Jesus instructs his disciples to possess nothing for their journey of evangelization. He stresses the need to be divested of the world in order to be totally invested in the Kingdom.

As practicing believers, it seems we spend our lives taking church lessons. Some of us had more formal lessons in parochial school or religious ed, but all of us are participating in a course in ecclesiology just by being in the pews. Not all that we learn is useful, and unhappily, not all that we absorb is true.

Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

Taking Saint Paul’s teaching to heart, Sam woke up praising God’s glory. He thanked God for the beautiful summer sun and the gentle breeze wafting through his window. As he washed his face, he was overcome with gratitude for the life-giving water on his skin. He buried his head in a soft cotton towel and breathed deeply.

"I‘ve brought you the Eucharist,” says Joseph, the head catechist for the Diocese of Leribe in the African country of Lesotho, to a group of elderly villagers. In addition to his service as eucharistic minister, he also visits the sick, holds prayer meetings, and teaches, including instructing those preparing for Baptism.

Gathered as church, we pray to our God who grants us forgiveness.

Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.