July 4

Our Lady of Miracles,
Avignon, France, built by
Pope John XXII (14th Century)
INDEPENDENCE DAY - USA

Gospel: Matthew 9:14-17

Image created using Google AI Image Creator.

Today’s Gospel is about wineskins, but it isn’t really about wine. John’s disciples ask why Jesus’s followers don’t fast like everyone else, and Jesus answers with new cloth and new wine, you don’t patch something old with something that hasn’t shrunk yet, and you don’t pour new wine into skins that have already hardened around an old shape. New life needs all things new.

We do this with our own faith more than we realize. We try to fit a deepening relationship with God into the same small routines we’ve always had, the same five-minute prayer, the same once-a-week effort, and wonder why it feels like it’s bursting at the seams. Growth doesn’t fit comfortably into old habits. At some point the habits have to change.

Let today be the day you stretch the wineskin. If your prayer life has outgrown the way you’ve always practiced it, don’t force your new prayer life into your old ways just because your old habits are familiar. Try a fresh new approach of giving yourself to the Lord, a special devotion, and a harder deeper conversation with God that you’re not used to having. Offering the Lord something genuinely deep from your heart.

Today the Marian calendar recognizes Our Lady of Miracles in Avignon, France, a shrine built under Pope John XXII in the fourteenth century, proof that even old, established places of faith were once new wineskins someone had the courage to build. Something to ponder as you begin your day: Where in your spiritual life have you been pouring new grace into a container that is too small to hold it.
 

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 Happy Birthday America 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.

Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA

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