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One Bread, One Body

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All Issues > Volume 29, Issue 5

<< Wednesday, August 21, 2013 >>

Pope St. Pius X

Judges 9:6-15
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Psalm 21:2-7

Matthew 20:1-16
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THE REST OF MY LIFE

"When those hired late in the afternoon came up they received a full day's pay." —Matthew 20:9

Maybe you have wasted your life in "doing your own thing." Now that you have given your life to Jesus, you don't want "to spend what remains of your earthly life on human desires but on the will of God. Already you have devoted enough time to what the pagans enjoy" (1 Pt 4:2-3).

Nevertheless, you feel sad that it's taken you this long to begin to live. The Lord wants to change your sorrow into joy (see Ps 30:12) by assuring you that He will give you a full-day's pay even if you've only worked for Him a very short time (Mt 20:14). The Lord "will repay you for the years which the locust has eaten" (Jl 2:25), that is, for the wasted years of life. The Lord in His mercy often saves the best for last, as He did at the wedding feast of Cana (Jn 2:10). So "give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what is ahead" (Phil 3:13).

The Lord has died to atone for your past, so forget about it. Thank Him you have the privilege of living for Him in the present. Make the following promise: "For the rest of my life, I will serve the Lord alone, in every way, with all my heart."

Prayer: Father, thank You for life, Your forgiveness, the present, and the rest of my life. I give it to You.

Promise: "Thus the last shall be first and the first shall be last." —Mt 20:16

Praise: Pope St. Pius X, born of humble beginnings, was raised up by God to serve a tumultuous, violent world.

Prayer for the Helpless Unborn

fetus at 11 weeks

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil,

those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life.

Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today

who are not thinking of motherhood.

Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image

- as well as theirs - made for eternal life.

Dispel their fear and selfishness and give them true womanly hearts

to love their babies and give them birth

and all the needed care that a mother can give.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord,

Who lives and reigns with You and Holy Spirit,

One God, forever and ever. Amen.