{"id":11659,"date":"2025-07-25T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=11659"},"modified":"2025-07-24T09:26:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:26:38","slug":"seventeenth-sunday-in-ordinary-time-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2025\/07\/25\/seventeenth-sunday-in-ordinary-time-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

GROW AS A DISCIPLE <\/strong>
\n“Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Sounds lovely, doesn\u2019t it? I remember understanding this verse as though God is like a genie in a bottle and prayer is like a delivery service. But when I encountered true hardship, this interpretation was tested. I was seeking, but I couldn\u2019t find what I wanted. My request seemed to go unanswered. I was asking, but my hands were empty. I couldn\u2019t reconcile this. Did this mean God wasn\u2019t telling me the truth? Trusting that couldn\u2019t be the case, I pressed in a little harder. In time, and through the grace of God, I realized I\u2019d been reading this verse through selfish eyes. I was understanding this passage to say, “ask for whatever you feel like in the moment, and I\u2019ll drop it on your doorstep.” But what does Jesus actually say? He says that if we ask, he will always give us the Holy Spirit. This understanding can change how we pray. The Lord doesn\u2019t promise to instantly cure our maladies, or to remove every ounce of pain on this side of the veil. But he does promise to send his Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with us through it all. And that is far better than any type of delivery service.<\/p>\n

GO EVANGELIZE <\/strong>
\nToday\u2019s psalm echoes the Gospel message that the Lord never abandons us. In our response, we unite our voices with the universal Church as we say, “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.” We encounter hardship on a daily basis. From the tiny irritations that tempt our tempers to flare to the heavy crosses we carry, we are reminded of how much we need God\u2019s help. And yet, how often is our response to turn inward and grow weary, discouraged, or angry? Next time we come eye to eye with a challenge, let\u2019s try to respond like the psalmist, and cry out to the Advocate. He is very near. Come Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

REFLECT<\/strong>
\nWe are reminded in today\u2019s readings that the Lord is always near, that he hears us, and that he responds generously. Thank God this is true even when it doesn\u2019t seem like it. As we face our daily hardships, let\u2019s not forget to ask Jesus for help. Don\u2019t forget that he never rations the Spirit, and though he will never force himself on you, he\u2019s waiting eagerly to pour his love into your heart. Ask! Seek! Knock! He knows your voice, and he is ready to respond.<\/p>\n

By The Faithful Disciple<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GROW AS A DISCIPLE “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Sounds lovely, doesn\u2019t it? I remember understanding this verse as though God is like a genie in a bottle and prayer is like a delivery service. But when I encountered true hardship,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parish","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11661,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11659\/revisions\/11661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}