Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

We are not in charge. It’s that simple. We want to be. We think we have to be, yet it’s not all about us. Each one of us makes individual decisions, and we all bear individual responsibility for them. Still, we have to come to grips with how much we don’t control. That’s hard. God provides. God creates. God loves. We respond as we can.

We hear again today the timeless Parable of the Sower and the Seed. Instead of reflecting on it technically, I want to quote from poetry. Denise Levertov wrote the following; “I do nothing, I give you nothing. Yet you hold me minute by minute from falling. Lord, You provide.”* Denise Levertov carried through quite a faith journey. She lived much of her life as an Agnostic. She grappled with questions of faith all her life. She converted to Christianity eventually in 1984. She accepted the Word of God and embraced it in her life. She wrote a large corpus of poetry during her career as a writer. A great deal of her writing deals with Christian themes. She knew how to “embrace the Word with a generous and good heart.” She allowed the Word of God to grow in her heart and to guide her along the way. Let us say with Denise Levertov, “Lord, You provide.”

*This quote is taken from the poem Psalm Fragments, found in The Stream and the Sapphire. I encourage our readers to become acquainted with her poetry in their own prayer life.

Reflection by Br. Matthew Marie, OSB