This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things, we may carry out in both word and deed that which is pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
The petition of our prayer is that we would carry out that which is pleasing to God. I must admit that sometimes these things are done on autopilot. It’s not like I go through the day and ask, “Will it please God if I have tuna salad for lunch?” So, I started to make a mental list of things that I thought would be pleasing to God, and I realized that the list was bigger than I thought it would be.
I also realized that my list consisted of things that were pretty safe, things that didn’t require much risk. However, this prayer isn’t just about the easy things, it’s about all things. This prayer is about what we say and what we do.
I’m not sure at what age everyone is taught to “preach the gospel at all times and use words if necessary.” There are just three things wrong about this teaching. One, St. Francis never said that. In his Rule, he did say something close to it, but His intention was that our deeds should back up our words; two, Jesus and the writers of Scripture never said it, either; and three, St. Francis, Jesus, and the disciples never relied on their actions to evangelize.
This does not mean that every time we do something good we have to preach, it means that our words have to reflect our deeds and vice versa. Having words to match our deeds is sometimes the hard part.
This part of the Christian life is not an either/or, it is a both/and. Both, our deeds AND our words should be pleasing to God. It’s really not hard to do nice things for people, but when we do them, how do they know that our kindness comes from our desire to please God?
On the other hand, when we meet someone who is ill or is feeling down, do we give them a kind word AND offer to pray with them?
If that sounds terrifying, remember that Jesus promised that when we are questioned, we should not worry about what we are to say “for the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.” (Luke 12:12) Peter teaches us to “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” (1Pet 3:15)
If using words sounds scary, you can practice just like St. Francis did. Have you ever wondered why the images and statues of St. Francis have birds with him? Yes, he was a lover of nature, there is more behind the story. He preached to birds about their connection to all that is and their duty to sing its praises. It can’t be any more scary to tell birds about God than to tell people about God, so practice with the birds, or your dog or cat. Soon you will be able to declare God’s love over all of God’s creatures, including people.
Notice in the prayer, we ask that we may carry out word and deed. In the Latin form of the prayer, for carry out, we find the word exsequamur, which means to follow. Our words and deeds aren’t meant to be an occasional occurrence, they should follow us wherever we go.
If that sounds like a tall order, don’t despair. We find our strength in the opening phrase of the prayer, we are always pondering spiritual things. Pondering doesn’t mean that we’re just thinking about something. Pondering means that we are putting a puzzle together in our minds. We are listening for what God is telling us, we are noticing where He is working in our lives, we sense His love for those around us and we give that love to others in our words and our deeds.
Paul tells us to always focus our mind on whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, and worthy of praise (Phil 4:8). I am convinced that the more we can focus on the these things, always pondering spiritual things, every word and deed that comes from us will naturally be pleasing God.
Thanks for praying with me,
Julie