Daily Gospel Reflection for November 26, 2016

Today's Gospel: Luke 21, 34-36

In light of the current scenarios of unrest being played out daily in our world, today's reading takes on quite a different meaning than it might have in years passed. The monition to remain vigilant and to pray for strength speaks to my heart.

As a mama, I'm all too familiar with the temptation to allow my day-to-day anxieties to steer me off-course. Between juggling children's educational needs and social schedules, managing a household, being a helpmate to my husband and overseeing our finances, my focus frequently gets distracted from the end-goal to the now-goal. Sometimes it looks like a lax prayer life or a skipped hour in adoration because I'm too busy trying to make it all work for my family. It's when I'm attempting to control things on my own that my heart becomes drowsy and my perspective skewed.

I love that today's gospel reminds us again to wake up and to stay alert. More than that, it calls us to our knees to ask God for the help we need to stay the course in the battle ahead. Though the passage says that tribulations are imminent, we can take consolation in so many previous exhortations to “Be Not Afraid.” As we set to the tasks of this day, let us keep this warning close to our hearts. Let's burn it into our memory banks, so that God can use it to redirect us when we're led astray.

Ponder:

What if every time we're enticed to speed up or skip quiet moments with God today (i.e. say the rosary carelessly, forget the Angelus, fall asleep without giving thanks for the day) we consciously beg His aid to make us more vigilant?

Pray:

Lord, I trust that Your plans are always for the greater good and that I am never outside of Your watchful gaze. Help me to stay alert, to keep my priorities in line and to lay every worry, need and hope at the foot of the cross, confident that You will hear and answer me.

Copyright 2016 Tara K. E. Brelinsky

Tara K. E. Brelinsky is the home schooling mother of 8 living children, a writer/speaker and an NFP teacher. Married to her childhood sweetheart, together, they run a restaurant, grow a garden, tend to a menagerie of animals and raise all of those wonderful kids. You can read Tara's musing on her blog BlessingsInBrelinskyville. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.