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This week we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke, the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Luke’s Gospel includes some of the most memorable narratives in the entire New Testament: The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep. Luke’s also focuses on marginalized people and highlights the role of women more than the other Synoptics, that is, Matthew, Mark and Luke. So this week it might be good to read the Gospel of Luke all the way through and see what it might have to say to you. In fact, one of the most surprising things for Catholics, and other Christians, is the experience of reading through the Gospel straight through.
Many of us get our Gospel narratives piecemeal, from the readings at Sunday Mass, or, for some of us, at Daily Mass. And so our knowledge of the full story of Jesus, as contained in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, remains incomplete. When you read a Gospel all the way through, start to finish, you can get a better sense not only of Jesus’s life, but also of who Jesus was for the writer of this particular Gospel, and the community he’s writing for. So this month, why not try to read Luke’s Gospel, or at least as much as you can, and see where it leads you in prayer. After all, the Gospel of Luke is often called The Gospel of Prayer, because of all the many times it portrays Jesus at prayer. Take that as your text, and inspiration, for this week.
