God's Word-filled Wednesday: The Story of the Grateful Leper: Luke 17:11-19

Wednesdays are the day I go to a mom's group at the local parish.  It's also generally the one weekday where the girls and I go to daily Mass together (just before the mom's group).  We tiptoed in (our usual 3 minutes late) during the psalm (it was the 23rd Psalm today; I LOVE that psalm so much), and got ourselves not-so-silently settled into the pew just as the priest began the gospel reading.

Picture found here on Pinterest

Normally, I just share one short verse, and I've highlighted the verse that really stood out to me from the entire story, but I think the surrounding story makes it more powerful.  What an incredible story and how sad that so often when Christ heals us, we never even come back to give our humble thanks.  A fitting reading to reflect on as Thanksgiving Day approaches.  

Luke 17:11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,

he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.

As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.

They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,

“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”

And when he saw them, he said,

“Go show yourselves to the priests.”

As they were going they were cleansed. 

And one of them, realizing he had been 

healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud

voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and

thanked him. 

He was a Samaritan.

Jesus said in reply,

“Ten were cleansed, were they not?

Where are the other nine? 

Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” 

Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;

your faith has saved you.”

Also, I'm not sure if any of you are prayer journal-ers, but my mom encouraged it when I was younger, and it's something I've always come back to as a staple in my spiritual life.  When I was younger, it was pretty much just me writing letters to Jesus and then sitting quietly and listening and writing down anything I felt he was saying to me.  As I have grown older, I have added other elements.  Sometimes I still write letters and some entries are more like an art journal or a Bible verse or quote that really spoke to me.  

The other day I opened my journal and found that my 5 year old had added an entry of her own.  

But wait there's more....

On the next couple pages, she had drawn her VERY FIRST attempts at stars (and did very well I thought).  So during my journaling time, I added some color and scripture to her handiwork.  A little love letter to the Lord from my daughter AND me.  

           

Her sweet, random (though very appropriate) entries in my journal inspired me to work on developing a way that she can do some prayer journaling.  Stay tuned for a future post on that!