Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day

Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word

Reflections

• It is easy to look toward and look kindly upon our family and friends and the neighbors we know, but to look away from or look down upon those who are strangers to us, especially those who seem most unlike us. The further we get from our own home, our own parish, or our own neighborhood, the more “other” the people we encounter seem to be. This is when we need to hear again the first line from the first reading: “Thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourself in the land of Egypt’ “(Exodus 22:20). Everyone has been an alien once, has been “other” in some setting. In fact, everyone is a stranger to most of the world. One day, we may depend on that stranger in the grocery store, or at the table next to us, or at the other end of the phone. Let us reach out with love to those strangers, just as we would want them to treat a stranger: ourselves.


• Famine drove the ancient Israelites to Egypt, where they were treated first as merely “other,” but then oppressed and enslaved until the LORD rescued them. Famine still affects wide swaths of people every year who are forced to migrate to avoid starvation. More and more people will likely be affected each year due to global warming’s harmful effects on the climate and sea levels. It is incumbent upon God’s children who have plenty to feed God’s children who have none.

• One of the greatest gifts we can give someone else is time, for unlike money we each have a finite amount of time and we can never get any of it back. To show our love for God and for our neighbor, giving the gift of time is the best way to start. We give God our time when we pray. We give our neighbor our time when we go out of our way to do something for them. This is the love Jesus calls us to in today’s Gospel.he next.
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Question of the Week

What neighbor do I know who is in need? What can I do for them, even if it’s just something simple?

-from Pastoral Patterns

LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, October 29, 2023

SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, October 29, 2023

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