20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 18, 2024)
Prov 9.1-6; Eph 5.15-20; Jn 6.51-58
In today’s Collect we pray for the warmth of God’s love and the ability to love all things in Him.
And in the Second Reading, St. Paul calls the Catholic community at Ephesus to recognize the needs of others and to live lives exemplary to those around them. He proclaims this message by stressing their need to know the Psalms and to sing unto the Lord and to drink wine properly!
Though these “days are evil,” eating and drinking, community and shared experience, laughter and tears can be very holy events in the lives of Jesus’ followers.
If these are done with gratitude for where these gifts come from and with the intention of using them for the Lord’s greater glory, this world becomes the beginning of heaven.
For this to happen, both St. Paul and St. John stress that all Christian disciples must be bound in the unity of the Holy Spirit, most perfectly manifested in the Holy Eucharist.
Pro-Life Intercession
That as God’s People look forward to the resurrection on the last day, they may bring a new respect for human life into our laws and policies today, we pray to the Lord ...