Our Daily Bread:Neh 2:1-8; Luke 9:57-62

I will follow you.

St. Jerome, under the direction of Pope Damasus I, revised the Latin New Testament and the Latin Psalter, and later in life translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin. All this before computers! Jerome was an irascible sort who made bitter enemies of those he condemned and alienated fellow Christians with his sarcastic manner. He is honored for his enormous contribution and forgiven for his personal failures. May we each be so blessed?

*St. Jerome, pray for us.

Our Daily bread:Dan 7:9-10, 13-14 or Rev 12:7-12a; John 1:47-51

Feast of the Archangels
You will see angels.

Everybody loves angels. The cherub is most popular, followed by the graceful feminine form, often carrying a harp. "Sweet" is the word, not "scary," as these angels must have been. Angels are often depicted as heavenly human beings with wings (or waiting for them, like Clarence in "It’s A Wonderful Life"). However, angels are their own species, messengers of the Lord (angel is from the Greek angelos, meaning "messenger"), and so powerful that when they rebel, they create Hell. Satan is an angel gone bad. It is Michael’s job to fight Satan for the souls of human beings. Gabriel is the angel who appears to Mary and announces the birth of Jesus. Raphael is associated with healing and appears in the Book of Tobit, and some attribute to him the stirring of the healing pool of Bethesda. Baby angels are cute, but these archangels testify to God’s awesome creation and can be called on to protect us in times of danger.

*Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, pray for us!

Our Daily Bread: Zech 8:1-8; Luke 9:46-50

The one who is least among you is the greatest.

From the prophet Zechariah, we hear of the poignant dreams of refugees who want only to grow old watching their children play in the safe streets of their homeland. Today’s world includes many such exiles, and their dreams are much the same. Have we forgotten Jesus’ promise that as we welcome the stranger, so shall we be welcomed; as we regard the poor, so shall we be regarded? Or as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, "greatest" and "least" have a different meaning in the kingdom. Jesus, fear for the future makes us cautious and less generous to others.

*Be the Lord of our fear so that we might not disdain the least.

Our Daily bread:Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a; Luke 9:43b-45

Pay attention to what I am telling you.

The Son of Man is to be handed over to men. We find the widespread astonishment over Jesus’ powerful works juxtaposed with Jesus’ anxiety over a hard reality that he alone seems to grasp. His status as celebrity will give way as he is handed over to the authorities who will try and convict him and sentence him to an ignominious death. Jesus, anticipating the supreme act of love that he will offer at Calvary, bears the weight of this awful knowledge alone. Let us pray today especially for those who have no one to support them through their trials. *

*For all those whose suffering is compounded by loneliness, we pray.

Our Daily Bread: Hag 2:1-9; Luke 9:18-22

He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.

Jesus was special. The crowds knew that. But for the most part, they underestimated him, speculating that he was perhaps John the Baptist returned from the dead or one of the prophets, maybe even the great Elijah. Curiously, when Peter accurately identifies Jesus as "the Messiah of God," Jesus tells the disciples to keep this knowledge secret. In time, they would understand the title more fully and the unspeakable suffering that Jesus would endure in bearing it. Revelation comes by God’s design, in God’s time. As we gratefully accept Jesus as the Christ, let us also humbly acknowledge that we have more to learn about his saving love and its implications for our lives.

*For openness and humility, we pray.

Our Daily Bread: Hag 1:1-8; Luke 9:7-9

And he kept trying to see him.

Herod can’t help but be fascinated by the Galilean miracle worker who is fast growing in fame. So what prevents him from seeing Jesus? Many gather around Jesus with hope for healing and with at least some openness that allows for faith, even love; but Herod is suspicious, fearful and probably jealous of Jesus.

His desire is motivated not by virtue but by self-interest. Like Herod, we may be trying, to no avail, to see Jesus — in the foreigner, the irritating colleague, the difficult relative, the crabby child. What prevents us from seeing him in others? Little good can be said of poor Herod, except this: He kept trying. Let us do likewise, but with eyes of faith, hope and love.

*For eyes that see Jesus in others, we pray.

Our Daily Bread: Ezra 9:5-9; Luke 9:1-6

Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.

Can we even imagine living so sparsely? Conditioned as we are by runaway consumption, swamped in our own stuff, this seems an impossible exhortation. Yet our difficulty with it only highlights our need for it. Indeed, more than our discipleship is at stake. The planet itself is endangered by our ever-growing hunger for more. We also suffer untold stress as we try to manage too many possessions. Let us strive to live more simply — relying fully on God — that we might become better stewards of creation and, in turn, grow in faithfulness to the Lord.

*For the grace to live simply that others may simply live, we pray.

Our Daily Bread: Ezra 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20; Luke 8:19-21

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.

We expect Jesus to turn away from the crowd in favor of his family. Instead, he seizes a teachable moment and delights the people, no doubt, by announcing that those who hear the word of God and act on it are his family.

Family provides us with an organic experience of intimacy and status that helps us to comprehend God’s love, to know ourselves as God’s beloved children. Yet this model may fail those who have not had healthy, loving experiences of family.

*Let us pray today especially for families that are broken or dysfunctional, as well as for those who have no family. For the grace to treat all people as beloved brothers and sisters, we pray.