Wednesday of Holy Week
Is 50:4-9a
The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
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.
Accompanying Others in Following Christ
I used to teach English at an all-boys high school. I’ve never admitted this to anyone, but as I drove to work, I’d sometimes listen to John Michael Talbot. Some people rev up for a challenge as formidable as convincing 17-year-olds the beauty of literature with more rousing tunes, but Talbot’s “Christ as a Light” (from the Prayer of St. Patrick) helped focus me. Teaching is an awesome and daunting task. It seemed a good idea to ask Christ to “illumine and guide me,” to “be within and without me” as I spent the day listening to and speaking with my students.
Are you ready to respond to God’s call to accompany others in any situation? Today, let us pray for “the tongue of a teacher” so that we may be ready to sustain all whom we encounter with the right words at the right time.
—Christine Brunkhorst is an alumna of Santa Clara University and Marquette University. A Twin Cities Ignatian Associate, she teaches English to adult immigrants at Learning in Style School in Minneapolis.
Prayer
Christ as a light, illumine and guide me
Christ as a shield, overshadow me
Christ underneath, Christ over me
Christ beside me, on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me
Lowly and meek yet all powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak
In the mouth of those who speak unto me.
This day be within and without me,
Lowly and meek yet all powerful.
Christ as a light, Christ as a shield
Christ beside me
On my left and my right.
—Adapted from the Prayer of St. Patrick