14th Week of OT 2019 - Monday - Places of Divine Encounter

The places where we encounter God are holy to us, aren’t they? Our childhood church, a holy shrine, the parish church where we attended with our family, the tomb of a patron saint, maybe a chapel in which important spiritual growth occurred during a particularly trying time.
For Jacob, in our first reading, the place of divine encounter was a mountain-top at a place which came to be known as Bethel: Beth-el, the house of God. At Bethel, Jacob had a particularly vivid dream, where heaven opened, and he encountered the Divine, the God of Abraham and his father Isaac. The encounter with God gave his life purpose; he knew that God would be with him always, that God was directing his life, and would direct his family for generations to come.

Hopefully, we have had a similar encounter with God, which has given us that same faith and confidence that Jacob had.

The daughter of the royal official and the woman with the hemorrhage in the Gospel today, had similar encounters with God, in the person of Jesus Christ. That encounter brought life where there was once death. The encounter with Jesus brings healing, yes of our bodies and minds, but most importantly to our souls wounded by sin.

Jacob constructed a stone pillar to thank God for blessing. Christians return to the stone table—the altar—week after week in order to thank God for the blessings we’ve received through Jesus Christ. And for Christians, the altar is the very place where we encounter God, the altar is a place of continual encounter that impels us out into the world. In a very real sense, we are to be walking, talking Beth-el’s, walking talking houses of God, walking talking tabernacles out in the world.
Our hope is that as we have encountered Jesus here at the altar, others may encounter Jesus in us, and experience his healing, his forgiveness, his blessing in us, that they may be lead back here to give Eucharistic thanks at the altar alongside of us.

The Lord wants us to be walking tabernacles and fill this world with holy places where His eucharistic love transforms lives and brings life for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the wounded and lost may discover the love and life of Jesus Christ in Catholic Church. We pray.
For spiritual healing and mercy upon those who have fallen into mortal sin and fallen away from the Church. For the conversion of atheists and non-believers. We pray.
For a healing of all the wounds of division afflicting the Church, for an end to heresy, schism and doctrinal error, for healing from scandal. We pray.
For the healing of all those afflicted with physical, mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for deceased priests and religious, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, we pray to the Lord.
Heavenly Father, hear our prayers. May the grace of Christ Your Son, the Divine Physician, bring healing of our sinfulness, and make us worthy of the kingdom of heaven, through the same Christ our Lord.