God makes us shameless praiser-askers – Luke 11:1-13, Col 2:12-14

Ordinary Time, Yr C, Week 17; St. Thomas More parish (Knebworth, England)

With this being an Olympic year, we’ll soon get to watch some amazing feats of athleticism.  We’ll see women and men who truly have been born with great gifts from God – their genetics, their opportunities, the people who support them – and who also have worked incredibly hard to hone their skills.  None of what we’ll see is their own un-aided un-God-given achievement, but none of it comes naturally either, not without being taught and trained.  In our gospel, we see that the disciples recognize that this is true too in their life of prayer.  Just like any athletic skill, or musical, or literary, the disciples know that they need to be taught, and they ask Jesus, “Teach us how to pray.”

Jesus lifts us out of the ditch – Luke 10:26-37

Ordinary Time, Yr C, 15th Sunday; St. Mary's

“Who is my neighbor?”  I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve heard that question often enough that I’m not sure it no longer stirs in my heart what needs to be stirred.  When I realized this week that we could just as grammatically render it “Who is near me?” it started to do a little more work.  Then, I thought that right now might not be the time for grammatical fastidiousness, and I might need the freshness of this: “Whose lives matter?”  “Who is my neighbor…? Who is near me…? Whose lives matter?”