The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, May 18, 2005
The Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
St. John I, pope and martyr

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Sirach 4:11-19
Psalm 119:165,168,171-172,174-175
John 12:44-50

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

The readings for today on Wisdom (First Reading) and Evangelization (Gospel) might bring to mind several common sayings, such as 'God's ways are not man's ways' or 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. Sometimes in our enthusiasm to reach out to another person for the purpose of evangelization we forget that the Holy Spirit is not limited by our enthusiasm. In God's plan it might not be the right time for that person to be touched by us. Perhaps we are not using the right means or their soul may not yet be ready and open for our words. Worse yet, we might be injecting ourselves into the agenda instead of God.

Our recently deceased pope, John Paul II, in his role as an evangelizer was very astute in reading the movings of the Holy Spirit . Our newly elected Holy Father, Benedict XVI, has promised to follow in the footsteps of Pope, John Paul II in his attempts at evangelization on an ecumenical level.

Let us pray that our Holy Father and all who evangelize may be open to the workings of the Holy Spirit, our true source of wisdom.

- Joan of Jesus, OCDS
(jmurphy at utica dot edu)

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