Ordinary Time 
Pause
Take a moment to notice any lightness or tension in your body. Are you full of energy or feeling depleted? Are your shoulders tight? Are you thirsty?
Ask God how you can take good care of God’s love embodied in you today.
Breathe in deeply and breathe out slowly four times, remembering God’s care and love for you with each breath.
And hear these words from Jeremiah 29:11:
I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.
Listen
Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, ‘Give me justice in this case against my adversary.’ For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don’t fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.”
Luke 18:1-5
Think
The judge in this parable does not respect God or people. Clearly, this parable is not calling God an unjust judge! What if God is like the persistent widow, who will not stop seeking justice until even stubborn, unjust judges give in? What if God loves us so much that God will not cease in crying out every single day when injustice persists in the world? And what if we have the opportunity each day to listen for the voices of those in this world who are crying out for justice?
Seeking justice – equity, fairness, and social compassion – is a daily invitation for our lives. The scope of the work can sometimes feel too broad, pervasive, and overwhelming, so take a step back and ask: What is one thing I can do today to contribute toward a more just world? Maybe you will listen to someone who you might have otherwise ignored, join the work of creation care, or volunteer at an affordable housing build. Justice requires small, daily actions as well as large-scale culture shifts and community changes!
Katie Strednak Singer
Pray
Holy One, teach me what it means to pray without ceasing, that my whole life might become a prayer lived out for you! Trusting that there is power in persistence, grant me the stamina and passion to work for justice in your world. Teach us to listen to each other, in your name! Amen.
Go
No matter what you are wrestling with today, remember that God goes with you along the way. Together with God, you can make it through hard things!
God has said:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 43:2
