A Concord Pastor Comments: Hurricane / Mass / What to do / Kate and Will

Image: CLC

How's that for a subject line? You'll need to read the whole post to make sense of it!

Time for my weekly last-minute reminder to take a look at the scriptures for tomorrow as the best way to prepare to celebrate the Lord's Day!

And if the hurricane keeps you away from Sunday Mass, beginning your prayer at home with the day's Word is a great starting place.

An earlier post will link you to the scriptures, brief commentary on them and hints for helping your children prepare to hear the Word, too.

I'm on vacation so I won't be preaching this weekend. If I were, I'd take this meaty text from Romans as the starting point for my homily:

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

I didn't pay much attention to, let alone watch, the most recent royal nuptials but Todd at Catholic Sensibility notes that this text was one of the scriptures at Kate and Will's wedding!

Todd also points out, wisely, that if the hurricane should keep us from worshiping with our faith community, spending time in prayer with the day's scriptures would be the place to begin. Consider inviting family and neighbors to join you!

Some starting points for reflection:
- how do the physical and spiritual come together in my worship of God?
- how do I identify "this age?" how do I conform to it?
- how does my mind need to be transformed? changed? morphed?
- what is God's "good, pleasing and perfect" will for my life?
- how do I discern God's will in my life? do I try to know God's will for me? do I follow God's will when I believe I've discerned it?