Ask the Master of the Harvest July 11

Piety

Father, help us to balance our lives with the prayer and work that you require.

Give us mouths to praise you. Give us eyes to seek you. Give us ears to hear you. Give us noses to smell the honeysuckle of the world.

Let us be your hands, reaching out and touching those who need a friend. Let us be your feet, walking where you want us to go. Let us place our full trust in work of God, and not be distracted by the “things” we create. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071106.shtml

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38

Benedict of Nursia wrote “The Rule” and founded a monastery based upon it in the sixth century. Today, Catholics everywhere celebrate the feast day in his honor.

At Belmont Abbey College, where Beth and I met, a concrete statue of St. Benedict looms about ten feet tall on the steps leading up to the Abbey Basilica. His eyes gaze upon all visitors to the church and campus like a teacher watching his or her students taking a test.

St. Benedict’s gaze falls upon our Cursillo movement. His rule shapes our goals. Benedict’s rule for life in community stressed balance between daily work and prayer with periods of time also set aside for lectio, or sacred reading. As Cursillistas seeking lives filled with piety, study and action, Benedict’s rule provides an enduring and historical framework for our movement.

Today, Matthew gives us a great reminder of this balance needed in life. Work, the harvest, demands our time but the laborer are too few. If we take on the harvest then we will have to neglect some other aspects of our life. When we encounter situations where life lacks this necessary balance, what are we to do? Pray. “Ask the master of the harvest” what His divine plan is so he can send more laborers and we can have balance.

St. Benedict Rule is read daily in monasteries all over the world. Today’s chapter is a warning on private ownership – everything should be owned in community. Things we own tie us to the world. The pursuit of getting “things” also distracts us from the harvest like Hosea warns in today’s first reading. Benedict’s simple formula is not to deprive ourselves of everything, but to own them in community as the way to have the freedom and balance to live a life based upon mutual giving.

Action

Take a shopping bag (or two or more) and fill it with things you don’t really need. Drop it off at a food pantry, thrift store or homeless shelter.