Memorial of St. Dominic, priest

I have read and reread today's Gospel, reflected and brought it to prayer, and find myself really challenged by Jesus’ choices. I thought about avoiding the Gospel in my reflection.  But, instead, I’m going to engage in the challenge by asking questions. Questions I don’t have answers to yet. But, these questions are allowing me to enter into prayer with God on this Gospel as conversation.

If you, too, find this Gospel difficult, I invite you to bring your questions to prayer. I have shared my questions below. Keep moving forward, even when the trail seems more difficult than you wanted, and invite God to be with you there.

• Why did you ignore the woman who came to you in distress?
• What am I to learn from your decision to only help a person of your faith?
• How can I find the compassionate and loving God in this experience?

Finally, as you close your prayer with the readings of today, I share with you words that challenge and invite me to engage the questions:

“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a foreign language. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live your way into the answer.” – Rainer Maria Rilke