In light of today's Scripture readings, Fr. Bob's Prayer is:

God of Integrity, Who calls us, we need courage to follow Jesus and make whatever sacrifices are necessary, as Elisha did to follow Elijah. We carry so much baggage, which slows our journey and compromises our wholehearted response. Help us to find the integrity and sincerely to mean what we say and say what we mean. Help us to speak the truth we know in our hearts, because You are the Word spoken within and the Voice we hear. InSpirit us to discover the presence and power of Your Word and Spirit within ourselves and within our world. Save us from demonic duplicity. Re-ignite Your spark within us.

Mary, your Mother's heart embraces us as you embraced Jesus. You worry about us as you worried about him. Help us never to get lost, but to always find God's house amid the journeys and detours of our lives. Give us the purity of heart to listen and follow Jesus. You are the gentle voice of God, who invites us from all eternity into the holy tent of Gods heart. You are the one who teaches us to drink of God's life and enjoy the sweetness of divine love. Thank you for being our Mother, Mary, and giving us a special place in your heart. Teach us to revere our parents- the ones God chose for us.  Amen!

OK better day today- Thank You God!  National Basilica bound, so off to a bus trip to DC.  Pretty cool for it is also the Feast of the Immaculate Heart today.  I need all the help I can get, especially after yesterday's brief blaze out.

Saturday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time : Lc 2,41-51

Commentary of the day
Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906), Carmelite
Last retreat, 15th day (©Institute of Carmelite Studies)

« Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart» (Lk 2,19)

       "The Virgin kept all these things in her heart." Her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the Gospel "that Mary set out in haste to the hill country of Judea" (Lk 1,39) to perform her loving service for her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her. Like Him, her prayer was always this: «...Here I am" Who? ''The handmaid of the Lord," (Lk 1,38) the lowliest of His creatures: she, His Mother! Her humility was so real for she was always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: "The Mighty One has done great things for me, from now on all peoples will call me blessed" (Lk 1,49.48).

This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her heart that the sword pierced, for with her everything took place withinl ... Oh! How beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene, enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness! She learned from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as victims, those whom He has decided to associate with Himself in the great work of redemption, those whom He "has foreknown and predestined to be conformed to His Christ," (Rom 8,29) crucified by love. She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage.