This world isn’t just a backdrop against which human salvation takes place and is then abandoned. We’re not saved out of the world; we’re saved with the world. Part of our stewardship and vocation, then, as baptized members of Christ, is to love and engage the world — so that, working through us, God’s grace might bring salvation for all of His creatures. But when the environment in which we live is out of sight, it quickly becomes out of mind. We’re much less motivated to notice environmental decline or to make personal sacrifices for something we don’t love — or even notice. So get outside and notice the world around you. Go for a walk, take it all in, and give thanks to God.

Readings at this Mass: Is 5:1–7 | Phil 4:6–9 | Mt 21:33–43

When we receive difficult things, when we're in difficult situations, when we have things that are hard to deal with, let us ask Mary to help us as we pray the Rosary this month. Let us ask her to inspire us to receive those difficult things as coming from God, and to be able to accept them, to embrace them, to say with her over and over again as we repeat this beautiful devotion of the Rosary, "Let it be done to me according to your word."

Readings at this Mass: Is 5:1–7 | Phil 4:6–9 | Mt 21:33–43

Living with a resentful heart is a dark place to be. St. Thomas Aquinas described envy as “sorrow over another person’s good.” Envy makes us resent the good that others receive. Gratitude does just the opposite: it teaches us to rejoice in God’s generosity, even toward someone we think doesn’t deserve it. But God’s grace is not measured out according to what we have earned. It is gift: freely and extravagantly given.

Readings at this Mass: Ez 18:25–28 | Phil 2:1–11 | Mt 21:28–32