“Never Fail You or Forsake You” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

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“Never Fail You or Forsake You” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Then Moses summoned Joshua and in the presence of all Israel said to him, "Be brave and steadfast, for you must bring this people into the land which the LORD swore to their fathers he would give them; you must put them in possession of their heritage. It is the LORD who marches before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed." (Deuteronomy 31:7-8)

The portion of the Lord is his people. (Deuteronomy 31:9a)

What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." (Matthew 18:12-14)

Piety

Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home, and in my family. Amen. (Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great for the souls in purgatory)

Study

It happens almost every time I’m talking with a group of Catholic women of a certain age whom I haven’t met before. One of them finds a private moment and she tells me that she’s baptized one of her grandchildren. Her adult children don’t have any sort of spiritual practice, and she is grieved by that and wonders what she did wrong. She prays for their conversion. But it’s the grandchildren who worry her. At least her children got their sacraments. Her grandchildren are getting… nothing, she thinks. And so, she baptized them, because what would happen if an accident befell them and they died tomorrow? What about their salvation?

In these situations, I mainly listen. Generally, I counsel advising the children that she’s done this, but I don’t get into the fine points of whether she should have or could have. That’s a conversation for her to have with a priest. I do remind her that maintaining a relationship with her children will give her so many, many opportunities for evangelization to them and the grandkids. For is there any more powerful tool in bringing souls to the Lord than living our daily lives in service to and love for Him and His people?

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus reminds us that the Father searches high and low for the sheep who have gone astray. Not one of them has to be lost. Let’s do our best to point them back to Him by our every word and action.

Action

Offer a prayer for those who are away from the faith and for those who died without knowing the Lord.