Faith Daily | 21 October 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - PENTECOST Pentecost 21

Almighty God,

your Son has opened for us

a new and living way into your presence:

give us pure hearts and steadfast wills

to worship you in spirit and in truth;

through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: Luke 12: 49-53

49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by: Carol Streatfield

How much we would all like Jesus to have come to fix everything! How much would we still like Jesus to just fix everything! But it is so hard to change. After all, if the other person just stopped doing what they’re doing, or did it our way, wouldn’t everything be good? There’d be no problem.

Jesus was proposing some pretty radical attitudes and ways of doing things. Elevating women and children far beyond where they should be; not purifying before eating; working on the Sabbath. Accepting refugees who came by boat; sitting in the gutter with the down-and-out; collecting the refuse off the beach on a Sunday and thinking twice about throwing out the take-away container. And when it comes to vaccinations and conspiracy theories, well …!

Change doesn’t come easy. And when it comes to trying to talk with one’s mother, or brother, or cousin, or sister-in-law about what’s obviously just common sense, well, what can you do?! Jesus never said it would be easy.

FINAL PRAYER: St Francis de Sales - Set Your Heart Free

Thank you for all the gifts of this day.

In my impatience

to do it my way,

you alone know how many times today

I have stumbled over you

without ever recognising you.

Thank you for your patience with me.

Amen.