Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings): Isaiah 49.8-15 | Psalm 145.8-13 | John 5.17-30

All Christian life is meant to be at the same time profoundly contemplative and rich in active work. It is true that we are called to create a better world. But we are first of all called to a more immediate and exalted task: that of creating our own lives. In doing this, we act as co-workers with God. We take our place in the great work of mankind, since in effect the creation of our own destiny, in God, is impossible in pure isolation. Each one of us works out his own destiny in inseparable union with all those others with whom God has willed us to live. We share with one another the creative work of living in the world. And it is through our struggle with material reality, with nature, that we help one another create at the same time our own destiny and a new world for our descendants.

—Thomas Merton. Love and living. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979, p. 159, excerpted.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, you emptied yourself and gave your whole life to us and for us. Grant us to receive so immeasurable a gift humbly, gladly and thankfully. May we hold back nothing of ourselves from others and from you.

The Great Fig Tree, Jamberoo Abbey

Images of St. Gregory's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the Episcopal Church located in Three Rivers, Michigan with music composed by one of the monks, Br. Abraham Newsom.