Photo: Blushing

 

Spirituality: Parker Palmer in A Hidden Wholeness

...there are at least two ways to understand what it means to have our hearts broken. One is to imagine the heart broken into shards and scattered about—a feeling most of us know, and a fate we would like to avoid. The other is to imagine the heart broken open into new capacity—a process that is not without pain but one that many of us would welcome. As I stand in the tragic gap between reality and possibility, this small, tight fist of a thing called my heart can break open into greater capacity to hold more of my own and the world’s suffering and joy, despair and hope. 

Photo: Central Massachusetts

 

Spirituality: from A Cherokee Feast of Days, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It is in the quiet times that we build our strengths and know we have something to rely on. Solitude is not withdrawal into a place where no one and no sound can penetrate. It is a sweet moment of peace with or without other people that lets us re-center and reset the rhythm of the mind, body and spirit. It is wisdom to stay close to the solitude of nature to keep us young and pliable.

Photo: God's Glory

 

Spirituality: Wendell Berry from "Two Questions"

If you provided a marriage feast

and the thankless guests crowded
at the table, gobbling the food
without tasting it, and shoving
one another away, so that some ate
too much and some ate nothing,
would you not be offended?

Or if, seated at your bountiful table,
your guests picked and finicked
over the food, eating only a little,
refusing the wine and the dessert,
claiming that to fill their bellies
and rejoice would impair their souls,
would you not be offended?

Spirituality: Dolly Parton, SongTeller

If it came down to doing just one thing, I would choose to sit, enjoy life, experience life, the sorrows and whatever else it may bring, and write about it.

Photo: Blushing

 

Prayer: Hildegard of Bingen

The earth is at the same time mother,

she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is the mother of all,
for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
Yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humankind, but also
the substance of Incarnation.

Photo: Relfections

 

Poem: from "The Ponds" by Mary Oliver

 I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—

that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

Photo: Trees at the Abbey

 

Indifference – The Enemy of Faith: The Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026

                                     Indifference – The Enemy of Faith:

The Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

October 11, 2026

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Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:12-20; Matthew 22:1-14

 

 

Scripture today begins with this enticing invitation to engage in God’s banquet of rich foods and tasty drinks and to gather with loved ones free from harm of death, fear, and suffering. The message is that God is going to abundantly care for you and make sure all your needs are met. Saint Paul and the Psalmist remind us that God will supply whatever we need. In the Gospel, God invites us, through a parable, to a banquet, and we are told how people respond. We are invited to respond personally now. We hear the responses from people in the parable, and they are responses that we also hear now.

 

The first responses show us that the invited guests do not care enough to accept the offer. They have other things to do. Their farms, businesses, and family life are more compelling to them than an invitation to the wedding feast. They do not think they are rejecting the king with hostility. They say, “I have other things to do,” or “I’m too busy.” We, too, become preoccupied with work, possessions, entertainment, ambitions, and responsibilities, and a consequence is that God can gradually become less important. The danger is that good things can become substitutes for God. We become indifferent, as though God’s presence makes little difference to the way I live. God is no longer important enough to interrupt my life. We cannot see what is being offered: joy, celebration, and communion. 

 

Indifference is a progression that can become resistance, and this resistance can become hostility. Our hearts gradually become accustomed to not listening and to being closed. When we repeatedly say “no,” we stop noticing, then we stop valuing, and then we reject. When we do this in our relationship with God, we become less receptive to God’s presence and less prone to even hear the invitation. Indifference becomes the enemy of the faith.

 

So how do we make certain we do not become indifferent? We develop a habit of attentiveness. We might not hear God’s explicit voice, but it is present when we ask ourselves these questions? What is God doing in my life today? What is God asking of me now? Who did God place before me and why? Where do I need to be open to change? We may not realize we are being invited to a banquet or that God is trying to tend to one of our needs because these invitations may not be explicit and they may not come dramatically. They may come through an encounter, an insight while reading a Scripture passage, a chance conversation, a moment of discomfort, a sudden awakening, a request by someone in need. The question is whether we are woke enough, aware enough, to recognize the invitation. 

Notice that God’s invitation is wider than we think. The king tells his servants to “invite to the feast whomever you find.” The good and the bad alike are invited. So, this is not about worthiness to accept the invitation because someone unworthy might see it for what it is worth. This is not about goodness or badness. A good person may miss the invitation while a bad person accepts it. A person can be imperfect and still be deeply open to God, while an outwardly religious person may be inwardly closed. God’s generosity is extraordinary. It is about a proper disposition before God. The disposition is willingness to say “yes.” There are already people at the feast, not because they have achieved perfection, but because they have said “yes.” 

 

          God only asks for a receptive heart. We must be woke. We must be open to listen to receive, to change, and to respond. Missing the invitation to this feast would be a tragedy. Am I willing to recognize the invitation or am I too busy with other things that my heart and mind have become closed? What would it take for me to recognize that I am invited here and now? Remember the king’s words: Everything is ready; come to the feast.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass 

Monday: (Galatians 4) It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman. The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise. Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants.

 

Tuesday: (Galatians 5) For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. It is I, Paul, who am telling you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

 

Wednesday: (Galatians 5) If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.

 

Thursday (Ephesians 1) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.

 

Friday (Ephesians 1) In Christ we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ.

 

Saturday (Ephesians 1) Hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for all the holy ones, I do not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.

 

Gospel:  

Monday: (Luke 11) “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

 

Tuesday: (Luke 11) After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.

 

Wednesday (Luke 11) Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

 

Thursday (Luke 11) Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.

 

Friday (Luke 12) So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.

 

Saturday (Luke 12) I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others
will be denied before the angels of God.

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 12: John Beyzym, S.J., priest (1850-1912), was Ukranian-born, entered the Jesuits, and petitioned to work among the people of Madagascar who had Hansen’s disease (leprosy.) Since the lepers lived in remote shanty buildings with no windows or facilities, Beyzym worked hard to improve their living conditions, build a hospital, and a church. He died after contracting the disease. 

 

October 14: Callistus I, pope and martyr (d. 222) was a slave of a Christian who put him in charge of a bank that failed. He was jailed and upon his release became a deacon and counselor to Pope Zephyrinus. He became the first overseer of the official Christian cemetery that was eventually named after him. When he was elected Pope he introduced humanitarian reforms. He died during an uprising against Christians.  

 

October 15: Teresa of Avila, doctor (1515-1582), entered the Carmelites in Avila and became disenchanted with the laxity of the order. She progressed in prayer and had mystical visions. She introduced stricter reforms through her guidance of John of the Cross and Peter Alcantara. They founded the Discalced Carmelites for men and women.

 

October 16: Hedwig, religious, at age 12 married Henry, a prince who would become king of Silesia. As a monarch, they built a Cistercian monastery for women. They soon built many other religious houses and hospitals. She chose to live in austere poverty to be in solidarity with the poor.

 

October 16: Margaret Mary Alocoque entered the Visitation Order at Paray-le-Monial in 1671. She received visions of Christ's love and told her Jesuit spiritual director, Claude la Colombiere, who asked her to write about her experiences. They developed the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her community resisted her promotion of the devotion at first, but later came to see the power of the prayers.

 

October 17: Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (d. 107) was born around 33 A.D. and became a leading figure in the new church at Antioch. He served as bishop for 38 years before he was persecuted and killed under Emperor Trajan for being a Christian leader. He wrote seven letters about church life in the early second century and is the first-mentioned martyr of Roman heroes in the first Eucharistic Prayer.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 11, 1688: King Louis XIV forbade all correspondence and interchange between the French Jesuits and Fr. Thyrsus Gonzalez, the Spanish General Superior of the Society. 
• October 12, 1976: The murder in rural Brazil of Joao Bosco Burnier, SJ, who was shot and killed by soldiers for protesting the torture of two poor women. 
• October 13, 1537: At Venice the Papal Nuncio published his written verdict declaring that Ignatius Loyola was innocent of all charges which had been leveled against him by his detractors. 
• October 14, 1774: A French Jesuit in China wrote an epitaph to the Jesuit mission in China after the suppression of the Society. It concludes: "Go, traveler, continue on your way. Felicitate the dead; weep for the living; pray for all. Wonder, and be silent."
• October 15, 1582: St Teresa of Avila died on this day -- the first day of the new Gregorian calendar. She always wished to have a Jesuit as a confessor. 
• October 16, 1873: About two weeks after Victor Emmanuel's visit to Berlin, where he had long conferences with Bismark, rumors reached the Society in Rome that all of their houses in Rome were threatened. 
• October 17, 1578: St Robert Bellarmine entered the Jesuit novitiate of San Andrea in Rome at the age of 16.

La indiferencia: el enemigo de la fe. Vigésimo octavo domingo del tiempo ordinario de 2026

                                     La indiferencia: el enemigo de la fe.

Vigésimo octavo domingo del tiempo ordinario de 2026

11 de octubre de 2026

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673

Isaías 25:6-10; Salmo 23; Filipenses 4:12-20; Mateo 22:1-14

 

 

La lectura de hoy comienza con esta tentadora invitación a participar del banquete de Dios, repleto de manjares y bebidas exquisitas, y a reunirnos con nuestros seres queridos, libres del peligro de la muerte, el miedo y el sufrimiento. El mensaje es que Dios cuidará abundantemente de nosotros y se asegurará de que todas nuestras necesidades estén cubiertas. San Pablo y el salmista nos recuerdan que Dios proveerá todo lo que necesitemos. En el Evangelio, Dios nos invita, mediante una parábola, a un banquete, y se nos muestra cómo responden las personas. Se nos invita a responder personalmente ahora. Escuchamos las respuestas de las personas en la parábola, y son respuestas que también escuchamos hoy.

 

Las primeras reacciones nos muestran que a los invitados no les importa lo suficiente como para aceptar la invitación. Tienen otras cosas que hacer. Sus granjas, negocios y vida familiar les resultan más importantes que una invitación al banquete de bodas. No creen estar rechazando al rey con hostilidad. Simplemente dicen: «Tengo otras cosas que hacer» o «Estoy demasiado ocupado». Nosotros también nos preocupamos por el trabajo, las posesiones, el entretenimiento, las ambiciones y las responsabilidades, y como consecuencia, Dios puede volverse gradualmente menos importante. El peligro reside en que las cosas buenas se conviertan en sustitutos de Dios. Nos volvemos indiferentes, como si la presencia de Dios no influyera en nuestra forma de vivir. Dios ya no es lo suficientemente importante como para interrumpir nuestra vida. No podemos ver lo que se nos ofrece: alegría, celebración y comunión.

 

La indiferencia es un proceso que puede convertirse en resistencia, y esta resistencia en hostilidad. Nuestros corazones se acostumbran gradualmente a no escuchar y a cerrarse. Cuando repetimos «no», dejamos de percibir, dejamos de valorar y, finalmente, rechazamos. Al actuar así en nuestra relación con Dios, nos volvemos menos receptivos a su presencia y menos propensos incluso a escuchar su invitación. La indiferencia se convierte en enemiga de la fe.

 

¿Cómo nos aseguramos de no volvernos indiferentes? Desarrollando el hábito de la atención. Quizás no oigamos la voz explícita de Dios, pero está presente cuando nos hacemos estas preguntas: ¿Qué está haciendo Dios en mi vida hoy? ¿Qué me pide Dios ahora? ¿A quién puso Dios delante de mí y por qué? ¿En qué aspectos necesito estar abierto al cambio? Puede que no nos demos cuenta de que estamos siendo invitados a un banquete o de que Dios está tratando de atender alguna de nuestras necesidades, porque estas invitaciones pueden no ser explícitas ni dramáticas. Pueden llegar a través de un encuentro, una revelación al leer un pasaje de las Escrituras, una conversación casual, un momento de incomodidad, un despertar repentino, la petición de alguien necesitado. La cuestión es si estamos lo suficientemente despiertos , lo suficientemente conscientes, para reconocer la invitación.

 

Observe que la invitación de Dios es más amplia de lo que pensamos. El rey les dice a sus siervos: «Inviten al banquete a quien encuentren». Tanto los buenos como los malos están invitados. Por lo tanto, no se trata de ser digno de aceptar la invitación, pues alguien indigno podría valorarla como tal. No se trata de bondad o maldad. Una persona buena puede rechazar la invitación, mientras que una mala la acepta. Una persona puede ser imperfecta y aun así estar profundamente abierta a Dios, mientras que una persona aparentemente religiosa puede estar cerrada interiormente. La generosidad de Dios es extraordinaria. Se trata de una disposición adecuada ante Dios. Esta disposición es la voluntad de decir «sí». Ya hay personas en el banquete, no porque hayan alcanzado la perfección, sino porque han dicho «sí».

 

          Dios solo pide un corazón receptivo. Debemos estar despiertos . Debemos estar abiertos a escuchar, a recibir, a cambiar y a responder. Perder la invitación a este banquete sería una tragedia. ¿Estoy dispuesto a reconocer la invitación o estoy demasiado ocupado con otras cosas que mi corazón y mi mente se han cerrado? ¿Qué se necesita para que yo reconozca que estoy invitado aquí y ahora? Recuerda las palabras del rey: Todo está listo; ven al banquete.

 

Lecturas bíblicas para la Misa diaria

Lunes: (Gálatas 4) Está escrito que Abraham tuvo dos hijos, uno de la esclava y el otro de la mujer libre. El hijo de la esclava nació de la unión natural, el hijo de la mujer libre por una promesa. Esto es una alegoría. Estas mujeres representan dos pactos.

 

Martes: (Gálatas 5) Cristo nos libertó para ser libres; así que manténganse firmes y no se sometan de nuevo al yugo de la esclavitud. Soy yo, Pablo, quien les dice que si se circuncidan, Cristo no les servirá de nada.

 

Miércoles: (Gálatas 5) Si son guiados por el Espíritu, no están bajo la ley. Ahora bien, las obras de la carne son evidentes: inmoralidad, impureza, libertinaje, idolatría, 
hechicería, odios, rivalidades, celos, arrebatos de ira, actos de egoísmo, disensiones, divisiones, envidias, borracheras, orgías y cosas semejantes.

 

Jueves (Efesios 1) Bendito sea el Dios y Padre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, que nos bendijo en Cristo con toda bendición espiritual en los cielos, según nos escogió en él antes de la fundación del mundo, para que fuéramos santos y sin mancha delante de él.

 

Viernes (Efesios 1) En Cristo también fuimos escogidos, destinados conforme al propósito de aquel que realiza todas las cosas según el designio de su voluntad, para que existamos para alabanza de su gloria, nosotros que primero pusimos nuestra esperanza en Cristo.

 

Sábado (Efesios 1) Al oír de vuestra fe en el Señor Jesús y de vuestro amor por todos los santos, no ceso de dar gracias por vosotros, recordándoos en mis oraciones, para que el Dios de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, el Padre de gloria, os dé espíritu de sabiduría y revelación para que lleguéis al conocimiento de él.

 

Evangelio:  

Lunes: (Lucas 11) “Esta generación es una generación malvada; busca una señal, pero no se le dará ninguna señal, excepto la señal de Jonás. Así como Jonás fue una señal para los ninivitas, así también el Hijo del Hombre lo será para esta generación.

 

Martes: (Lucas 11) Después de que Jesús habló, un fariseo lo invitó a cenar a su casa. Entró y se sentó a la mesa para comer. El fariseo se asombró al ver que no se había lavado antes de la comida.

 

Miércoles (Lucas 11) Entonces uno de los maestros de la ley le respondió: «Maestro, al decir esto también nos insultas a nosotros». Él les dijo: «¡Ay de ustedes, maestros de la ley! Imponen a la gente cargas difíciles de llevar, pero ustedes mismos no mueven un dedo para tocarlas».

 

Jueves (Lucas 11) ¡Ay de vosotros que edificáis monumentos a los profetas que vuestros antepasados mataron! Por eso, dais testimonio y aprobáis las obras de vuestros antepasados, pues ellos los mataron y vosotros edificáis.

 

Viernes (Lucas 12) Había tanta gente junta que se pisoteaban unos a otros. Jesús comenzó a hablar, primero a sus discípulos, “Tengan cuidado con la levadura, es decir, la hipocresía de los fariseos.

 

Sábado (Lucas 12) Les digo que todo aquel que me reconozca delante de los hombres, el Hijo del Hombre, también me reconocerá delante de los ángeles de Dios. Pero el que me niegue delante de los hombres, también 
será negado delante de los ángeles de Dios.

 

Santos de la semana

 

12 de octubre: John Beyzym, SJ, sacerdote (1850-1912), nacido en Ucrania , ingresó en la Compañía de Jesús y solicitó trabajar entre la población de Madagascar que padecía lepra (enfermedad de Hansen). Dado que los leprosos vivían en chozas aisladas, sin ventanas ni servicios básicos, Beyzym se esforzó por mejorar sus condiciones de vida, construir un hospital y una iglesia. Falleció tras contraer la enfermedad.

 

14 de octubre: Calixto I, papa y mártir (m. 222), fue esclavo de un cristiano que lo puso al frente de un banco que quebró. Fue encarcelado y, tras su liberación, se convirtió en diácono y consejero del papa Ceferino. Fue el primer administrador del cementerio cristiano oficial, que con el tiempo recibió su nombre. Al ser elegido papa , introdujo reformas humanitarias. Murió durante una revuelta contra los cristianos.

 

15 de octubre : Teresa de Ávila, doctora (1515-1582) , ingresó en la orden carmelita de Ávila y se sintió desencantada con la laxitud de la misma. Progresó en la oración y tuvo visiones místicas. Introdujo reformas más rigurosas bajo la guía de Juan de la Cruz y Pedro Alcántara. Juntos fundaron la orden de los Carmelitas Descalzos, tanto para hombres como para mujeres.

 

16 de octubre: Eduviges, religiosa, se casó a los doce años con Enrique, príncipe que llegaría a ser rey de Silesia. Como monarca, fundaron un monasterio cisterciense femenino. Pronto construyeron muchos otros conventos y hospitales. Eduviges optó por vivir en la más absoluta pobreza para solidarizarse con los pobres.

 

16 de octubre: Margaret Mary Alocoque ingresó en la Orden de la Visitación en Paray-le-Monial en 1671. Recibió visiones del amor de Cristo y se las contó a su director espiritual jesuita, Claude la Colombiere, quien le pidió que escribiera sobre sus experiencias. Juntos desarrollaron la devoción al Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. Su comunidad se resistió al principio a que promoviera esta devoción, pero más tarde comprendió el poder de las oraciones.

 

17 de octubre: Ignacio de Antioquía, obispo y mártir (m. 107) , nació alrededor del año 33 d. C. y se convirtió en una figura clave de la nueva iglesia de Antioquía. Sirvió como obispo durante 38 años antes de ser perseguido y asesinado por el emperador Trajano por ser un líder cristiano. Escribió siete cartas sobre la vida de la Iglesia a principios del siglo II y es el primer mártir de los héroes romanos mencionado en la primera Plegaria Eucarística.

 

Esta semana en la historia jesuita

 

• 11 de octubre de 1688: El rey Luis XIV prohibió toda correspondencia e intercambio entre los jesuitas franceses y el padre Thyrsus Gonzalez, superior general español de la Compañía de Jesús.
• 12 de octubre de 1976: Asesinato en la zona rural de Brasil de Joao Bosco Burnier, SJ, quien fue asesinado a tiros por soldados por protestar contra la tortura de dos mujeres pobres.
• 13 de octubre de 1537: En Venecia, el Nuncio Apostólico publicó su veredicto escrito declarando que Ignacio de Loyola era inocente de todos los cargos que habían sido formulados contra él por sus detractores.
• 14 de octubre de 1774: Un jesuita francés en China escribió un epitafio a la misión jesuita en China tras la supresión de la Compañía. Concluye: «Ve, viajero, continúa tu camino. Honra a los muertos; llora por los vivos; ora por todos. Maravíllate y guarda silencio».
• 15 de octubre de 1582: Santa Teresa de Ávila falleció en este día, el primer día del nuevo calendario gregoriano. Siempre deseó tener un jesuita como confesor.
• de octubre de 1873: Aproximadamente dos semanas después de la visita de Víctor Manuel a Berlín, donde mantuvo largas conferencias con Bismarck, llegaron rumores a la Sociedad en Roma de que todas sus sedes en Roma estaban amenazadas.
• 17 de octubre de 1578: San Roberto Belarmino ingresó en el noviciado jesuita de San Andrés en Roma a la edad de 16 años.

Photo: The former Shuster-Cave house in Douglas

 

A Time of Reflection

 A Time of Reflection

 

While we are not meeting this week, please continue with your daily prayers. Continue to use the Thanksgiving Examen and/or the Positive Particular Examen. The Scripture readings for each day will provide inspirational messages to bring into prayer, and the Examens will give you a framework for gratitude as you pray. 

 

We are concluding what Ignatius would call the Days of Disposition. They are times of developing your prayer routines, checking to see your interior availability to enter into the full Exercises, and determining whether the schedules fit with your situation. For some, it marks a time of postponement or departure; for others, it is a resolved commitment to move forward into the deeper relationship with the Triune God – and with ourselves. If you decide this is not the best time for you, we’ll see you back here next year or at a future time, or perhaps your schedule requires a shorter commitment of time. With those who are preparing for next year, I will work with you to further develop your prayer and discover your unique style of praying. It is all a gain. Let me know what you need.

 

Perhaps you have further questions about the Foundational Principles of Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. These will serve as the foundation for our further work. Does it make sense to you? Are you willing to go forward without understanding the entire package? 

 

Some of you already have retreat or spiritual directors. That’s great. As we move forward, we’ll be checking in with a retreat director to talk about how your prayer is going. Just as a guideline, as you set time with the director, you will want to do a quick check-in. Think about 30 minutes. If you need 40, that’s possible, but consider 30-minute meetings every other week or so. What is important is that you spend time in prayer, and you seek the grace of the Exercise.

 

What is the grace? In the first week, you will be praying for something like, “Give me a sense of the progression of sin in the world and my growing consciousness of the interconnectedness with all of creation.” When the prayer period is over, you can ask God the question, “Am I more fully aware of the progression of sin and how I am interconnected with it?” We will talk more about graces in our next Zoom meeting.

 

When you are speaking with the retreat director, let her or him know of what God is saying to you or how you are experiencing God. We often speak about what we think God might be saying or doing; We want to hear of your experience of God. 

 

Continue forward! We’ll make some sense of it together.

 

WhatsApp: This is not a critical component of the retreat. It is there as a useful tool for communications among yourselves. It is a helpful repository for songs, poems, images, and videos that may be helpful to you. It is there just for your information. Do not feel like you have to check the app each time someone adds a post. It is simply a way for you to contact one another and build community.

 

 

TEDx Talk: Celebrate What’s Right with the World

 

This is a video that might fit in well with the Thanksgiving or Positive Particular Examen.

 

Nature photographer Dewitt Jones called the natural world “a banquet laid, a cup overflowing…” which beautifully describes the welcome to a well-set table, to a deepening of God’s life in us, one grounded in gratitude and capacious love. It moves us away from self-absorption, self-convenience, or willfulness and closer to a willing participant in God’s Project, one shaped by God’s pure intention.

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/dewitt_jones_celebrate_what_s_right_with_the_world

 

 

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages 85-93.

 

Song: 

 

Also sprach Zarathustra by Strauss — Known for its iconic opening, this tone poem reflects on the philosophical ideas of existence and the cosmos, often associated with the dawn of creation.

 

 

Christogenesis Conference

 

Ilia Delio, Kathleen Duffy, and others will chair this conference at Villanova University November 9-11. I plan on attending. Virtual attendance is available.

 

https://wisrinstitute.org/2026-conference/

Photo: Pumpkins and lights

 

Prayer: Nan Merrill

As leaves fall to the earth and surrender to the soil, may we, too, move our attention from the outer world to the Inner Being. As we move toward a season of stillness, may our path be straight, returning to the Source. Listen. The stillness calls to you.

Spirituality: from The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk

To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they themselves become the standard by which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be judged. No one has the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy.

All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance: only ecological balance can sustain freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit flourish in its full diversity.

Poem: “Song at the Beginning of Autumn” by Elizabeth Jennings

 Now watch this autumn that arrives

In smells. All looks like summer still;

Colours are quite unchanged, the air

On greens and white serenely thrives.

Heavy the trees with growth and full

The fields. Flowers flourish everywhere.

 

Proust who collected time within

A child’s cake would understand

The ambiguity of this – 

Summer still raging while a thin 

Column of smoke stirs from the land

Proving that autumn gropes for us.

 

But every season is a kind

Of rich nostalgia. We give names – 

Autumn and summer, winter, spring – 

As though to unfasten from the mind

Our moods and give them outward forms.

We want the certain, solid thing.

 

But I am carried back against

My will into a childhood where

Autumn is bonfires, marbles, smoke;

I lean against my window fenced

From evocations in the air.

When I said autumn, autumn broke.

Photo: Mary Oliver

 

Spirituality: Mass on the World, Teilhard de Chardin SJ

Since once again, Lord, I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar to say Mass,

I will make the whole earth my altar
and on it will offer you all the labors and all the sufferings of the world.

Instead of bread, I will offer the harvest to be won by today’s labors. Lord, say again the words: This is my Body over every living thing which will spring up, grow, flower, ripen during this day.

Instead of wine, I will offer every activity and force that withers, corrodes, fails, and dies; into my chalice I shall pour all the sap to be pressed from the earth’s fruits. Lord, say again the words: This is my Blood

All the things which today will increase;
all those that will diminish or die:
all of them, Lord, I try to gather into my arms, holding them out to you.

We believe you are present in them.
This is the Mystery of Faith.

Poem: “Equinox” By: Rainer Maria Rilke

The garden is growing dark.
The stars are shining.
Let us, then, bow our heads to earth’s rhythms
And acknowledge the wisdom of change.

We are Tenants, not Owners: The Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026

                                           We are Tenants, not Owners:

The Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

October 4, 2026

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Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43

 

 

I was speaking to a friend after Mass last week and he said that he found all of these parable stories quite boring. Previously, I said to a Jesuit in my community that I found all these parables so energizing because it challenges all the presumptions that we hold. It has the potential to rock our spiritual world. We cannot read this as an historical account. This Gospel passage seems particularly fragile because it asks what we are doing today. It asks the question: Does our tenancy in the vineyard produce fruit because it belongs it to the one who produces much fruit?

 

A typical Catholic reading of this passage may produce this response: The kingdom has been taken away from the Jews and it now belongs to the Catholics. Sometimes Catholics act with exceptionalism and presumption. We see that passage as an historical fact that Jews did not recognize Jesus, but Gentiles did, and so we are the owners. We see it as an allegory of the trial and Crucifixion because they did not recognize Jesus, the owner’s son, who was put to death. We rest in the assurance that we have got it right. We think we have acted responsibly and have to do nothing more. Uh oh!

 

We have to read this in the present as if it is unfolding before us today. We first have to realize that we are tenants – not the owners. The vineyard, the faith, the kingdom, does not belong to us. We are stewards of something that belongs to God, who will give it to whomever does the work of God. We think we do the work of God, and no one else does it as fully. The problem in the story is about the refusal to recognize God, the one to whom the vineyard belongs. Jesus is confronting religious leaders who have been entrusted with God’s people but failed to recognize what responsibility means. They have confused being entrusted with the kingdom to owning it.

 

The warning about responsibility has consequences: The kingdom will be taken away from you and it will be given to others who will produce its fruit. The kingdom is not a reward for those who have accumulated the greatest religious credentials or have the long-lasting, enduring structure, like the Papacy. Religious privilege does not earn God’s favor. None of the Christian churches can say, “We have always been God’s people, therefore, the kingdom belongs to us.” The question is: are we producing the fruit of the kingdom? It requires our constant conversion and discernment. If not, it can be given to “new tenants” who respond differently to God’s invitation. It is not about superior moral achievement. It is about God bringing forth something new with those who accept responsibility for the kingdom.

 

What kind of tenants are we? What are we doing with it? Are we cultivating it for others and using it for God’s intended purposes? Are people experiencing mercy through us? Are people that we might have once considered sinners find welcome in our hearts? Or do they experience our wrathful judgment? Do we allow the wounded to find healing? Or the excluded finding a place with us? Are we certain that we are listening to God? Are we so convinced of our rightness and righteousness, are we so certain, that we stop listening to the owner? 

 

The vineyard does not belong to us. We need to be responsible stewards. We have to be very careful. When we who are entrusted with God’s work use that trust for ourselves rather than for God’s purposes, God has no hesitation to entrust the work to others who will bear its fruit. This is a serious responsibility. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass 

Monday: (Galatians 1) I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ.

 

Tuesday: (Galatians 1) 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.

 

Wednesday: (Galatians 2) After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. I went up in accord with a revelation, and I presented to them the Gospel that I preach to the Gentiles–but privately to those of repute–so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain.

 

Thursday (Galatians 3) O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard?

 

Friday (Galatians 3) Realize that it is those who have faith who are children of Abraham.
Scripture, which saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, Through you shall all the nations be blessed.

 

Saturday (Galatians 3) Scripture confined all things under the power of sin, that through faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe. Before faith came, we were held in custody under law, confined for the faith that was to be revealed.

 

Gospel:  

Monday: (Luke 10) There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind,

 

Tuesday: (Luke 10) 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. 

 

Wednesday (Luke 11) Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

 

Thursday (Luke 11) “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him.’

 

Friday (Luke 11) When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said: “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.

 

Saturday (Luke 11) While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.”

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 4: Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was from the wealthy Bernardone family who sold silk cloths. After serving as soldier as a prisoner of war, Francis chose to serve God and the poor. He felt called to repair God's house, which he thought was a church. His father was angry that he used family money so he disinherited him. He began to preach repentance and recruited others to his way of life. His order is known for poverty, simplicity, humble service, and delighting in creation.

 

October 6: Bruno, priest (1030-1101), became a professor at Rheims and diocesan chancellor. He gave up his riches and began to live as a hermit with six other men. They had disdain for the rampant clerical corruption. The bishop of Grenoble gave them land in the Chartreuse mountains and they began the first Carthusian monastery. After serving in Rome for a few years, Bruno was given permission to found a second monastery in Calabria.

 

October 7: Our Lady of the Rosary recalls the events in 1571 of the Christian naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto near Corinth. Victory was credited to Mary as confraternities prayed the rosary for her intercession. 

 

October 9: Denis, bishop and martyr, and companion martyrs (d. 258), was the first bishop of Paris. He died during the Decian persecutions by beheading at Montmarte, the highest hill in the city. Lore has it that he picked up his head after the beheading and walked six miles while giving a sermon. Denis was sent to Paris to bring Christianity and was thereby called, “The apostle to the Gauls.”

 

October 9: John Leonardi (1542-1609), was a pharmacist’s assistant before studying for the priesthood. He became interested in the reforms of the Council of Trent and gathered laymen around him to work in prisons and hospitals. He contracted the plague while ministering to those who were sick. He founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God to care for the sick.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 4, 1820. In Rome, great troubles arose before and during the Twentieth General Congregation, caused by Fr. Petrucci's intrigues. He sought to wreck the Society and was deposed from his office as Vicar General, though supported by Cardinal della Genga (afterwards Leo XII). 
• October 5, 1981. In a letter to Father General Arrupe, Pope John Paul II appointed Paolo Dezza as his personal delegate to govern the Society of Jesus, with Fr. Pittau as coadjutor. 
• October 6, 1773. In London, Dr James Talbot, the Vicar Apostolic, promulgated the Brief of Suppression and sent copies to Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
• October 7, 1819. The death of Charles Emmanuel IV. He had been King of Sardinia and Piedmont. He abdicated in 1802 and entered the Jesuits as a brother in 1815. He is buried in San Andrea Quirinale in Rome. 
• October 8, 1871. The Great Chicago Fire. Most of the city was destroyed, but it missed Holy Family, the Jesuit parish, as the fire turned north thanks to the prayers of Fr. Arnold Damen. The fire lasted three days; 250 were killed. 
• October 9, 1627. Jansenius left Louvain for Salamanca to foment antipathy against the Jesuits and thus prevent Philip IV from giving the Society a large college in Madrid. The theological faculty at Salamanca were hostile to the Society. 
• October 10, 1806: The first novitiate of the Maryland Mission opened as ten novices began their Long Retreat under the direction of Fr. Francis Neale (himself a novice who had entered the Jesuits that day.)