Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Every time I encounter these lines from Ecclesiastes, I cannot help but hear the melody of a pop song of the 1960s. Younger readers may not know it: “Turn, Turn, Turn,” by the Byrds.

There is an appointed time for everything under the sun. That’s very different than saying there is time for everything. Busy people everywhere, even students and monks may wonder about that.

But there is a time for everything in life. The lifespan of each of us includes many moments – moments of joy and moments of sadness, moments of accomplishment, and moments of challenge, even seeming defeat. Life and death. Weeping and laughing. Beginnings and endings. Sowing and Reaping.

All of these are, or can be, moments of grace. Though some may not always appear to be.

Qoheleth tells us that God has put the timeless into the human heart. God has put the eternal into our hearts. That is the eternal design of God that we should be united with God in eternity. The spark of the eternal is the thirst for God. The restlessness that keeps us seeking rest in God. And our hearts are ultimately restless until they rest in the Lord, as St. Augustine reminds us.

There is an appointed time for everything under the sun; some of these moments are scheduled, expected, or even looked forward to. Many are spontaneous and unexpected. Let us ask for the grace to see God’s hand in all of these moments of grace and to respond in charity and with peace of heart.

Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB