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Psalm Reflection: The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Advice, bible, Blog, Catholic, Cycle A, lectio divina, Ordinary Time, Patreon, philosophy, Prayer, Psalm, psalm, Psalms, reflection, Religion, scripture, Sunday, theology, weeklyMANNA - Food For ThoughtCatholic, Jesus, Christ, faith, God, Church, Pope, rosary, Vatican, Christian, Roman, mary, ministry, advice, inspirational, Prayer, pray, religion, bible, religious, atheist, atheism, agnostic, agnosticism, theology, saints, holy, lifeteen, prolife, pro, life, teen, focus, podcast, usccb, net, ministries, manna, food, for, thought, mannaf4t, f4t, vlog, blog, youth, young, adult, OC, Orange, County, California, CA, socal, southern, patreon, come, Spirit, Matt, Matthew, Zemanek, Jenna, Mish, DiBernardo, Saint, Timothy, 28th, twenty-eighth, Sunday, Ordinary Time, Cycle AComment
Psalm Reflection: The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

“I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” - Psalm 23

I grew up in a small mountain town. A common sentiment from most of my peers, was that they “could not wait” to get out of the quiet, uneventful town. The second many of them graduated or turned 18, they were ready to pick up, move out, move on, and move up in the world.

I find it interesting that when we are young we are itching to leave home and go “live life”, but when we get to the end of our lives we end up wishing we had more moments with family and friends. People on their deathbeds are not usually thinking about the next trip, project, or all the things they have not yet accomplished. Most of them are thinking about all the time they spent striving for things that no longer matter. We will wish we had more moments of presence, stillness, encounter and relationship.

There is wisdom in the words of this week’s Psalm—it is a reminder that sometimes God’s desires that we stay in a certain stage or geographic place in our lives. We cannot always be on the move and never really connecting, building relationships, or planting roots.

If God called you to stay in the same place your entire life, would you trust you would be happy and fulfilled? Could you put down the to-do list and the bucket list and simply be who God created you to be in this moment, in this time and place in salvation history, and be content? The beauty of knowing God in this way is to recognize there is grace in every moment. We can encounter God by stopping and simply being. This is what one of the deepest and most fruitful forms of prayer, contemplative prayer, involves: it is the journey from doing a lot of things in prayer, to being with God and receiving whatever He brings.

This week, wherever you go, be all there. Try to be present and recognize God’s love, grace and movement in the still and simple moments. Read about contemplative prayer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2709-2719, and try to put it into practice in some small way this week, even if it is only for five minutes. Live in the house of the Lord this week, and know that we are praying for you.

See you in the Eucharist.

Matt

MANNA is a ministry creating blogs and podcasts to encourage and inspire others to grow in relationship with Jesus Christ and live out their Catholic faith.