Desert Reflections: The seventy[-two]

Icon of the Seventy Apostles

Fr Ted points outs that Jesus’ appointing of the seventy[-two]* disciples in today’s gospel was only the beginning.  We, too, have been sent to prepare the way for Jesus – wherever we live and with whomever we meet.

*Some Alexandrian and Caesarean text types have “seventy,” while other Alexandrian texts and Western readings have “seventy-two.”

Today’s Readings

Thus says the Lord… As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.
IS 66:10-14C

Brothers and sisters: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
GAL 6:14-18

At that time the Lord appointed seventy[-two] others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. 
LK 10:1-12, 17-20