The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 20:17-27
Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
John 17:1-11a

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

I know it sounds pretty dramatic and self-concerned, but haven't you ever felt like you were “languishing” -- that the things you had a grip on, the plans you had carefully made for some eventual good -- were all kind of evaporating?

Sometimes these experiences make me want to just give up and let someone else take the lead, to be in charge. What I really mean is, I suffer when things don't go well. The truth of it is, however, that we all suffer when we don't do our best, whatever that best might be, even if the results are not all we hoped they would be.

It doesn't matter if others, perhaps, don't do their part; that's between them and God. What does matter is that we do our part and not be judgmental of others and the constraints that life and circumstances heap upon them.

Being often self-absorbed, I think mostly of my own circumstances and fail to rightfully consider those of others. In imitation of Christ, I must more and more forget self, remembering that though He was God, He did not exempt Himself from disappointment or temptation; but instead, relied on His Father for the grace to always and everywhere do what was right and necessary for salvation. That is our call too -- our wild and wonderful call to share with Christ in the salvation of ourselves and that of the world.

“A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished."

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

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