case that there are some in our cities who understand the mysteries of the Kingdom. But many, perhaps most, have let their hearts be hardened and their eyes made blind, so that, although they look, they do not see. The fact that Jesus had advocates and supporters within Jerusalem was not enough to shift the overall balance of the city. Many rejected him entirely. Others supported him when it seemed like his was a popular movement, when it was in vogue to do so, but turned on him the moment he was relegated from the spotlight. So too in our own cities, and, if we are honest, in our hearts. We like to claim that we will stick with Jesus during good times and bad. Like Peter we may boast that we are willing to die with him (see Matthew 26:35). But this boast often proves to be naive. It typically has more to do with how we want to see ourselves than our actual level of commitment to the Lord.

If this day you only knew what makes for peace–
but now it is hidden from your eyes. 

In recent years we've definitively demonstrated that we don't know what makes for peace. If we did, we would live in peace among the peaceful. Though we may be shielded from outright violence by the protection of our governments it is clear that we are not at all free from antagonistic relationships with those around us. We have a list of demands that seem to us to be necessary for peace. Our opponents have their own list of demands. But all of these miss the point by trying to solve spiritual problems politically. Peace on earth was promised by Gabriel to those of good will. But a will that is truly good is one that can recognize the Prince of Peace and surrender to him. People with a good will recognize the time of their visitation and plead with Jesus to change, not only their enemies, but also themselves. They plead for him to increase their faith, and so too their faithfulness, their willingness to be among those who stand by Jesus in his time of trial (see Luke 22:28).

Jesus came "that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear" (see Luke 1:74). But he did not proceed to provide this freedom and the way anyone expected. It was a hidden grace that was given at the level of individual hearts rather than a violent force imposed from without on society. He continues to bring such grace into a world, but we fail to notice because we're still looking for something else. But it is not too late. Our cities still stand. Our country is still by most standards a place of freedom to live and to worship. But if Jerusalem was at risk in spite of the physical presence of Jesus there, neither should we take it for granted in our own day. We should look to the presence of the one who alone can truly deliver on the promise of peace. After all, we can see that he cares more about it than even we ourselves, and that he weeps for us, just as he did for Jerusalem.

Michael W. Smith - You Are Holy (Prince Of Peace)

 

19 November 2025 - faithful in small things

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem
and they thought that the Kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.

It was widely believed that once the messiah appeared the Kingdom of God would follow almost immediately. Many modern commentators seem to believe that even early Christians were surprised by the delay in the full realization of the Kingdom on earth. Whether they were or not we will not speculate. Yet if they were, they need not have been, since Jesus himself told a parable precisely to explain it. There would be time after his coming when he was visible absent, before his return, and the final establishing of the Kingdom. He explained with what his disciples would need to contend during this time since there would be those who would say that they did not "want this man to be our king", and who would do whatever they could to harass and interfere with the followers of his who remained during his absence.

A nobleman went off to a distant country
to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins
and told them, 'Engage in trade with these until I return.

Jesus brought his risen human nature into heaven, there to share the throne of kingship that was properly God's own. He planned to return to bring the full blessings of that kingship to the world through the resurrection on the last day. But he did not plan to do this immediately. In order to allow a full and free response to his plan he gave his disciples time to put the gifts he gave them to use, good or otherwise. By doing so they could open up their capacity to participate in his Kingdom when it arrived. What mattered to Jesus was not that they prove themselves by cleverness, skill, or success. Rather, he was looking for them to demonstrate faithfulness. The reward of cities was entirely disproportionate to the small level of faithfulness that was required of them. But it was precisely this faithfulness, and not the results, on which they were judged. Everyone who even chose to participate received a reward that ridiculously exceeded their efforts. True, the one who made ten additional coins seemed to receive a larger result, as though his effort was involved. But it is more likely the case that he was able to produce such results because he was more willing to trust in the master's gifts, which functioned almost automatically. He had perhaps opened himself more completely to trust in the master and thus had a larger capacity to receive the master's blessing when he returned.

'Sir, here is your gold coin;
I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man;
you take up what you did not lay down
and you harvest what you did not plant.'

The man that returned the master's gold coin with nothing to show for it was punished, not because he failed, but because he was faithless. The master had said "Engage in trade" and he had instead hidden the gift away, where it was powerless to bear fruit. This is a common temptation for us as well. It feels safe, in the moment, to hide our gifts and not take the risk of obeying the command of Jesus. But it is only when we trust him enough to put them to use that they can bear fruit. And it is only by opening ourselves in trust to his will that we grow in our capacity to receive the reward he wants to give us. This reward is not cities so much as it is more of himself. 

He replied, 'I tell you,
to everyone who has, more will be given,
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.

Our stewardship during our mortal lives is a feed forward mechanism in which the more we participate the more we grow. But unwillingness to participate makes it increasingly hard to begin. We should remember our trust in the master who has given us the command to engage in trade and therefore also trust in the power of the coin of the Spirit with which he has entrusted us. And we should remember that he does not necessarily expect great things, but rather faithfulness in the little things, like Terese of Lisieux and Theresa of Calcutta were fond of repeating.

Newsboys - Go

 

18 November 2025 - receiving him with joy

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, 
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature. 

Neither our natural gifts nor the circumstances of our lives are enough to automatically ensure that we will get a good look at Jesus when he passes through. We may be fairly sure that if Zacchaeus had responded with indifference the whole crowd with all of its commotion would have passed him by as though he were not there. It seemed evident that Jesus was aware of his desire to see him and responded to that desire.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.

Jesus looked up at the tree, unsurprised, as though it was always his plan to meet Zacchaeus at this moment in this place. Because it was. He wasn't inconvenienced or deterred from other aspects of his ministry by the intrusion of this chief tax collector onto his route. It was always a part of his plan, and in this moment, the main event. In fact, it seemed that Jesus was the first one to say something to Zacchaeus, rather than the other way around. Who knows with what pretense Zacchaeus might have been planning to plead with Jesus, as the prodigal had been in returning to his father. But before he had a chance to do so he heard, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house". 

And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 

At first Zacchaeus must have thought that he was the one taking the initiative to see Jesus. We already said that without that initiative it was indeed likely that Jesus would have passed him by. But Jesus himself was aware of the initiative Zacchaeus would show, because he himself was the one who made the hearts of all, including Zacchaeus, and placed a desire for himself within them. Even the grace that made him respond to this desire was a gift. It wasn't as though he could brag about the lengths to which he went in order to see Jesus, since he knew full well that he had been drawn to him, as if by a kind of spiritual magnetism. There were also those who felt this same spiritual force but found it repulsive. These were the people who grumbled when they saw the deep and immediate connection between Zacchaeus and Jesus while they themselves remained disinterested on the peripheries. They remained dispassionate observers while Zacchaeus himself was entirely transformed.

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”

Zacchaeus was changed in such a way that he previously priorities were no longer important. The desire for wealth that had determined his life path until that point was gone. The wealth he had amassed was now a resource to help him respond to the grace of Jesus in his life. We note that he had not been required to do this in advance in order to prove himself to Jesus. All that was necessary for Jesus to accept him was for Zacchaeus to respond to the desire that Jesus himself had first placed in his heart. These works did not somehow merit his salvation, but were rather its fruit. But they were important as evidence, signs that the power of Jesus had been effective in him.

And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost.”

Like Zacchaeus, and indeed, like all people, Jesus has placed a desire for himself in our hearts. But we can take it for granted, like the crowds, and respond to him only with curiosity. Like them we might be too embarrassed to stand out or refuse to be inconvenienced in the ways that might be necessary. But if we don't respond vigorously to the fervor Jesus himself wants to give us we inherently limit the extent to which he can transform us. We have some measure of 'free will', but especially a 'free won't', one which we must be cautious to not exercise when Jesus is passing by.

When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.

Songs In His Presence - Prayer Of Augustine

 

17 November 2025 - a see change

 

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."
He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"

This blind beggar nevertheless had a spiritual vision that caused him to realize something that was not apparent to everyone in the crowd. The crowd pointed to his apparent origins in Nazareth. But the blind man called to him as the messianic Son of David. The crowd assumed that Jesus had better things to do. But Jesus came to give sight to the blind. The blind man, sensing this, refused to be silenced by the crowd. In fact, the more they tried to quiet him the louder he became. The voice of the crowd was trying to exert an influence over the man that may be familiar to us as well. It told him that Jesus was distant, irrelevant, and indifferent. It attempted to drown out the quiet possibility of hope. If the man had only been testing a theory he probably would have given up. But he had faith. He could already imagine the way that Jesus would change his world and he refused to surrender that image.

"What do you want me to do for you?"
He replied, "Lord, please let me see."
Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you."

His faith was what allowed Jesus bring what he imagined into reality. His spiritual vision would henceforth be reflected in the physical world as well. His blindness must been a true hardship. He no doubt wanted to experience the fullness of natural life as God intended it. But his spiritual insight and his faith made it seem likely that he was asking for something deeper along with his natural sight. We may also imagine that he was asking for the purity that allowed those who possessed it to see God, as Jesus taught in the beatitudes (see Matthew 5:8). This was the vision that can eventually make us like God when, at last, he see him as he is (see First John 3:2).

He immediately received his sight
and followed him, giving glory to God.

We who have been blessed with natural sight ought to remember to be thankful for that gift, since it is easy to take for granted, not having had to survive without it. But we should also come to Jesus and ask with faith for him to increase our spiritual vision, our ability to see him in a way that makes us become more like him. When our spiritual vision is healthy we are able to perceive the truth in spite of the indifference of the crowds, or even, as in the book of Maccabees, their active hostility. There are a thousand different directions and angles from which attempts to obscure the truth seem to come these days. Our physical vision sometimes seem to only make us enter more deeply into the confusion. Without spiritual sight we will almost certainly be lost. Lord, please let us see.

Sonicflood - In The Secret 

16 November 2025 - there will not be left a stone upon another

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

While some people were speaking about
how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,
Jesus said, "All that you see here--
the days will come when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

If we become too attached to the beauty of this world, a beauty which, while good, is still nevertheless only temporary, how will we respond when it eventually crumbles to dust and fades to nothing? Buildings may collapse, human institutions might fail, and even the apparent permanence of nature will eventually be revealed to be transient. If we place our eternal hope in temporary things we will be at extreme risk when those things inevitably eventually fail. Experiences like these make us all too ready to be deceived by false messiahs and their false promises. We will hear implausible candidates claiming "I am he", and we will want to follow them and believe them even though a part of us may know better. They seem to offer something immediate in which we can invest our hopes in lieu of the disappoint of whatever recent collapse brought us to despair. As our boat through this world of time spring leaks and to sink we become willing to turn to anyone who promises to patch us up, whether or not there is any real reason to think they can do so. 

When you hear of wars and insurrections,
do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,
but it will not immediately be the end."

We need a different strategy. In the face of terrors we must not be terrified (see Jeremiah 1:17). We must instead remember that such things are allowed in the divine plan. We must also remember that it is the divine drama unfolding that will dictate our destiny, not the fickle vicissitudes of chance and circumstance. If we believe that our story is fundamentally natural or political than circumstances might well seem to indicate the end of the world. But we are living for another world, a world without end. When we remember this we are able to keep our cool, not only when things around us are bad, but even when we ourselves are impacted by negative circumstances. We can face persecution without being rendered useless and ineffective by fear. In fact, in some way, when we remember whose story it is of which we are meant to be part, we become even more effective in times of trial, since such times lead to us "giving testimony".

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

We don't need to calculate exactly what will lead to our giving testimony in order to be able to successfully do so when the time comes. Obviously we should strive to know Jesus and his teaching. But we need not predict exactly how circumstances will require us to speak. And in fact, the more rigidly we plan in advance, the less the Spirit will be free to move in the moment. It's is good to have the raw materials of knowledge handy, good to have familiarity with the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church, but precisely so that the Spirit himself can more easily call them to our minds in the moment they are needed. He can go further, when he desires, by giving us words of knowledge and words of wisdom that transcend anything we previously knew or could articulate. We should definitely try to be open to these. But we may also say that we shouldn't rely on them entirely. 

You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

There will be many reasons we will want to give up along the way. Many things that were seemingly causes for hope will fail. It won't always be smooth sailing. We will long to see the Lord move in history, but instead see many imposters and false messiahs pretending to bring salvation, while only making things worse. But when our lives are situated in the worldview taught by Jesus we will not despair and we will not give up. We will then remember that he commanded "perseverance", rather than any kind of one time set it and forget it spirituality. It is clear he didn't promise to spare us from every storm we might encounter. But he did promise to be with us always, even in the storms. When we remember to listen, we will even then hear his still small voice speaking, giving us the guidance we need.

 The Dwelling Of God Is Among You

 

15 November 2025 - motivated prayer

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. 

The temptation, of course, was to become weary and lose heart. When prayer did not receive an instant response it was tempting to assume that one was speaking to an unjust judge, too concerned with his own affairs to answer to be bothered, although it was well within his power to set things right. It was hard to pray for things that were obviously good and not receive them. It made it easy to believe that God was morally ambiguous at best and not truly good at worst. It made it easy to fall for the same temptation as Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil independently, apart from him. 

He said, “There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being. 

Phase one of a good approach to not losing heart is to recognize when we begin to imagine a caricature of God rather than God himself. We know that God must be good since he is the source of all goodness and since he himself is what we ultimately desire in all good things. Our very ability to sense and pursue the good is itself his gift. Therefore, if he does not immediately respond to our urgent requests it cannot be because he isn't good.

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.’” 

Phase two of our plan to not lose heart is to plan on the need for persistence. When we sometimes hear of prayers that are answered immediately, precisely when they were needed, it makes us want to believe that all prayers will be answered on a similarly expedited schedule. Sometimes prayers are answered immediately, when this is part of God's plan. But oftentimes, for his own reasons, reasons which we have resolved to believe are good ones, he does not answer immediately. When we don't plan on an immediate response he is certainly free to surprise us with one. But then if we don't receive one we don't succumb to disappoint. We have planned from the first to pray as long as was necessary to either attain or desire or to have our heart changed by God. It has often been said that this purification and expansion of our desire for the good is an important part of why perseverance in prayer is required of us. Does it always seem to us to be a worthy trade for putting off a solution to something that could be solved immediately, something which is often both urgent and dire? Perhaps not, but since we have committed ourselves to believing that God is always good even when can't see it or understand, we believe it in this case as well. And so we don't lose heart. And so we ask and keep on asking. 

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. 
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night? 
Will he be slow to answer them? 
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. 

We now have belief in God's goodness and reason enough to trust him when he tells us to not give up on prayer. But we have still more. We have assurance that he will answer eventually. It may not be exactly according to the form for which we asked. But we know that he is a Father who delights to give good gifts to his children. We know that he will withhold nothing from us that is truly good. He knows even better than we ourselves what will truly satisfy our desires. This is what he has planned for those who do not give up on pursuing him. 

Matt Maher - Wait

 

14 November 2025 - not delugeonal

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.

In past times the world seemed to be going on as it always had. People were more or less hypnotized by the routine of daily life, unable to recognize the signs, or to heed the warnings of impending judgment. Those who had sufficient faith to respond to the call of God seemed to others to be at least eccentric and possibly crazy. If one was not regularly in conversation with God, the construction of an ark didn't seem particularly useful before the rain began to fall. Noah's faith allowed him to do what would later be proven to be necessary before it was obviously so. It gave him the courage to stand out and endure ridicule for the sake of obedience. 

they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom

Once we begin to believe and obey the word of God we must still be cautious about the temptation to look back to what we left behind. This was a problem for those who wandered in the desert after being liberated from Egypt. It was a problem for Lot's wife. It was the reason why Jesus said that those who looked back after putting their hand to plow were unfit for the Kingdom (see Luke 9:62). It wasn't that he didn't want them. The issue in all of these cases was that they were compromised by a kind of gravity that pulled them toward the earthly and away from the spiritual. They had tasted freedom, but looking back caused them not to pursue with the vigor that was necessary to reach salvation.

On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.

We need to reverse the perspective we typically have in which the things of this world are those that are urgent, and the spiritual are secondary. We must be willing to make a break with any temporary material goods if God's call demands it of us. We must be willing, at least virtually, to leave behind all we have to respond to his summons. 

I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.

We may look almost identical, from an external perspective, to others in the world. But our destiny is not necessarily the same as theirs. If we don't insist on clinging to our current conditions exactly as we now experience them we will be free to receive the salvific work of God in our lives. Whether he desires to keep us here where we are, saving us from exile, or whether he desires to move us to a place of refuge from impending strife, we can have the freedom to follow him. It will help if we make a spiritual resolution, aided by grace, empowered by the Spirit, never to choose anything instead of his will. Though we are fallen and fickle and liable to disobedience he will nevertheless help us to keep such a noble commitment, since it is he himself who inspired us to make it. We must not be like those described in the reading from Wisdom who lost themselves in the beauty of created things. We should instead rejoice in that beauty as a revelation of the one who created it all.

For from the greatness and the beauty of created things
their original author, by analogy, is seen.

13 November 2025 - the tension between already and not yet

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

"The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.'
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."

The Kingdom of God was already present among them in one way, but not yet in another. It was present because the King himself was among them. It was yet to come because its fullness would only be revealed after the Son of Man was first taken from them and then returned in glory. Their question of the Pharisees seemed to be motivated by a desire to see some Kingdom scale results produced by Jesus and his disciples. They wanted to see something that they could either dismiss, or, if it was overwhelmingly obvious, that they would have no choice but to accept. But they were currently at a stage of history when the Kingdom still worked in a hidden way, behind the scenes, like a mustard seed, or like yeast that leavened the dough. They were not to judge the mission of Jesus based on results, but rather, on the person of Jesus himself. In some way, Jesus himself was the Kingdom. And this Kingdom was indeed already spreading, since it was present in every heart where Jesus reigned. Obviously the Pharisees, interested in externals, in things that they could control or dismiss according to preference, were not well situated to perceive it. They probably saw themselves as too wise or practical to be fooled by what they might have dismissed as mere rhetoric. And yet the King of the Kingdom was in their midst. It was possible for sincere hearts to perceive it and be transformed. But those who were not sincere seemed to bounce off of their encounters with it, accelerated away in the opposite direction.

Then he said to his disciples,
"The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

The longing to see something solid, some definitive results, would potentially put everyone at risk of accepting something that fell short of the Son of Man and his Kingdom. They would want to see him so much that they would convince themselves that they had in fact seen him. They would long for the coming of his Kingdom so much that they would convince themselves that they had found it fully formed on earth in this or that ideology. They would treat political or religious leaders as though their themselves were the ones who could bring salvation to the world. They might not be fully conscious of it, but their preference for something solid and visible would ultimately make them naive and vulnerable. During this period of history it was important for disciples to remember that the Kingdom was present, but hidden. It made a real impact on history, but from behind the scenes, in a way that required faith to perceive. It was not subjective. It was real enough that an unbiased observer could be convinced. But its presence was not such as to be irrefutable, and wasn't meant to be. The proud in particular would see something far too humble to meet their standards. But if we set our expectations correctly, knowing that the Spirit is at work now, but the fullness of glory is yet to come, we will not be deceived.

For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.

The fact that the Kingdom is now somewhat hidden does not mean that it is subjective, or that it will remain obscure forever. There is nothing hidden that will not one day be revealed (see Luke 8:17). Foremost on this list is the Kingdom itself, and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This stage of history is meant to give us time to prepare for the final stage. Once his glory is fully revealed their will be no more time to freely turn to him in our hearts. His glory will be irresistible. But he wants us to choose him freely, here and now. And not only that, he wants us to freely share with others what we ourselves have first received (see Matthew 10:8).

Elevation Worship - There Is A King

 

12 November 2025 - the returner

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"

The ten lepers had an illness that defined their entire existence. Even if they ever experienced momentary relief from the symptoms, they were still exiled from the wider society around them, outcasts and pariahs. When the painful and crippling illness was at its worst there was no one to whom they could turn except others who were so preoccupied with their own condition that they could do little to help. But these outcasts on the outskirts had still somehow heard of the healing ministry of Jesus. They had nothing to lose by seeking him out. They way they approached him respectfully. The words they used to plead with him seemed to indicate a genuine hope, a real readiness to receive what he might be able to give. 

And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed.

The fact that they followed the instructions of Jesus and went before they were cleansed was a sign of faith on the part of all ten of them. It isn't entirely clear whether or not the nine who did not return realized what had happened before they found priests to confirm their cure. But it is clear that one of them did realize what was happening so deeply that he could no longer follow the instructions of Jesus to the letter. The priests could wait. They would still be there. But he might not get another opportunity to say thank you.

And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. 

Within the Church all cleansed by the saving waters of baptism, all who confess their sins with contrition and receive absolution are forgiven, and all who receive Holy Communion receive the body and blood, soul and divinity, of Jesus himself. But not all, perhaps not most, are much changed by these realities. They have some effect, probably, on everyone. But not enough on most that it causes them to actually interrupt their routines with gratefulness and thanksgiving. There was something admirable about the attention with which the one leper who returned noticed what Jesus had done in him. 

Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."

Perhaps the fact that he was a foreigner helped. He wasn't so caught up in expectations and a sense of what he ought to do in regard to the priests that felt the need to respond to Jesus in an overly literalistic way. The letter always brought death when it was pushed too far. But the Spirit always brought life (see Second Corinthians 3:6). The priests represented a return to society and to the worshiping community. However, Jesus himself represented a new centrality of both community and worship. It was one thing to reclaim one's position in the old passing order. It was another to find one's place in the Kingdom. The debate between Samaritans and Jews about the proper place to worship was even then in the midst of being superseded. The one leper who returned was and fell at the feet of Jesus must have been, in some way, by that very act, worshiping in Spirit and truth (see John 4:24).

Newsboys - Praises

 

11 November 2025 - unprofitable servants

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
'Come here immediately and take your place at table'?

We tend to feel sympathetic for the servant who endured the long day in the field but who had work yet to do before he could rest. But should the solid day's work he had done actually exempt him from serving the master? Was the master now somehow in his debt and such a way that he owed him leisure? Or was the master not still the master and he the servant? No doubt many who labor in the vineyard of the Lord expend considerable effort in what is involved in that work day to day. But their service to others does not exempt them of their own duty toward the Lord. As they tended to the sheep or the crops they then also need to tend to their own relationship with Jesus. They were not permitted to be lax in this regard. It is of considerable importance that they not only work for the master but also love him, and signaled that love directly. In some ways, it is true, feeding the sheep does count as feeding Christ. But when our work becomes in excuse to neglect our duties of devotion this is something else. This is important to remember because there is always a tension where we can lose ourselves in what is required of us and forget that which is supposed to be the core and foundation of our efforts. The primary symptom that this has been forgotten is a sense of entitlement, in which we believe that God now owes us this or that. But we never put God in our debt. The fact that we are called to serve him is a privilege rather than a burden. We should not try to find rest apart from him, but rather the rest that comes through being faithful to him. 

Would he not rather say to him,
'Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished'?

When we insist on putting ourselves first our priorities are misaligned and we can't enjoy the true rest promised to the followers of Jesus. We are called to order our lives to him rather than insisting that he reorder his life and Kingdom toward our particular idiosyncrasies. Not insisting on our own merit while serving in the field and serving at table help prepare us to appreciate and enjoy the full magnitude of the gift in which he himself waits upon us. We know that it is ultimately this gift of grace that is the climax and culmination of his plans for us. We receive a foretaste of it in the Eucharist. And it is this feast that we will enjoy forever in heaven.

 

Patricia Fauccett - God And Man At Table Are Sat Down

 

10 November 2025 - not everybody must get millstoned

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,
but woe to the one through whom they occur.

The fact that there will inevitably be temptations all around us in this fallen world does not give us an excuse to become a cause of scandal ourselves. Without this warning we might have assumed otherwise. If we were, as we in fact are, surrounded by a world preoccupied with power, lust, and dishonesty, how much could it really matter if we occasionally fell into such behavior ourselves? Would it not be sufficient if we met the mark most of the time, and at least maintained the need for virtue through what we said, if not always what we did? But to Jesus it was clearly one thing to fall ourselves, and another to normalize sinful behavior by our example. He taught that in response to personal sin one ought to be forgiven as many times as necessary, with seven in one day signifying perfection. But even though mercy is infinite and there are no limits on the forgiveness God intends to make available, even though sin itself is in some way inevitable, we must still do all we can to avoid causing scandal. Presumably this is more of a problem when we obstinately and willfully commit sins in full public view rather than occasionally falling to those sins against which we actively struggle. Paul didn't normalize anything when he called himself the chief of sinners. He wasn't giving his readers permission to go and sin boldly, knowing that grace would abound (see Romans 6:1-2). We may not have a leadership role like Paul. We may not be politicians or other public figures. But we all have the ability to set an example for others. Or not. And our choices in this matter come with heightened consequences. If we are pursuing forgiveness, both giving it and receiving it, we will likely be sufficiently sensitized to avoid scandal more often than not. We won't want to lead people down a path from which it is hard to acknowledge the need of mercy. It was for this, among other things, that Jesus condemned the Pharisees, saying, "For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves" (see Matthew 23:15).

And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

No doubt, upon hearing this urgency, the Apostles were beginning to wonder exactly for what they had signed up when they accepted the call of Jesus to follow him. They had just heard about inevitable human weakness and dire consequences. They had been commanded to pursue a level of willingness to forgive that was supernatural. It would have been terrible to attempt such a life on merely human strength. Importantly, they recognized their need for faith. Fortunately, no matter how many and deep were the roots of the mulberry tree of fallen human nature, a small amount of faith would be enough. What was not possible in the natural order because possible in the order of the Spirit. What was inevitable in the postlapsarian world was no longer inevitable in the Kingdom of God.

Love justice, you who judge the earth;
think of the Lord in goodness,
and seek him in integrity of heart;
Because he is found by those who test him not,
and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.

 

The Hillbilly Thomists - Leaning On The Everlasting Arms

 

9 November 2025 - cleaning house

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If we are the temple of God, what does he find within the courts of our hearts that are meant to be set aside for his worship? Do we have modern equivalents of oxen, sheep, and doves being bought and sold? Is the hubbub of commerce drowning out the quiet voice of worship within us? What makes our spiritual temple too busy, too noisy, or too crowded for God? Is there something other than him taking up a majority of our internal world and leaving him only the leftovers? 

He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money-changers seated there.

There may be an empty veneer of spirituality reflected in the temple of our hearts. After all, these animals sold in the temple in the time of Jesus were there to be offered as sacrifices according to the law. Those who sold them, sold them so they could be used to that end. Those who purchased them did so for the sake of worship. Those who exchanged money helped to facilitate this since Roman coins could not be used for sacred purposes. And yet the atmosphere made it clear that the true purpose and original intention that all of this may have once had was lost. The commerce itself had come to dominate in such a way that individuals who actually desired to pray would have found it difficult to focus. The courts where all this was happening were intended to be a place where the Gentiles could worship, so that the temple could be a house of prayer for all people. But good luck worshiping in such an environment. One might as well try to do so at Walmart.

It doesn't have to be money. There are many things that can crowd God out of our inner world. And when this happens we discover that, like the temple in the time of Jesus, we not only don't have room for him, but we don't have room for other people. It is too noisy inside to communicate and far too cluttered with distractions to have peace. People in the temple mostly in some way benefited from all the chaos. And the fact that we ourselves reap some minor rewards for our chaotic inner life helps ensure that we don't challenge our own status quo. Jesus, however, knows that we are made for more. 

He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money-changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."

At first when Jesus overturns the comfort of our lives we may be offended. We may wonder what right he had to do so and demand a sign to show his authority. But the peace and quiet that follow his incursion into the protected space of our ego may be so welcome that we end up applauding and thanking him for his effort. We may suddenly see what all of the hype surrounding the potential of prayer is about when we finally have to bandwidth to actually attempt it. When this happens, we won't want to go back to the way things had been.

We should thank the Lord that he desires to live in us as in a temple, and that zeal for this house prevents him from leaving us to our own resources, dwelling in the pitiful conditions we have created. The fact of the matter is that it took zeal on his part to achieve this transformation in us, because it didn't come cheaply. It took the destruction of the temple of his Body to put our old self to death so that we could be raised up as living stones in a new and spiritual temple. Because Jesus endured what he did for us we can now offer new and spiritual sacrifices, living our lives as gifts of thanksgiving in return for that which he first gave us. When we become gifts for Jesus in this way he also uses us to bless others. We become the living water that flows from the temple, giving life and well-being to waters others stagnant and dead.

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.

Phil Wickham - House Of The Lord

 

8 November 2025 - who will give you what is yours?

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth,
so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

If we actually acquire wealth through intentional dishonesty on our part we ought to make restitution rather than spending it ourselves for any cause, however prudent. We are not being given permission to cheat others even for the sake of a praiseworthy goal. But Jesus does want us to understand the ways that all wealth is in some measure dishonest. This is partly because of systemic corruption that makes it almost impossible to participate in the economy without at least remote cooperation with evil. In regard to this problem with wealth we ought to do our best to avoid feeding the corruption and to invest in causes trying to make the world more just. But even this more noble use of wealth carries in it some measure of dishonesty. It carries the subtle hint the wealth itself has a power that can perfect the world. It insinuates the idea the problems are fundamentally problems of the markets, or of economic distribution, or of the divide between the rich and the poor. Wealth would have us believe that, although it caused these problems, it could solve them if we simply served it more faithfully. It tells us two things that are definitely false. The first is that money can overcome problems that are of a fundamentally moral nature. The second is that money can achieve anything permanently and definitively. In response to the first, we know that moral problems reside in human hearts where wealth is more likely to exacerbate rather than heal. And we know that even the most noble uses of wealth lead to solutions that are ultimately temporary. Even if a good project doesn't succumb to corruption its effects will eventually fade into history and no longer be felt in the present. This is why we must use our wealth prudently, as people with eternal destinies, for the sake of the Kingdom. It is the only goal that can last, and therefore matters so much that even other good things are trivial by comparison.

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters
is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters
is also dishonest in great ones.

Why must we even contend with wealth one way or the other? Because by doing so we demonstrate our readiness for eternity. When we use our wealth for the sake of the Kingdom we demonstrate a beginner level of self-possession, where we are not being manipulated by wealth, but using it in moral freedom. When we can deal with the temporary resources we have been given, without the need for deceit or concealment, we demonstrate integrity, signaling our readiness to live in the world to come, where all things will be revealed, and where nothing can be hidden. Little by little, as faithful stewards, we eliminate the shadows in which our egos hide and emerge into the light. By contrast, those who insist on remaining in the shadows even in the temporal affairs signal their unwillingness to dwell in the light, whatever they may profess with their words. Fearfully, these true intentions of theirs are the ones that may be honored if they persist to the end.

If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is yours?

If we want treasure in heaven we can't allow the treasures of earth to rule us, and, to the measure that we have been entrusted with them, we must not squander them. Just as with our time and our talents we are called to be faithful stewards of our treasures, demonstrating that Jesus really is the Lord of our lives. As we move from serving the ego self to devotion to him we are prepared, through grace, to receive the only reward that can last, the one gift worth receiving, and the only true wealth: God himself.

Pat Barrett featuring Christ Tomlin - As For Me

 

7 November 2025 - cheat your ego

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’

What will we hear when we stand before the judgment seat of God? We have been entrusted with much, with natural gifts and spiritual treasures. Jesus said that we will even be judged for careless speech, for every idle word (see Matthew 12:36). We don't have the strength our skill to gain or maintain the gift of life that only God can give. We aren't strong enough to dig. Hopefully we are not too proud to beg, since we know that God is often moved with compassion at our pleas for mercy. We know that our God is merciful. But we also know that he requires a response to his mercy. Even our begging will only go so far if it is only perfunctory and does not represent a real change of heart, a genuine desire for conversion. 

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

The dishonest steward realized that there was no sense trying to maintain a temporal advantage in the face of potentially permanent consequences. This led him to make choices we can't entirely endorse. But part of his plan can be useful to us. We can use the temporary things of this world in the light of our hope for eternity. We can use the wealth of this world, which is always in some measure "dishonest", for the sake of finding habitation in the world to come. Whenever we use our time, talent, or resources, for the sake of others, we are winning potential friends who can help pray us through our final purification and into heaven. Even if it is not always they themselves who do so, we are also reaching out to Jesus who is present in them. He will ensure that what we do for the poor and disadvantaged will not be unrewarded. 

He called in his master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’

We often have a hard time relinquishing those things that were entrusted to us, even when by doing so we can help to give freedom to others. We seem ready to hold on to them even when they aren't doing anything for us at the moment, and even though we know that we can't keep them forever. But in the light of the knowledge of the certain of judgment, and the shortness of life in this world compared to eternity, perhaps we can loosen our grip.

And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.

As Christians we act prudently when our actions in this world are ordered toward God and the world to come. Again, it does not mean that we are free to engage in immoral acts like cheating in order to attain our goals. But it does mean that we see the relative value and impermanence of things like wealth and put them to use accordingly. Or we may put it thus: let us cheat our egos for the sake of others. Any strategies we can use to slip past the protective shell that keeps us trapped inside ourselves is probably worth a try. Any way we can fool ourselves into letting go and letting God have his way in us is likely better than trying to hold what we know we cannot keep.

For I will not dare to speak of anything
except what Christ has accomplished through me 

 

Ubi Caritas Et Amor

 

6 November 2025 - to seek and save the lost

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Jesus was a visible manifestation of the heart of the Father. He came because God so loved the world that he, the only Son, was sent to save it. The Pharisees were content to restrict God's mercy and to set limits on his love. They thought they were already walking in it themselves and had no significant motivation to share it. To them, most of the world seemed like a lost cause. But the Pharisees were not necessarily correct about their own relationship to God being entirely healthy. Their unwillingness to share it to others was compounded by the fact that they were typically unable to do much to help to bring others to God. Sinners and tax collectors were more likely to have a negative effect on them, rather than receiving anything beneficial from them. They weren't well equipped to make a difference, and even if they had been, their hearts weren't in it.

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?

Jesus had an entirely different attitude toward the lost sheep of Israel. He didn't see them as a liability. He pursued them as only someone not concerned with normal human limitations would do. He could seek the lost sheep without risk to himself or risk to the ninety-nine that remained behind. The Pharisees had to be concerned with themselves and with those who already gave the appearance of a spiritual life. They only had so much attention they could apply to all of the things that clamored for their attention. Thus, they found competing claims threatening, and focused mainly on keeping themselves safe. They weren't about to go on expedition to dinners with sinners, because, after all, what benefit was that to them? But Jesus was different. He was free from the prison of selfishness that ensnared most of the world and was thus able to be entirely available to search for every sheep that went astray. 

It is only in Christ that we ourselves may become free from the prison of self and available for others. This is what Paul described in his letter to the church at Rome:

None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

When we belong to him we begin to share his joy when the lost sheep is located and the lost coin is found. In fact, the degree to which we do share this joy is a good indicator of the degree to which God's priorities have become our own. This joy is the beginning of that which will be fully realized in the heavenly banquet. It will be filled, not only with our own joy that we managed to make it home, but with the joy of God himself in the fact that he brought us safely into his presence.

We Belong To God 

5 November 2025 - prepared for the cost

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.

We are called to begin our path of discipleship by understanding that it is necessary to resolve to put nothing ahead of Jesus, not possessions, not family, not even our own lives. If we don't realize at the beginning that it will be necessary to make sacrifices in order to choose Jesus we may find ourselves unwilling to do so when the need arises. We may never need to choose between family and following the Lord. But we need to commit virtually to choosing Jesus over anything else, however good. Without such a commitment we risk being like those who began a work but failed to finish because they didn't properly assess what would be required when they began.

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 ought to understand from the beginning that we are being called to a path that is, humanly speaking, impossible. If Jesus hadn't paid our debt there could be no tower allowing us access to the heavens. Our human resources are far to small to oppose another king with twenty thousand troops, unless, as with Gideon, God himself chooses to give victory to our smaller force. 

Jesus is not asking us to prepare simply so that we will be ready to grit our teeth and apply all of our own strength to what is asked of us. Rather, he is suggesting that from the beginning we ought to prepare to encounter circumstances which seem humanly impossible, but immediately rely on him to get us through. Without this resolution it will be all too easy to choose our possessions, whose value to us is something we have proven through experience, over the untried and apparently unlikely possibility of success in doing what he commands.

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

We aren't being called to anything as abstract as a construction project or as violent as a battle between earthly powers. We need to remember that the project is actually all about love. But in remembering this we should also keep in mind that we do not yet love as we ought to love, and that the kind of love being asked of us is not sentimental, but superhuman. If we treat love lightly we will fail when everything is on the line. But if we remember the advice of Jesus and turn to him in our need we will experience his own victory in our lives.

Relient K - For The Moments I Feel Faint

 

4 November 2025 - better things to do?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

When the time for the dinner came,
he dispatched his servant to say to those invited,
'Come, everything is now ready.'
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.

If, while sitting at the banquet, they had been asked whether they wanted to go and deal with the field or the oxen they recently acquired, they probably would have replied that those things didn't seem urgent. They could wait. Even the one who had recently married might have thought to enjoy the feast together with his wife before heading home where the practical necessities of building a new life together waited. The situation at the banquet would have been so overwhelmingly enjoyable that the things they once found to be urgently important no longer seemed so. They would have been caught up in the experience of a new freedom and depth of relationship such as they had never known. If they had to eventually return to their mundane quotidian existence, they would not have been in any hurry. But in fact, this group never made it to the banquet. When they evaluated their options they chose less rewarding things. On the surface, that seems confusing to us. But no doubt they did so because of a sense of perceived necessity balanced against a failure of imagination. They gave greater urgency to their worldly concerns than was appropriate. And they were unable to imagine just how good and worthwhile the banquet would be. And in this, they are just like us. We treat our worldly concerns as if our immortal souls depend on them. Our ability to imagine the heaven is so limited that it doesn't provide much motivating force. It feels as distant to us as a king's banquet did to the invited guests. Nice for some undetermined future date, to be sure. But hardly important to us at any given moment of a normal day. Saint Teresa of Avila compared life to a night in a bad motel. But we spend our days trying to do a better job furnishing the room.

Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant,
'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 ones who would actually be sufficiently motivated to attend the banquet were those who didn't imagine that they had better things to do. They were people who were so in need that they could easily imagine a banquet that could fulfill their longings. No longer would poverty leave them hungry, or being crippled, blind, or lame, prevent them from enjoying the best that life had to offer. The banquet itself would so fulfill them as to heal them virtually, if not in fact, since none of their limitations were able to keep them from the fullness of joy for which they longed. The imagination of this group wasn't preoccupied with the false promises of the world. They saw those clearly for what they were. Their situations and conditions made them ready to look elsewhere for what they most desired. Can we learn from them, without ourselves being poor or infirm, how important it is to richly imagine how good heaven will be? We get a chance to practice during every mass, which is, as we know, the marriage banquet of the Lamb. We often approach mass as merely more thing on a lengthy to-do list. We tend to prioritize anything and everything else more than it. We think that, if heaven will be like the mass, well, we aren't in any hurry to see it. But this is because we are attending the mass more like people in the first group who would rather be elsewhere. When we instead attend as a people of faith, bringing with us the expectation that the mass contains and allows us to access that which will fulfill us most, we become more able to access the truth of that reality.

When the mass begins to define our reality more than the myriad lesser things, we will find ourselves filled with the strength we need to do what Paul commanded his audience in Rome:

Let love be sincere;
hate what is evil,
hold on to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection;
anticipate one another in showing honor.
Do not grow slack in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope,
endure in affliction,
persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,
exercise hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you,
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Have the same regard for one another;
do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.

Matt Maher - The End And The Beginning

 

3 November 2025 - less bank, more banquet

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.

The problem with only focusing only on those people, places, and situations that we find rewarding is that it tends to lead us to narrow our focus and develop blind spots. If we aren't intentional about periodically deviating from our routine reward seeking we may gradually lose our freedom to do so. Jesus is present in our family and friends. But he is also present in the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and others. When we neglect his presence in these people we neglect encounters with Jesus which he might otherwise been able to fill with an abundance of his grace. In short, it is not only those whom we don't invite that miss out. It is also we ourselves.

Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

How will we be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous? It isn't as though we will benefit from cash, precious metals, or a direct deposit to our accounts. Even cryptocurrency can't be transferred to that destination. Instead, doing what Jesus advised will lead to repayment in the form of becoming more like him. After all, Jesus himself, more than anyone else, set a feast beyond imagining and invited only those with no way to repay him. In becoming merciful as he merciful we increase our capacity to enjoy relationship with him, which is the greatest possible reward.

For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?

We will never give God anything in payment that he himself did not first give us to offer. The situation is like a parent who pays so that his child may give him a birthday present. Yet the enjoyment of that parent-child relationship is itself intrinsically valuable. That ritual of exchange creates joy that would otherwise be missed. So too, and more, when we offer back to God the gifts he has first given to us. We will never know enough that we will be able to offer him suggestions about how to do his job. But as we take the opportunities he gives us to share in his job, to be his coworkers, we will come to understand him more and more. We will say with Paul that "we have the mind of Christ" (see First Corinthians 2:16).

Michelle Swift - God And Man At Table Our Sat Down