Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Today's Word
Mt 13:24-43; Rom 8:26-27 Read at USCCB
Real Talk
Jesus says the kingdom is like a field where someone planted good seed and an enemy snuck in at night and planted weeds. Now they're tangled together. The servants want to fix it now. The master says no - wait. You'll damage the wheat trying to pull the weeds.
You will spend your entire life in a mixed field. The good and the bad grow together. You are not exempt from the mixture. And the sorting is not yours to do.
Paul adds something stranger: when you don't know how to pray - when it's all too heavy or too complicated or too much - the Spirit prays for you in groanings that can't even be put into words. The prayer happens even when you can't.
One Prayer
"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee." - St. Augustine, Confessions
Your Challenge
The parable ends with the righteous shining like the sun - not just surviving, shining. What is the difference between enduring a hard situation and actually shining in it? Name one specific situation in your life right now that feels like a mixed field. What would shining look like in that field this week - not just getting through it?
You are not alone. Submit your intentions and they'll be carried to Holy Hour this Sunday.
Take to Holy Hour