Presence

I pause for a moment
and think of the love and the grace
that God showers on me,
creating me in His image and likeness,
making me His temple….

Freedom

Lord, You created me to live in freedom. May Your Holy Spirit guide me to follow You freely. Instil in my heart a desire to know and love You more each day.

Consciousness

Heavenly Father, thank You that Your love never fails and that Your mercies are new every morning. May I never fail to turn to You with my needs, with my love.

The Word of God

¹⁵One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. ¹⁷At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ ¹⁹Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ ²⁰Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²²And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ ²³Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”

Inspiration

This gospel is all about an invitation. We are all called to a holiness of life, which means to the banquet feast in heaven. It is the whole purpose of our being on this earth. As the poet Paddy Kavanagh wrote, ‘Those who have not flown home to God, have not flown at all.’

This is the challenge to every Christian: no matter what our vocation in life is, we have to choose to respond to or reject this invitation to a real, lived relationship with God. We can make excuses like the people in this gospel, that we have farms to manage, businesses to run and families to rear, but in the end, we must decide and then live that decision. Pope Francis wrote, ‘I do not believe in a holiness without prayer.’

Conversation

God’s Word is always fruitful.
How is it touching me now
as I reflect on what I have just prayed?
Do I feel comforted?
Do I feel challenged?

Conclusion

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Amen