Laborers for the Harvest

It was a 5-month journey of active prayer, discernment, and discussion leading up to the role and opportunity at Exodus 90 that I am starting next week.

At one point on that journey, I drove to Terre Haute, Indiana – roughly halfway between my house near St. Louis and James the CEO’s near Indianapolis – and spent a day with him in discussion and mutual discernment.

We met at a parish in Terre Haute that graciously lent us some space, and we started the morning in their perpetual adoration chapel. Starting that day in adoration and prayer before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was the best way to start the day, and a sign of things to come. (Every member of the team at Exodus is asked and encouraged to spend at least a Holy Hour in prayer each day.)

In the tiny, beautiful building hosting the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel, on the wall just to the left of the altar with the monstrance, was a framed piece of art. It appeared perhaps cross-stitched, and it caught my attention as soon as we entered the chapel to pray.

It quoted Luke 10:2:

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.

Luke 10:2

For a Holy Hour at the start of a day of discussion and discernment for this role, that Scripture verse spoke to me deeply in prayer.

It still does today, as we celebrate the Feast of Saint Luke. It’s also a line at the end of each Communion service, as we pray as God’s people to call more men to the holy priesthood.

I’ve prayed that line almost every day since that day in the adoration chapel. Where is the Lord sending me today?

On this Feast of Saint Luke, in the Church’s “Year C” when our Sunday Gospel most of the year is from Luke’s Gospel, it feels like I’m celebrating the feast day of a close friend with whom I’ve journeyed this year. I’ve prayed over his Gospel each day, proclaimed it almost every Sunday, and preached on it most of those Sundays. There’s a closeness that I feel to him and his Gospel now, journeying this year as an ordained servant and herald of the Gospel.

I’m grateful especially for the clip of Luke 10:2 and what it has played in my discernment and prayer life, and how it helped lead me to the next step on my career & ministry journey as they come together.

Where is the Lord calling you – and me – to labor in his harvest field today?

Saint Luke, pray for us.