Wednesday in the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

[Scripture Readings: Rev 15:1-4; Lk 21:12-19 ]

“By perseverance you will secure your lives.” But perseverance is a gift we cannot earn. One young monk expressed it this way: “I have come to realize perseverance is a joyful grace and not a matter of steely willpower.” That's exactly right. Jesus taught us to pray for this grace when he said, “Watch at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk 21:36).

Jesus also taught us the Our Father, a prayer we all know by heart and repeat often. But how many of us know this prayer for perseverance by heart so that we can repeat it often? “O Lord, that I may persevere and have the strength to endure and escape all that is to come, and to stand before you in joy when you appear.”