The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, October 1, 2005
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary time
St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29
Psalm 69: 33-37
Luke 10:17-24

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Ambition can have a good meaning, and a bad one. Our parents so prayed for ambitious sons and daughters who would eventually be eager to help on the farm for an aging father, or helping a tired mother, worn out with taking care of children and cooking and cleaning from morning until night. That kind of ambition is best summed up as industriousness. But Jesus in today's Gospel condemns his disciples for being "ambitious" for praise and self-glorification. After all, they have cast out demons and cured diseases. Jesus rebukes them, telling them that such ambition will not win them the kingdom, bur, rather, they should seek a childlike spirit.

How fitting is such a message for the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux. She won sainthood by her "little way", consistently child-like in accepting pain and suffering, and delighting to serve God through insignificance. In turn, her Beloved was delighted with her, and, in turn, has fulfilled her every prayer from her heavenly workbench. May we take this lesson to heart this day, seeking to fuse our pains and sufferings with the Passion of Jesus Christ. While we will in all probability never be canonized, we will achieve a spirit of peaceful serenity and joy that can be attained in no other way.

- Msgr. Paul Whitmore
(smartins@frontiernet.net)