October 8
Saint Dominic gave his days in service to others and spent his nights in communion with the Lord.
In today’s gospel ( Luke 10:38–42), Jesus journeys to Bethany to visit the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. It seems that this is not their first encounter as their relationships are beyond that of mere acquaintances. Martha and Mary are friends of the Lord. Martha works to prepare something for Jesus to eat while Mary listens attentively to what Jesus wishes to share with them. Each, in her own way, responds to the Lord’s call to love God and serve her neighbor as an expression of that love. Even in this, Jesus calls Martha to serve with a prayerful rather than an anxious heart.
When Saint Dominic was on the road, he prayed and sang, he preached and worked miracles. He served others from a heart overflowing with love for the Lord. This love was fostered and fed in prayer at the foot of the altar each night.
In these final weeks of the Year of Faith, we might consider: do we have faith to serve without anxiety and pray with great attentiveness? Is our faith strong enough to allow us to surrender our will, our anxieties, our expectations, even our hopes, so that we might hear the Master’s voice and respond to His summons to walk with Dominic along the path of humility in service to our neighbor and to sit with Dominic at the foot of the altar in contemplative prayer? Let us pray for the grace to recognize, as Dominic did, the truth of Jesus’ words in today’s gospel: “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
Saint Dominic, please give us the grace to contemplate and to give to others the fruits of our contemplation.
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