”The more you give yourself to others, the more joy and peace will flow into your own life.”

One night a man came to our house and told me, “There is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for days,” I took some food and I went. When I finally came to the family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or sadness in their faces, just the deep pain of hunger. I gave the rice to the mother. She divided it in two, and went out, carrying half the rice with her. When she came back, I asked her, “Where did you go?” She gave me this simple answer, “To my neighbors-they are hungry also.” – Mother Teresa

Gospel Text: (LK 14:12-14)
On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
He said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Today, the Lord teaches us the true meaning of Christian generosity: to learn how to devote ourselves to others. In a couple of weeks, we will be leaping into the holiday season. It’s precisely now, before life gets too busy, that we should pause and ponder all the gifts that we have received from the Lord. But don’t stop at merely stopping. God wants to direct your thinking, but more importantly, He also wants to direct your doing. Perhaps He will give you a different, possibly unexpected focus. Perhaps he will send you to a neighbor who is about to become a new friend.

Let us beg from the Mother of God enough generosity so that we can elude any temptation of selfishness.