16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 20 July 2025
20th July 2025
“In these two women the two lives are figured: the life present, and the life to come; the life of labour, and the life of quiet; the life of sorrow, and the life of blessedness; the life temporal, and the life eternal. There were then in that house these two lives, and Himself, the Fountain of life. In Martha was the image of things present, in Mary of things to come. Let us do the first well, that we may have the second fully.” - St Augustine
An excerpt of the Homily of Pope Benedict XVI at St Peter's Square, 25 April 2012:
"In commenting on the episode of Martha and Mary, St Ambrose urges his faithful and us too: 'Let us too seek to have what cannot be taken from us, dedicating diligent, not distracted attention to the Lord’s word. The seeds of the heavenly word are blown away, if they are sown along the roadside. May the wish to know be an incentive to you too, as it was to Mary, this is the greatest and most perfect act'. And he added that 'attention to the ministry must not distract from knowledge of the heavenly word' through prayer (Expositio Evangelii secundunm Lucam, VII, 85 PL 15, 1720).
"Saints have therefore experienced a profound unity of life between prayer and action, between total love for God and love for their brethren. St Bernard, who is a model of harmony between contemplation and hard work, in his book De consideratione, addressed to Pope Innocent II to offer him some reflections on his ministry, insists precisely on the importance of inner recollection, of prayer to defend oneself from the dangers of being hyper-active, whatever our condition and whatever the task to be carried out. St Bernard says that all too often too much work and a frenetic life-style end by hardening the heart and causing the spirit to suffer (cf.II, 3).
"His words are a precious reminder to us today, used as we are to evaluating everything with the criterion of productivity and efficiency. The passage from the Acts of the Apostles reminds us of the importance — without a doubt a true and proper ministry is created — of devotion to daily activities which should be carried out with responsibility and dedication and also our need for God, for His guidance, for His light which gives us strength and hope. Without daily prayer lived with fidelity, our acts are empty, they lose their profound soul, and are reduced to being mere activism which in the end leaves us dissatisfied. There is a beautiful invocation of the Christian tradition to be recited before any other activity which says: 'Actiones nostras, quæsumus, Domine, aspirando præveni et adiuvando prosequere, ut cuncta nostra oratio et operatio a te semper incipiat, et per te coepta finiatur'; that is, 'Inspire our actions, Lord, and accompany them with Your help, so that our every word and action may always begin and end in You'. Every step in our life, every action, of the Church too, must be taken before God, in the light of His word.
Did you Know?
The word ‘hospitality’ is derived from the Latin word hospitalitas, which in turn comes from hospes (guest). It means to welcome another as guest. In Christian terms this means seeing Christ in each person. In founding his Benedictine monasteries, St Benedict insisted that hospitality be one of the highest values for them, writing: “Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ.” Rule of St Benedict 53:1