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SPIRITUAL LIVING
Prayer and Devotions

Faith Without Demanding a Sign
by Father Gregory Woodward, LC

Make a ten minutes visit to Christ in a church or chapel today, making His Eucharistic presence the source and summit of my new day.

October 15, 2007
Monday in the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 11: 29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”


Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you; may my meditation of the works of your Son Jesus Christ in the Gospel draw me to a deeper faith. Lord, I hope in you; enable me to see your fidelity to all your promises and to trust without faltering. Lord, I love you; enable me to love you for all you are and because you have loved me first. Lord, again I thank you for your many graces and blessings up to this moment in my life. Help me, a poor and weak sinner, to live my day with you and your Kingdom in my heart.

Petition: God our Father, may your Son Jesus Christ be my Way, Truth, and Life in a new way today.

1. An Evil Generation Demanding signs before one starts to believe is already a great manifestation of incredulity. Christ is aware at this moment of the good number of people who seem to remain unbelieving or skeptical no matter what he does. Christ is also reminding us that faith in him is ultimately a grace and gift. He can only present himself as he is in all his simplicity, as the “Son of Man to [his] generation” and to ours as well; believing or not believing him is then up to us. Christ’s works testify to who he is.

2. Others Will Condemn the Crowd’s Unbelief Christ is reminding the people in the crowds of the greater graces they have received by his presence in the world. He is telling the people in no uncertain terms that they will be called to give an account for the graces they have either accepted or squandered. He in fact warns them that so privileged are they by his coming that people in the past who made great sacrifices to receive much less will be among their judges. Christ and his salvific message are certainly much more than the “wisdom of Solomon” or the conversion of an entire city like Nineveh. As a Christian, I shouldn’t see Christ with any less wonderment and sense of adoration just because nearly twenty centuries have passed since he said these things.

3. There Is Something Greater Here How is Christ really present in my life? Is his salvific message a way of life for me or solely routine piety? This Gospel is inviting me to put aside all indifference toward Christ and all spiritual lethargy in making his Gospel and my Catholic faith the wellsprings of my life. Christ’s address to the people in today’s Gospel passage is in a sense an address to me too. He is inviting me to look for a personal and living encounter with him where this can be vividly realized: in fervent prayer, in Eucharistic adoration, in the Mass, in the sacraments of the Church, even in the testimony of holy Christians who are always present in the world. It is there that I can fruitfully discover that there is someone “greater than Jonah” in my midst even in the hustle and bustle of modernity.

Dialogue with Christ: Lord Jesus, what a fruitful lesson it is to learn never to take you for granted! May I find renewal in my knowledge and love of you. Enable me to give others effective and fervent testimony that you alone are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Resolution: I will make a ten minutes visit to Christ in a church or chapel today, making His Eucharistic presence the source and summit of my new day.


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