Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101324.cfm

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 I prayed, and prudence was given me;
        I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
    I preferred her to scepter and throne,
    and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
        nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
    because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
        and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
    Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,
    and I chose to have her rather than the light,
        because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
    Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
        and countless riches at her hands.
Wisdom 7:7-11

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This lyrical passage personifies Wisdom, carrier of the Presence of God. While often attributed to King Solomon, the book was written by an unknown but gifted poet.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We, too, pray for the gift of Wisdom, and reflect on the many times in our lives that she has accompanied us with the spirit of God.

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Poetry: The Beginning of Wisdom – Denise Levertov

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

You have brought me so far.

I know so much. Names, verbs, images. My mind
overflows, a drawer that can’t close

Unscathed among the tortured. Ignorant parchment
uninscribed, light strokes only, where a scribe
tried out a pen.

I am so small, a speck of dust
moving across the huge world. The world
a speck of dust in the universe.

Are you holding
the universe? You hold
only my smallness. How do you grasp it,
how does it not
slip away?

I know so little.

You have brought me so far.

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Music: Wisdom Song = Laura Woodley Osman