Saturday, September 6, 2025
Letter from the Editor //
Dear Sister,
As we prepare for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, I am delighted to call you my sister in Christ, like Saint Paul called his friend Onesimus in tomorrow’s Second Reading. Paul gently encourages Philemon to see the runaway slave as a brother, a member of the Body of Christ. Like Onesimus, we who have been baptized have also been freed from slavery: slavery to sin, slavery to our possessions, slavery to living our own way. The Lord “will not do anything without your consent” (Philemon 9:14), but in the Gospel gently invites us to come after Him without any attachments to things that keep us from loving Him. In order to carry our cross with the Lord, we have to drop everything else but what we need for the journey.
We might find that as we grow closer to the Lord, we do not understand what He is asking us to do. Why does He want us to give up this thing that is good? Why is He calling us down this path that has no clear end in sight? Why are we suffering from this chronic illness or loss? “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?” (Wisdom 9:13) We need to entrust all that we are and have to the Lord, asking Him for his gift of wisdom and to send His Holy Spirit “from on high” (Wisdom 9:17). We must go to the Lord as our refuge and pray to “gain wisdom of heart” (Psalm 90:12) to trust in His ways for us. And then our paths will be “made straight” whether we can clearly see the end or not (Wisdom 9:18).
In Christ’s Love,
Susanna
Read the Readings for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time:
First Reading // Wisdom 9:13-18b
Psalm // Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17
Second Reading // Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Gospel // Luke 14:25-33
Live Liturgically // This Week’s Feast Days
Sunday, September 7 // Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday, September 8 // Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Tuesday, September 9 // Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest
Friday, September 12 // Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary
Susanna Spencer holds a master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the Devotions Editor for Blessed is She. She is a freelance writer and editor and a teacher-in-training living with her philosopher husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, and casually following baseball. She is the author of the Gospel Studies including Seek His Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew , Listen to Him: A Meditation on Mark, and Abide in His Love: A Meditation on John. She was narrator for Found: Advent With the Good Shepherd and Rescued: Lent With the Lamb of God and a contributing author and editor for our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up. She was the Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.
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