Newsletter- 20th Week of Ordinary Time
Many people are still away enjoying a time of rest and relaxation with friends and families and many people too are now returning from their breaks away. Welcome back! To those who may be visiting our parish here in Grantham this weekend from other parts of the country a very warm welcome to you and to your families.
This weekend on the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time we are reminded that God’s love, mercy and salvation are for everyone. Although the Israelites were known as God’s chosen people, the story of their beginning, their time in exile, slavery and rejection is also a story of God’s love for the whole of humanity. Each of our readings this Sunday approaches this truth from a different perspective.
The prophet Isaiah (First Reading) exhorts us to act with justice and integrity. He foresees a time when anyone who loves and follows the way of the Lord will be part of the salvation covenant. The Responsorial Psalm is a song of praise ringing with this truth, telling of a time when all nations will share in the loving light of God. St. Paul, writing to the early Gentile church in Rome, describes his conviction that their personal conversion and belief in God will help to fulfil God’s promise to bring salvation to everyone, and not just to the chosen people. (Second Reading). Then today’s Gospel presents an uncharacteristically abrupt Jesus initially rejecting the pleas of a desperate Canaanite woman. And yet it is this woman’s determined faith and sense of humour that challenges Jesus to step beyond the boundaries of his initial mission, thus revealing the truth that his salvation and healing is for all people – no exceptions.
Let us pray during this coming week ahead that we will all be able to recognise and have the courage to respond to faith expressed in surprising places and let us ask God for the grace to help us to play our part more fully in revealing His love to the world, in all the daily situations of our lives.
With my prayers for you and for your families during the coming week,
Your parish priest and friend,
Fr Jonathan
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2023 20th August 2023– Newsletter – Download