Nothing ventured, nothing gained! (Chaucer, c. 1374)

Today’s Readings:

• Job 7:1-4,6-7
• Psalm 147
• 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23
• Gospel Mark 1:29-39

Happy Sunday afternoon!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, what a statement!! I heard this today along with our readings. Remembering a time when I felt like Job, a slave to the day, seeking shelter from whatever may have been coming at me. I remember a time when anxieties of pleasing everyone filled the air around me. Isn’t crazy how we, like Job, like Peter, like Martha, have faith yet sometimes in our day we turn for a minute and we lose sight of Christ, we lose sight of God and the Holy Spirit whom fills us with the right judgement.

We feel like we cannot find shelter, we cannot quench our thirst; we may even feel like we are drowning in our relationships, bills, work etc. the list goes on. However, failing to recognize God is with us… in His son, Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. They are always there! Ready to heal us and sit with us. However nothing ventured, nothing gained cannot come to us unless we are willing to step out. To step out of our box and trust the Lord.

In the Gospel, the Lord heals and sits with Simon, Andrew, James, John, and Simon’s mother-in-law. Rising early the next morning, He prays. He prays – that is where, if we step out of our box, we can be healed; it is where we can sit with HIM, the WORD made flesh, and that is where everything is gained in the venture! It is in this path that the Word feeds us with Himself in the Eucharist.

For many years, I could not receive Him in the Eucharist. I longed for Him. I felt like I was in the desert stranded and never getting out. But I realized the venture, the journey, and slowly I began to just sit in prayer with the Lord. Slowly I turned the longing of receiving HIM in the Eucharist to longing to sit with Him in prayer.

So my prayer for you today is to sit. Sit and ponder on all he has done for you. I am not one to hang onto my past for a pity party, but I am one to every now and then visit my past; because, it is there where I see the venture. The venture that brought me to everything gained.

It is almost a year now that I came to receive the Lord in the Eucharist, and I believe that the saying nothing ventured nothing gained, are truly impactful and truthful words! So give your own fiat, your yes to the venture with God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This will be where you and I find ourselves in Christ. It is where we can find the very purpose of our life in HIM who came to save us from ourselves.