Truly there is no season when the bracing and challenging words of the prophets are not needed. This month, prophecy rules in the daily Mass readings, as we hear from Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in turns.

"Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture”—those are words that pastors dread to hear. Yet to ones who are part of the flock, they come as a welcomed warning.

Back in grade school I smelled a rat when it came to the works of mercy. I understood perfectly why feeding the hungry or giving water to the thirsty was a compassionate thing to do. And of course the homeless need shelter, the shivering need clothing, the sick and imprisoned want company, and the dead could use a proper burial.

It was a bucket list trip, my two brothers, their wives, and me travelling through Italy. Rome, Venice, Sienna, and a villa in Tuscany.

Like the apostles who gathered together to tell Jesus “all they had done and taught,” every evening at dinner my sisters and I would report to my father and mother all that we had done and learned during the day.

Brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins.

A recipe has no soul. You as the cook must bring soul to the recipe. 

Browse our library for additional Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B material.

Click here to view the Take Five weekly for July 21, 2024.