19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) - For the Ride Home

•He got up, ate and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. (1 Kings 19:7,8)
•Taste and see how good the Lord is; blessed the man who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:9)
•And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. (Ephesians 4:32)
•“…I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)

•Who gives Elijah strength for his spiritual journey? Is this an inner journey?
•Does the psalmist literally mean “taste and see” or is this metaphor for entering into the spiritual journey? How do you “take refuge” in God?
•Is becoming compassionate love a way to consume (enter) Christ?
•Is consuming Jesus, “the living bread,” the way to enter into the interior or spiritual life that is God?

Yes, love is God in me, and if I am in love I am in God, that is, in life, in grace, a sharer in God’s being.…If charity is God in me, why look for God any further than myself? And if God is in me as Love, why do I change or disfigure God’s face with acts or values that are not love? (Carlo Carretto)¹

¹Carlo Carretto Selected Writings, edited by Robert Ellsberg, Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY, 1994.

For the Ride Home is available for publication in your parish bulletin. Please contact Ted Bergh for details, or to communicate any questions or feedback. Ted Bergh is a free-lance writer serves on the advisory board of St. Anthony Messenger Press.