This coming Sunday is the 23rd Sunday and we are considering the reading from Luke 14.. In yesterday’s post we continued looking at the cost of discipleship as an all-consuming vocation. It must be accepted with mature deliberation. Discipleship is not periodic volunteer work on one’s own terms and at one’s convenience. Yet what are the marks of discipleship?

Query the internet with “marks of discipleship” and you will receive about 750,000 returns. Every list is different. Some are short, some are lengthy. Let me simply offer an insight from Brian Stoffregen who notes that in the book Power Surge, Mike Foss lists “six marks of discipleship for a changing church” which he expects members to practice. They are:

• daily prayer
• weekly worship
• Bible reading and study
• service in and beyond the congregation
• spiritual friendships – inviting others to the faith and passing on the faith
• giving time, talents, and resources

As Catholic we would include celebrating the Sacraments as part of weekly worship. That being said, what are your habits of the soul that open you to the wonder and mystery of God’s active presence in your lives, that keep you focused; that fix your attention on the things of God?

Brian Stoffregen, “Brian P. Stoffregen Exegetical Notes” at www.crossmarks.com

Image: Apologia Studios CC-BY-SA