June 23: God Present to Us

Carel Fabritius: Hagar and the Angel
Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, c. 1643-45

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Gen 16:1-12, 15-16

“The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness (NRSV, Gen 16:7a).

Father, in our apparently worst moments you are always with us to empower us through the Word with your life in the Holy Spirit. I say “apparently worse moments” because every moment is the saving moment. You, Father, through the Word, now made flesh in our Lord Jesus, are always with us at every moment from that first moment in the womb. Even when we reject you and turn away from you in sin, you are always God-with-us calling us to repentance and new life. In fact, Father, your constant presence to us is one of the defining elements of human existence.

Father, you succored Hagar in the desert in her moment of need and called her to a destiny, far beyond even being the mother of a great nation. May I, in this moment accept the succor that you offer me that I may grow in your life which you always offer to every human being in every time and every place.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.