This Sunday's readings:

1Cor 9:2-12
Matthew 18:23-35

This Sunday's gospel is the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Perhaps because it is the middle of the summer, but I am struck by one reflection on this gospel. Right now, I would like to take it a little easier at work. I would prefer a break from the usual demands of my own life. However, simultaneously, I find I am getting more impatient with the children underfoot.

Now who's sins are greater, mine, or my childrens'? Yet I find myself more intolerant, more short-tempered, more hysterical (hey, when does school start anyway?)

John

Deacon John,

Join the crowd. We are all getting near hysteria these days. School can't come quick enough. Gotta love em though.

I not only ask for forgiveness from our son at times, but always ask forgiveness from him. They have their own agendas. We have ours.

Joe

Fr Deacon John and Cantor Joe:

When it comes to our children, they reflect the best and the worst of our own lives. Yet it's funny, because, as parents, we'll focus on their "poor" behavior and not our own. It gets even more challenging with the teens. (I have to say that Isaac could not have been a teenager, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice him, because it wouldn'y have been a sacrifice. ) Anyway,I can't seem to get the beam out of my own eye. Believe me, even with six kids, the splinters are easier. Actually my children have been the ones who ask, "When does school start?"

John