Word for the Weekend: July 24

Photo by Purplemattfish

This coming weekend finds us celebrating Eucharist on the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  You'll find the scriptures for the day and commentary on them right here and if you're coming to Mass with children, here are some hints for helping youngsters to prepare to hear the Word. (And adults might find those same hints helpful, too!)

This Sunday's scriptures focus us on prayer. Following last week's first reading, another story from Genesis finds Abraham prayer-bargaining with the Lord to determine for how small a group of innocent folk the Lord will spare Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham gets the Lord to pledge he'll spare the cities for the sake of 10. Although the reading ends there, we know that 10 innocent citizens were not found and the cities were destroyed.

In the gospel passage from Luke, the Lord, at his disciples' request, teaches them how to pray: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come... This is followed by a lesson with Jesus instructing his followers in the value in persisting in prayer. And between these two major texts, we find Paul writing to the Colossians and to us of our sharing in Christ's dying and rising in baptism and how baptism frees us from the debt of sin.

If you pray, or used to pray, or try to pray, or want to pray or need to pray... take a look at the first and third readings for Sunday and see how they speak to you - and prepare to hear them proclaimed on the weekend.


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