Jun 13: The Summons to Holier Lives

Gustav Moreau: St. Martin
Private Collection, 1882

Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church

Gospel: Mt 5:38-42

If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well (NRSV, Mt 5:40).”

Father, you call us through the Word, now made flesh in our Lord Jesus, to make you and your coming kingdom the center and focus of everything that we are and do. You call us to forget ourselves and give all in service of our sisters and brothers.

We struggle in every age to find patterns of activity to govern our lives in justice. Help us to realize that within this world there is nothing that exhausts your truth and goodness and that we are constantly called to move beyond even our highest ideals and motivations to find new forms of moral behavior which in turn will also need to be surpassed.

Father, you give us life in the Spirit in the moment and call us always to grow in that divine life. May your gift never be in vain but manifest itself in us in holier lives.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.