Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.

By: Sister Ruth Maier

“We are God’s people.”

Opening Prayer

Almighty and faithful God,
our hope and our strength, without You we falter.
Help us to follow Jesus, the Christ, and to live and
act according to Your will.

We make our prayer through Jesus, Your Son, in unity
with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Scripture

Matthew 9: 36 – 10: 5

At the sight of the crowd, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.

Then he summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness …

Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection

Matthew tells us that Jesus is concerned with this crowed before Him because He senses that they are troubled, without anyone to care for them. So His compassion for them sends the twelve to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” to proclaim to them “that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

But it was just three weeks ago as we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension into heaven that He now tells them to “Go and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Today, this Gospel is likewise summoning each of us – disciples by our baptism – to be laborers for the abundant harvest in our midst. As disciples, our task is to find the lost, the sick, the leper, those possessed by demons and lead them to “the Kingdom of heaven,” so they might rise to new life.

How might you participate in this mission of Jesus today?
How might you deepen your compassion for the lost and troubled people you will encounter this week?

Closing Prayer

God of mercy and compassion,
You sent Your Son, Jesus, to shepherd us as Your people.
May we always be faithful to the ministry of shepherding
the troubled and abandoned, giving without cost generously
of what we have received; proclaiming by our lives that the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

Welcoming the Holy