"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Millennials are the worst, right? Well, the other week I came across this fantastic article which presents the kind of proverbs King Solomon may have written if he was a Millennial:
Train up a child in either Apple or Android;
and even when they are old they will not depart from it.
A wise man reads an article before commenting;
a foolish man forms his opinion based on the preview title.
For more, please click on the image below:
Today someone posted this picture on Facebook:
It’s quite a nice graphic and it reminds me of what I recently read in Proverbs:
Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. – Proverbs 17:9
Once again, in the spirit of regaining more of my free time to engage in other projects, these notes will be fairly terse and to the point…
The Readings this week continue on a similar trajectory to those of recent weeks. In Proverbs we hear how Lady Wisdom has “dressed her meat [and] mixed her wine” and sent out an invitation to all to come eat and drink at her table. In our Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist invites us once again to “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord”. St. Paul continues his moral exhortation to the Ephesians in the Second Reading , commending them to be “filled with the Spirit” rather than wine. Finally, in our Gospel extract, the Lord again affirms that He is “the living bread that came down from heaven” and He promises that “whoever eats this bread will live forever”.
For the last few weeks the Readings have all been about food and drink. Are you hungry yet? Are you spiritually salivating? Are you hungry for holiness? Do you long for the flesh of Christ?
I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was of the seed of David; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life. – St. Ignatius to the Romans, Chapter 7
The readings this week continue with the theme of the Second Coming, particularly focusing upon how we should “spend” our time waiting for the Lord to return…
In the First Reading we hear praise of the “worthy wife”. She is holy, conscientious and industrious. In the Second Reading, St. Paul explains to the Thessalonians what we learnt in last week’s Gospel, that the Lord will come when we least expect, but also that He should find us ready. In the Gospel Reading this readiness is spelt out in concrete terms – we should be using our God-given gifts in the service of the Master. He will someday return and we shall be called to account concerning our stewardship of His gifts…
The other day I was having lunch with a friend and, out of the blue, she asked me: “What’s the most important quality you look for in a wife?”
Americans! Sheesh! Whatever happened to polite conversation about the weather?!
I did have to chuckle a bit though… You see, at the moment I’m spending some time reassessing and discerning again my vocation – married life, priestly life, religious life or consecrated celibacy. Therefore, questions regarding the qualities of a future wife may well be, at this point, moot.
But I also laughed because of the various texts which flashed through my mind when she asked this question. One such text was from the Book of Proverbs:
“Who can find a worthy woman?” – Proverbs 31:10 (ESV)
Who indeed?! 😉
I can still remember when, at university, I was asked to be a Reader one evening and I encountered this scripture for the first time. I had to read this passage at Mass without sniggering. I won’t lie, it was kinda hard…