Ordinary Time

Pause

“We belong in a bundle of life. We say, ‘A person is a person through other persons.’ It is not, ‘I think therefore I am.’ It says rather, ‘I am human because I belong. I participate, I share.’”

from No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu (1999)

Listen

If the Lord hadn’t been for us— let Israel now repeat!— if the Lord hadn’t been for us, when those people attacked us then they would have swallowed us up whole with their rage burning against us! Then the waters would have drowned us; the torrent would have come over our necks; then the raging waters would have come over our necks!

Bless the Lord because he didn’t hand us over like food for our enemies’ teeth! We escaped like a bird from the hunters’ trap; the trap was broken so we escaped!

Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 124

Think

What are you thankful for? What song of thanks could you sing? For health? For life? For stuff? For God helping you out of a tough situation, like the psalmist? What about the people around you? Are you thankful for them?

We give thanks to God that we are not alone but are surrounded by brothers and sisters who keep us strong and connected to the whole human family.

God goes with us on this journey: beside us, in front of us, behind us, above us, beneath us, to remind us that we are not alone. And sometimes God finds us in the shape of another human being. Jacob told Esau in Genesis 33:10, “Seeing your face is like seeing God’s face, since you’ve accepted me so warmly.”

Look around you. Can you see God in the people you meet? God is there if you look hard enough.

Kim Crowley

Pray

God of all, thank you for all my brothers and sisters who travel alongside me in my journey. Thank you for being with me along the way whether I go through the deepest ocean or up the highest mountain. Amen.

Go

Go and remember: you belong to the body of Christ. The body needs you in order to work as it should.

Go out and share your gifts, so that the body of Christ may be the healing love of God to the world.