Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday' Collect:

Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God,

the constant gladness of being devoted to you,

for it is full and lasting happiness

to serve with constancy

the author of all that is good.

Jesus tells us in Mark's Gospel (13:24-32), that we will see "the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky."   Later Jesus says that " Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

But of the day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

I think the lesson from this Sundays reading is that we are to be ready! We know not the day or the hour - so many here in California have had to flee in front of the wildfires; some have lost lives, many have lost their homes. Let us pray for them and for all those who are hoping to find a home in our country.