Lord,

as daylight slowly permeates the sky,

send Your light to guide us.

Fill our lives with Your grace so we mirror Your love,

grant us Your wisdom and care,

to help us on our way.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  [Dcn. Kelly]

– Amen.

“… Pope John XXIII (now Saint) observed: ‘We are not on earth to look after a museum, but to take care of a garden in bloom.’”  [Embers in the Ashes, p. 10] 

We are called to live in the garden of Christ.  We are responsible to be hospitable to those who visit the garden of Christ, especially the garden of His Church!

We are responsible to offer cups of cold water, i.e. acts of kindness to those who enter and those we should invite to join us.  We are responsible to live our lives for Jesus Christ into whose life, death & resurrection we are baptized!  Hospitality is the root of community, in particular, Christian community.  Hospitality touches the soul. 

The Gospel is a wake-up call to what is important in life!  Maybe this story can help shed light on important things in life.  “The company threw a lavish dinner to honor its CEO upon his retirement….  At the … dinner, the CEO addressed his remarks to the company’s young executives: ‘I know you all want my job.  Let me tell you how to get it.

Last week my daughter was married, & as I walked her down the aisle, I realized I did not know the name of her best friend, or the last book she read, or her favorite color.  That’s the price I paid for this job.  If you want to pay that price, you can have it.”  (Table Talk, Cycle A, p.155)

In our ever increasingly secular culture those who put God 1^st are and will be ridiculed, mocked and ignored.  That CEO reflects Secular Values: me first, who needs God!  Jesus calls us to an ever-deeper relationship with Him; He should be # 1 in everything we say or do!

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart & Don Black wrote, Love Changes Everything:

“Love, love changes everything

Hands & faces, earth & sky

Love, love changes everything

How you live & how you die

Love, love changes everything

Days are longer, words mean more

Love, love changes everything

Pain is deeper than before 

Love will never, never let you be the same!”

When you fall in love with God, you will never be the same.

May God Be Praised!