Monday 8 September 2025
Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Romans 8:28-30. With delight I rejoice in the Lord – Ps 12(13):6-7. Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23.
We are called by God
When I was in school, I memorised parts of St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Something about the strange, uncompromising vision of Christ in his letters, especially in Romans, struck me as utterly radical and appealed to my youthful anti-establishment instincts. Paul explains that a life devoted to Christ will be completely at odds with the behaviour and expectations of the wider world. For the believer, he promises a complete transformation that will, unfortunately but reliably, lead to alienation and suffering. This rejection of conformity is not presented as a sacrifice but an easy trade-off in order to follow Christ. And within that vision is also a profound sense of safety, goodness and security. The phrase ’it’s all part of God’s plan’ doesn’t appear in scripture, but this passage comes close, with the strange and lovely idea: that we are called by God for reasons known only to God, and that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him.
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