Isaiah asks us to "maintain justice" by doing "what is right." Think of an instance when you had to make a difficult choice in order to do what was right. Where did you find the strength?

We’re the church, a people on a mission: to bring good news wherever it’s yet to be heard. We know what to do. We may be less clear on how to do it. Our resolve might be weak. And then there’s the question: Just how far does this mission extend? What are the limits of our responsibility, at which point we might reasonably claim: Mission accomplished?

From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.”

It started at dinner with rude behavior to the waiter and to all of us sitting at the table. Then it was the refusal to join us on the boat ride as we toured the lake we had come to spend a long weekend enjoying. It escalated to surliness and sniping later that evening as we all tried to watch a movie together.

We pray for the God's mercy for our sins.

That is our vocation: to convert . . . the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.