St. Jane de Chantal
Mt 19: 3-12
Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?” He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.” His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”
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.
Persevere Through Trials
The vultures are at my new back door again. They are there staring at me, pecking their beaks at my newly installed shiny glass door. I shoo them away, but they leave only temporarily to roost nearby and then return to pester me again. Fortunately, I am not alone. We have a Jesus who knows what it’s like to be tested. It might not have been black vultures, but the Pharisees certainly pestered Jesus with many questions, trying to test him. Jesus perseveres steadily in his responses. I know that consistency and perseverance will eventually shoo the physical vultures from my door and also all of the metaphorical “vultures” in my life – from small things that continue to test me and wear my patience thin, to more serious trials, hardships, and injustices. Jesus understands how to persevere.
How are you being called to persevere through both small and large trials with the strength of Jesus?
—Kathy Powell is the Creative Director & Content Strategist for Becky Eldredge | Ignatian Ministries. She spends her days dreaming up ways to invite people deeper in their walk with God, reminding her kids to use their inside voices, and walking with families who have lost a child by miscarriage.
Prayer
Litany for Perseverance
We are not alone. We call on holy women and men who have persevered through many serious hardships, injustices, and trials. Walk with us and be a sign of hope, pointing us to the steady and persistent strength of Jesus.
St Jane de Chantal, who faced obstacles in her time from being a woman and persisted through cycles of depression and struggles with mental health, and whose feast we celebrate today,
Pray for us.
St Ignatius, who had numerous times where he had clear plan of how he wanted to live his life, and persisted through the changing plan, learning to discern with the Spirit,
Pray for us.
St Josephine Bakhita, who after enduring kidnapping, enslavement, and cruel treatment, preserved and was eventually declared a free woman and became a religious sister.
Pray for us.
St Martin de Porres, who, when faced with racism and injustice that barred his entry into a religious order, persisted by volunteering at the priory and was eventually admitted as a Third Order Dominican,
Pray for us.
O God, thank you for all those you have been set in my path for me to turn to as holy examples of perseverance. Thank you especially for your son Jesus, who understands perseverance and stands with us in all our hardships, no matter how big or how small.
For this we pray to the Lord, Lord hear our prayer.
—Kathy Powell