Title: Meditation: Thursday, July 18, 2002

The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, July 18, 2002
    The Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
    St. Camillus

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
    Isaiah 26:7-9,12,16-19
    Psalm 102:13-21
    Matthew 11:28-30

A Reflection on Today's Scripture:

Tonight when I sat down to write this meditation I felt crushing
weariness. I almost asked the editor (my husband) to stand in for me and
write the meditation himself. But I prayed instead and asked the Lord,
with all my heart, to help me. "Let the words come easily Lord, and
quickly, and oh yes Lord, let them be effective."

It seemed like a tall order. I was weighed down by problems and worrys
of the day. Differences in opinions were about to rip associates apart,
plus, I was physically beat after a busy day at work. "Write your
'med'!" (our term for meditations), a small inner voice kept saying to
me. "Oh, all right," I silently replied, "I'll give it a shot."

The First Reading and Responsorial Psalm although containing some lovely
verses, were troublesome and presented an overburdening challenge. "This
is too difficult Lord, too much for me tonight."  "Keep going!" the
inner voice urged. Now only the gospel was left and if some thought
didn't come from it, I would really be sunk. "Please Lord, help me," I
prayed. I turned the page, almost with dread. Would the gospel too,
prove difficult?

At first, I thought two pages had stuck together because the page that
turned over only had one paragraph on it. Was it, I wondered, the final
paragraph of some other reading or gospel?  "No," I discovered, it was
the Gospel for the day. Uh-oh, I thought, a one paragraph Gospel, for
sure I'm in for trouble. I took a deep breath and expecting the worst
began to read:

Jesus, spoke thus: "Come to me, all you who are weary and find life
burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulder and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find
rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light."
(Matthew 11:28-30)

Thank you Jesus. Good night Jesus.

- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds ([EMAIL PROTECTED])


YOU CAN HELP to evangelize the Word of God:
Please recommend our website to your friends and Catholic webmasters at:
http://www.borg.com/~joachim/DailyMeds.html (case sensitive).

ARCHIVED Meditations: http://www.abcsoffaith.com/quiet/quietplace.html
and at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
For ALL communications, including subscribe/unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

(c)2002 The Way, The Truth, The Life. Permission granted to make reprints of
the meditations or to post on any web page, except for profit. Scripture
texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New
Testament and Revised Psalms (c)1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner.
All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in
any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Full text from the New American Bible: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm
Lives of the Saints: http://www.christdesert.org/public_texts/martyrology/

Reply via email to