Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom. — Psalm 145:(see 12) 

Mass readings: Acts 14:19-28 / John 14:27-31

Traveling Men 

My parents weren’t travelers. Dad had an anemic sense of adventure so the farthest they ventured from Chicago was a drive around Lake Superior. Neither wanted to see Europe, so I saw it for them. While a college friend and I ricocheted from Florence to Salzburg to Lucerne, Mom sent frequent letters: “Nothing exciting going on here,” she wrote. “I washed clothes and the heating man cleaned the boiler. That’s all for now, mon cheri.” That last tidbit of questionable French told me she might be a closet traveler after all. 

Wanderlust is either in your bones or not. Paul and Barnabas in today’s first reading wandered among a tongue-twister list of cities “proclaiming the word.” As Christian missionaries, they endured censure and stoning. Traveling for Christ was in their blood. 

Prayer: Lord God, protect the missionaries who today proclaim Your word.