Signs from Heaven – Luke 21:5-11 Reflection
As Christians, we need not be afraid or uneasy despite the daily signs of our world-changing morally and physically. Instead, we can focus on experiencing the beauty and touch of Jesus’s calming peace through grace. When we embrace and are embraced back by the Word and Jesus’s light, our hearts overflow with hope and love. What we have can attract others to feel the same desire to focus on the positive effects God provides. While hard to discern, God wants us, in our unique ways, to be one of the signs from heaven within our communities. Helping others overcome the dread and hopelessness of uncertainty is a way of continuing to be Christ’s hands and feet. Doing so helps to reconstruct the temples of body, mind, and soul. Internally and externally, we are examples of the belief in individual resurrections into heaven already present in our hearts.
Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod by James Tissot (full-resolution painting) More details are available on the Brooklyn Museum website.
Additional Ordinary Time Reflections
Luke 21:5-11 – Scripture*
The Destruction of the Temple Foretold
5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
Signs and Persecutions
7 They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8 And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.
9 “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
Thank you for meditating on this Gospel and reading this Lectio Divina on Luke 21:5-11 Reflection – Signs from Heaven.
Additional Thoughts
Would you like to contribute related thoughts to these Lectio reflections on the Gospel readings? Since Lectio is not the only contemplative payer style, others might appreciate these types of expressions in this ministry. Do you see God’s grandeur everywhere and unconditionally enjoy sharing the love of Christ that you have inside? Are you willing to be anonymous in what you would share? If so, email me.
Prayer for young families:
Lord, let the young families of our communities get to know your joy, peace, comfort, and love despite worldly distractions.
Attributions
*This site has permission to use the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) Bible Luke 21 passage.
The Immersive Prayer website follows the guidelines for image web use at the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum websites.
Page and discussion group on these Lectio Divina daily Gospel Readings.
Discussion group on St. John of the Cross.