The Catholic Calendar for Monday, October 3, 2005
The Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Jonah 1:1--2:1, 11
Jonah 2:2-5,8
Luke 10:25-37

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

I love today's story from the book of Jonah. It is one that we have heard many times in Holy Scripture and perhaps have even experienced in our own lives. Like Jonah, God calls each of us to to do something special to extend the Kingdom of God. Yet, to many of us, the call doesn't seem extraordinary -- we think it really isn't a call from God and choose to ignore it.

God, however, is not One to be ignored. Infinitely patient and creative, He waits and waits, planting knowledge and love of Him in our path so that one day we might wake up and realize that the call was indeed from God and not something that we can inconsequently brush aside.

Perhaps we haven't been swallowed by a whale; but there are times, I’m sure, that we feel we might as well have swallowed by that whale! Let’s be sure to recognize Who it is that we are reckoning with and not make God have to resort to such dramatic extents -- of which He is capable -- in order to get our attention. Instead, may God grant us the grace of docile, humble hearts that we might hear His voice and obey Him with all the strength of our will.

- Donna Raye Nelson, OCDS
(drn3rd at hotmail dot com)