The 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time | Sunday 27 August 2023

Today is Sunday the 27th of August, beginning the 21st week of Ordinary time.


Salt of the Sound sings, ‘How Great Thou Art’. As you begin your time of prayer today, turn your eyes towards Jesus, and become aware in turn of his gaze of love upon you.


When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim: "My God, how great thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Saviour-God, to thee
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour-God, to thee
How great thou art! How great thou art!
How great thou art! How great thou art!

Today’s reading is from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

Romans 11:33-36

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!
‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?’
‘Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?’
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.

Paul ends this chapter in Romans by referencing the great Psalm 139. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?’ Is this psalm familiar to me? Has it ever occurred to me that I might know the mind of the Lord?

‘From him and through him and to him are all things.’ All things. How do I respond to this when I imagine ‘all things’?

God’s grace is open…. to everyone. It is between each person and God whether they will open themselves to God’s love and compassion. Not the judgement or prejudice of another.

As I listen to the passage again, I try to hear these words as perhaps Paul would have proclaimed them. How do they make me feel?

“How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God!" Spend some moments of prayer in humility and faith, in the reassuring presence of the Lord.


Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.