Lk 5: 27-32
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Leave Everything Behind
A retreatant discovered he had “left everything” at home – knapsack, suitcase, clothing, toiletries – upon arriving at the retreat house where I was director. We had a good laugh before he made a quick trip home. Ever since I have grown to admire his singular focus on the retreat that caused him to think of nothing else. Often details preoccupy our prayer and keep us from being fully present in God’s presence.
Leave everything behind . . . except God . . . when you pray today.
—Fr. Chris Manahan, SJ, is the Midwest Province provincial assistant for senior Jesuits and pre-tertians and former director of Jesuit Retreat House on Lake Winnebago, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He is on the board of Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House.
Prayer
Father in heaven, I pray, that all I do today helps others along the way to see you; and may I see you in them. Amen.
—Fr. Chris Manahan, SJ