Thursday – 31st Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke 15:1-10

Lost and Found

Tennessee Sheep

A few years ago, we were over at Jaime’s house in Elmhurst helping to rake up the autumn leaves into bags.  As the bags began to pile up, I suddenly noticed that my ring (my dad’s graduation ring) was missing from my finger.  I was frantic!  And so we began this massive search – scouring the grass and dumping out all the bags in a quest that I believed would be hopeless.  But then it happened, in spite of everything, we found the ring.  I can’t begin to tell me how excited, relieved, how joyful I was to place that ring back on my finger!  Needless to say, to this day, even though raking leaves is no longer one of my tasks,  I am much more careful with Dad’s ring!

We hear of something else lost in today’s Gospel – a little sheep.  The parable speaks to us of what an amazing and unusual Shepherd God really is!  No true shepherd would ever leave 99 all by themselves just to find 1 single sheep.  Without a shepherd to guide them, they would all wander off by themselves.  And in the process of looking for 1 sheep, the other 99 would get lost.  But God is not a normal shepherd.  He cares about each and every one of us and He will never leave us alone.

We all get lost sometimes – we lose our way, we lose sight of what’s important and precious, we struggle in the darkness of our own stresses and fears.  But God reminds us today that we are each precious to Him, more precious than any possession, even a cellphone.  Trust in Him, know that even in the darkness, He will find you, comfort you and bring you back home!  And that is when we will experience joy like no other!

Great Spirit, let me walk in the stillness and always feel Your presence by my side.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  Feast of the Presentation Gospel – Luke 2:22-40 We Are Family Church of St. Joseph, Nazareth 5 extremely short stories to start the day! Once all the people in a village decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That is faith. When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That is trust. Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but we still set the alarm to wake up. That is hope. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence. We see the world suffering, but still, we get married and have children. That is love. Faith, hope, love, confidence and trust!   Sounds like a perfect list of values/virtues for a happy family! Today’s Gospel tells us of another family – the Holy Family going up to Jerusalem with the baby Jesus to present Him to the Lord in ...
Read more
Image
  Tuesday – St. Aloysius Gonzaga Gospel – Matthew 7:6, 12-14 Narrow Gate Old City, Jerusalem We celebrate today the Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.   He was raised in a wealthy and powerful noble family in northern Italy in the 16 th century.   As a youth, he served as a page for King Philip and afterwards trained to be a soldier.   However that career path was cut short by kidney disease.   After he recovered, he gave up all his wealth and title and entered the Jesuit order at the age of 19.   When the plague broke out in Rome, he volunteered to care for the sick.   Unfortunately he fell victim to the disease and died a scant 4 months later at the age of 22. He could have easily kept his title and wealth; he could have enjoyed a comfortable easy life.   But instead he chose a different path, a path that was not only uncomfortable but extremely difficult and   challenging. In terms of today’s Gospel, Aloysius chose the ‘narr...
Read more
Image
Tuesday - Third Week of Easter Gospel – John 6:30-35 Knead to Know Cooking Class Over the past month or so, I gathered together a couple groups of my altar servers for a cooking class!   They learned not only my recipe for zucchini chocolate chip muffins but how to make them from scratch!   And, YES, they took home their finished products, or at least the muffins they didn’t wolf down as soon as they came out of the oven!   It was a fun, wonderful (and messy) experience!   Who knew that cracking eggs and measuring out flour could be so ‘untidy’.   But it brought home the lesson that, in order to get those yummy muffins, it takes time, effort and a heaping cup of patience. And it reminded me not only of their loyal service but those long months of Covid when they missed their Mass ministry.   So from time to time during the pandemic, I stayed in touch with them by dropping off goodie bags filled with chocolate chip cookies, zucchini chocolate ...
Read more