REFLECTIONS TODAY
Who does not recognize Martha and Mary as the personifications of the active and the contemplative life, respectively? In saying that “Mary has chosen the better part” (v 42), the Lord does not mean to trivialize the importance of working for the Kingdom of God.
He only wishes to tell us that prayer should take priority over our activities. Is it not true that a very busy person can be tempted to lose focus and drain oneself when prayer is neglected?
It is therefore highly commendable to start all endeavors with prayer and to contemplate before the Lord all the undertakings, those to be started and those that have been accomplished.
Do you pray before and after working?
First Reading • Gal 1:13-24
Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.
But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for 15 days. But I did not see any other of the Apostles, only James the brother of the Lord. (As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.)
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
So they glorified God because of me.
Gospel • LUKE 10:38-42
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.