Proper 19 (24) – Year C
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: September 14, 2025
Gospel Lectionary Text
Luke 15:1-10
15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.
15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
15:3 So he told them this parable:
15:4 "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
15:5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.
15:6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'
15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
15:8 "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
15:9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.'
15:10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Context
Coming soon.
Question
Coming soon.
Reflections
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
This week, we invite you to read and reflect on “Father and Son,” by William Stafford.
This poem’s title and its enigmatic lines seem to have nothing to do with one another. Stafford describes the feeling of losing a kite while flying it—the “thrill along the string” suddenly “ somewhere.” It happened “years ago,” he writes, and yet he still feels like he’s holding that broken string, and feeling something “tug the other end.”
Perhaps the poet is gesturing towards a parent’s heart, the way it can break as their child’s joy turns to despair when a kite string severs, or a balloon “sails forever clear of earth.” It’s painful to see a child lose something; we’d turn the whole world upside down to find what’s been lost, to set everything right again.
Do we dare to read this sort of passion into the Trinity? The Father who is “not willing that any should perish”? (2 Pet 3:9) The Son who insists, “No one can snatch out of my hand”? (Jn 10:28)
“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”
Father and Son
by William Stafford
where the wind went, our kite sent back
its thrill along the string that
sagged but sang and said, “I’m here!
I’m here!”—till broke somewhere,
gone years ago, but sailed forever clear
of earth. I hold—whatever tugs
the other end—I hold that string.
excerpt from And Then
by Matthew Nienow
I had forgotten
how new
anyone forgiven
can become.
Prayer
This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Centering Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, wild and free. Do as you please. Shine your light on me that I might see things as they are, not as I am. Free me to act in your name with courage, creativity, and compassion.
