1 Kgs 17:7-16 Ps 4:2-3, 4-5, 7b-8 Matt 5:13-16

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

There were two things that caught my attention from the readings for today. The first pertains to the First Reading from 1 Kings. What a beautiful story and reminder to us all… it is a story of dual imagery, illustrating the great love and care of God. The first is seen through Elijah, as God tells him to travel to Zarephath where God will provide someone to provide for him. When he arrives, we come to find the widow is equally as poor. Yet, by Elijah’s instructions she is able to eat for a year. It is a stunning example of the power of two people acting out of faith. It makes me wonder… what if everyone in this world truly lived by this example and fully acted out of complete and selfless faith, believing that God would provide? Is it perhaps, our own doubts and wavering faith (both as individuals and as community) that results in the hardships of our world today? What would happen if everyone acted out of this faith?

The second thing that struck me, on a somewhat more personal level, was found in the imagery of Matthew’s Gospel. As a 21-year-old, the Lord of the Rings movies are something I am, obviously, quite familiar with. Questions of religious links aside, one of the scenes in that movie that always stands vividly in my memory is when Pippen lights the Beacons of Gondor and the call for aid travels through the countryside via fire beacon. As nerdy as it is, the amount of hope and inspiration this scene brings to me never seems to diminish, no matter how many times I see it. Thinking of this in light of Matthew, I began thinking, “What if people acted as these beacons to one another.” Yet again, it was a humbling thought, and left me challenging myself to truly strive to let my light shine, even if to just one person, every single day.