From Table-Waiting to Dragon-Slaying: 10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye on Saint Martha’s Day (July 29)

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 1:45 pm by Kathryn Jean Lopez

From Table-Waiting to Dragon-Slaying: 10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye on Saint Martha’s Day (July 29) 2015-07-29T13:45:03-05:00 Kathryn Jean Lopez

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St Martha, dear friend of Jesus, help us to constantly seek to deepen our friendship with Christ. pic.twitter.com/2nKwCGLSPo

— Fr. Patrick Brennan (@Pathound) July 29, 2015

2. I’ve meant to but have not read this book: Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. IS that because I’m Mary or Martha?

3. Enough with the table-waiting. Onto dragon slaying.

4. Fr. Roger Landry on “The Glow of St. Martha’s Virtues.”

5. Bishop-Elect Barron on Martha, Mary, and the attitude of discipleship. (Audio).

Grateful on this feast of St. Martha, for learning how to see the truth of who Jesus is. #FeminineGenius.

— Susan Timoney (@DrTimoney) July 29, 2015

7. Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.:

in the first place today’s feast for busy serving working people does, rightly, remind us to redress any imbalances in our life. Do we work more than is truly necessary? Our tendency, I think, is to neglect prayer and think we’re too busy to set time aside for God, to contemplate his graces given to us, or to just be with him. But as I suggested yesterday, like Moses, we all need to pitch our tent of meeting outside the camp, that is, outside our usual business and places of work, and there, in prayer, befriend God. Friendship with God is the “one thing [that] is needful” (Lk 10:41) for this alone satisfies our desires and brings peace to our restless hearts.
And this is what Martha had missed out on. Christ had come into her house to be with her, to befriend her, to enter into communion with her. But she was absent and distracted, worrying about many things, anxious to please Jesus. Sometimes our relationship with God can be like that too: harassed, anxious, busy and full of activity. But all Jesus wants is for us to be with him. He wants us to be in his Presence and be present to him, so much so that he is humbly present for us here in the Tabernacle; God has pitched his tent of meeting among us.

8. Readings for today.

9. Saint Augustine via the Liturgy of the Hours:

Our Lord’s words teach us that though we labor among the many distractions of this world, we should have but one goal. For we are but travelers on a journey without as yet a fixed abode; we are on our way, not yet in our native land; we are in a state of longing, not yet of enjoyment. But let us continue on our way, and continue without sloth or respite, so that we may ultimately arrive at our destination.
Martha and Mary were sisters, related not only by blood but also by religious aspirations. They stayed close to our Lord and both served him harmoniously when he was among them. Martha welcomed him as travelers are welcomed. But in her case, the maidservant received her Lord, the invalid her Savior, the creature her Creator, to serve him bodily food while she was to be fed by the Spirit. For the Lord willed to put on the form of a slave, and under this form to be fed by his own servants, out of condescension and not out of need. For this was indeed condescension, to present himself to be fed; since he was in the flesh he would indeed be hungry and thirsty.
Thus was the Lord received as a guest who came unto his own and his own received him not; but as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God, adopting those who were servants and making them his brothers, ransoming the captives and making them his co-heirs. No one of you should say: “Blessed are they who have deserved to receive Christ into their homes!” Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says: Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers, you did to me.

But you, Martha, if I may say so, are blessed for your good service, and for your labors you seek the reward of peace. Now you are much occupied in nourishing the body, admittedly a holy one. But when you come to the heavenly homeland will you find a traveler to welcome, someone hungry to feed, or thirsty to whom you may give drink, someone ill whom you could visit, or quarreling whom you could reconcile, or dead whom you could bury?
No, there will be none of these tasks there. What you will find there is what Mary chose. There we shall not feed others, we ourselves shall be fed. Thus what Mary chose in this life will be realized there in all its fullness; she was gathering fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God. Do you wish to know what we will have there? The Lord himself tells us when he says of his servants, Amen, I say to you, he will make them recline and passing he will serve them.

10.

Statue of St Martha from a medieval retable in St Michael's, Hildesheim https://t.co/tDZzRh1UTe

— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) July 29, 2015

PLUS:

Feast of St. Martha. What we remember the most about Martha is that she served Jesus Christ. Are you ready to serve? pic.twitter.com/hjgy2jDEo1

— Diocesan Priest (@diocesanpriest) July 29, 2015

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