IT WAS AIMED AT THEM

PRAYER MOMENT 

Monday 1 June 2015, St Justin

IT WAS AIMED AT THEM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “And they would like to have arrested him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds.” (Mark 12:1-12)

Reflection. We are more direct today but the ancients like to go round a point in order to make it. That is what Jesus does. He tries to get the Jews to see they are missing the opportunity before their eyes. But he does not do it bluntly. He tells a story about a vineyard and the tenants rejecting the overtures of the owner. The Jews have enough wit to realise he is aiming the story at them but not enough courage to examine their hearts and welcome his challenge. Ironically, “the crowds,” who were said to know nothing, posed a threat to the leaders because the clearly thought differently. Given a chance they would have believed in Jesus. But they were afraid in their turn to go againist their leaders. What a climate of fear! 

Prayer. Lord, we help us to have the courage to look at a situation honestly and have the courage to change if we see it is the right way forward. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

PUT THIS QUESTION TO THE AGES

PUT THIS QUESTION TO THE AGES

There is a moment in the Bible when Moses is astonished by what has been happening. He stands back and says, “Put this question to the ages that are past. Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other?  Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God and remain alive?” It is a moment of amazement, a moment of discovery in the ancient search for meaning. Humankind had proposed all sorts of deities and religions in their desire to reach beyond the concrete data of ordinary life, but none had satisfied them.

Then suddenly Moses senses a breakthrough. God is alive and has advanced towards his people with a desire to build a personal relationship with them. Moses can’t get over it.

Pope Francis visited Korea recently and while everyone was trying to see him and get close to him, a little boy who had a mental disability put his finger in this mouth and resolutely looked the other way. Francis noticed him, came towards him and gently removed his finger from his mouth and put his own finger in his own mouth and smiled at him. The little boy gaped at him and smiled. Everyone saw it. The TVs captured it. It was a breakthrough. 

A lady I know agreed with her husband some years ago that they would go their separate ways. Neither of them entered into a new relationship and each got on with her or his life. Then a moment came when the encumbrances, that had kept them apart, fell away and they looked at each other in a new way and began to re-approach one another. It was another breakthrough.

The spice of life is really about these moments, when we move from where we are to somewhere new. Even Jesus did it. It was when the centurion said, “Do not trouble to come to my house! Just say the word. I have people under me, and I say to one, ‘do this thing and he does it.’” Jesus was astonished. “Nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this.”

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Trinity. Our secular world has some idea what Christmas and Holy Week are about. But the Trinity? I doubt if they give it a thought. But for Christians this is a celebration of breakthrough. For millennia humans have wondered about the deity but now God has made himself known to us.

The implication has to be that there are all sorts of breakthroughs waiting to happen. Our world has need of them.

31 May 2015                                       The Trinity B

Deuteronomy 4:32 …40                     Romans 8;14-17                     Matthew 28:16-20

NEITHER WILL I TELL YOU

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 30 May 2015

NEITHER WILL I TELL YOU

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “So their reply to Jesus was, ‘we do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’” (Mark 11:27-33)

Reflection. The Jews questioned Jesus’ authority for driving out the sellers from the temple. He knew that they were not seeking truth and wisdom but simply a means to trap him and avoid facing up to the challenge of his mission. So, because their minds were closed, they would receive no answer. The enigmatic saying of Jesus elsewhere in the gospel – ‘to those who have will be given more, to those who have not even what they have will be taken away’ – fits in here. And it is a frightening thing: to close off, though prejudice and jealousy, any hope of advancing on the way of wisdom. But it is fairly common.

 

Prayer. Lord, we pray for ourselves and for all who though their hardness of heart, deliberately or imconsciously, close the door to your coming. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 29 May 2015

NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus felt hungry. Seeing a fig tree in leaf some distance away he went to see if he could find any fruit on it, but when he came up to it he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.” (Mark 11:11-26)

Reflection. If it was not the season for figs why did Jesus expect to see fruit? Like the ancient prophets he taught in actions as well as words. True it was not the usual time for figs. But then nothing about Jsus was “usual.” He came to interrupt the ordinary expected flow of life with a stark message that the kingdom, the rule, of God had come. He was going to the temple where the “usual” thing was buying and selling and the leaders making a profit on all transactions. This now had to stop. The beautiful temple would be no more. Something new, something totally out of the ordinary was happening. The disciples were being alerted to this.

 

Prayer. Lord, teach me to be alert to your unexpected coming into my life. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

HE SHOUTED ALL THE LOUDER

PRAYER MOMENT 

Thursday 28 May 2015

HE SHOUTED ALL THE LOUDER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me!’” (Mark 10:46-52)

Reflection. If the disciples in Mark were “in a daze” there were some people who knew exactly what they were looking for. Bartimaeus pleaded three times for healing of his sight but, as with the man born blind in John 9, he got far more than physical healing. He receieved the courage and faith to “follow him along the way.” Mark seems to tease us by saying those who should have known what Jesus was doing didn’t know, while those who might be expected not to know were the very ones who did know. Jesus of Nazareth, for Bartimaeus, was the  “son of David.” In other words, he was the promised Messiah, or, in Greek, the Christ. Bartimaeus goes straight to the heart of the matter while the discipples dither on the outside, worrying about places on his left hand and on his right.   

Prayer. Lord, may we come close to your heart and know you who are the Way; a way that leads to Golgotha and to glory. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

THEY WERE IN A DAZE

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wedesday 27 May 2015

THEY WERE IN A DAZE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze and those who followed were apprehensive.” (Mark 10:32-45)

Reflection. Mark, more than the other writers, brings out the incomprehension of the disciples while highlighting the faith of the ordinary people like Bartimaeus and the woman who touched his garment. The disciples had been given more and more was expected of them. They were not expected to brush aside three warnings of the passion and instead compete for places in Jesus’ “cabinet” when he came to power. Yet that is what they did. They ignored talk of the cross and focused on what was in for them. ‘What do I get out of it?’ We need not labour the similarity between them and us. We know this touches a raw nerve in us. It is natural. But having said that, what do we, as followers of Jesus, see in this that can help us?.

Prayer. Lord, help us to see in our day the presence of the cross. Let us not panic but calmly face the challenges with faith and patience. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

NOT WITHOUT PERSECUTIONS

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 26 May 2015

NOT WITHOUT PERSECUTIONS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You will be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecution – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:28-31)

Reflection. Jesus promises those who leave everything – either literally or in poverty of spirit, that is, they are not absorbed by them – many blessings but he adds ‘you will have persecution in this present time.’ Yet we are often surprised by persecution as if it just shouldn’t happen. By persecution I mean big things, like what is happeninig in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq, and little tings such as is caused by jealousy in our own circle of family or friends. God has given us this beautiful world but it is a provisional world, there to get us accustomed to the real and permanent beauty that he will reveal one day. We are on the vital threshold of that beauty and like a rough diamond we have to have the impurities removed in the tosser. So persecution in one form or another is bound to be there.   

Prayer. Lord, help us not to lose heart when we are agitated by events. Help us to see how you are purifying us in preparation for life with you forever. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

HOW HARD IT IS!

PRAYER MOMENT 

Monday 25 May 2015, Africa Day

HOW HARD IT IS!

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astounded by these words.” (Mark 10:17-27)

Reflection. Perhaps the disciples were astonished because wealth was often seen in ancient times as a blessing from God. Think of Abraham’s flocks. But Jesus is pointing to an attitude. People who are absorbed in their search for money are showing an attitude that says ‘I have to do everything myself. I am in charge. I take care of myslf.’ While those who aim to make money but also trust that God will provide if my efforts fail, are showing they go beyond the concrete secular world to the world beyond our senses, which is as real to them as the one they can touch and see. It is not his wealth that enslaved the man who came to Jesus but his attitude. On this day that we celebrate all that is “Africa” let us ask for a pure attitude towards the thngs of this visible world, an attitude that is always open to the horizon of the invisible..   

     

Prayer. Lord, help us not to be trapped into absorption in the things of this concret material world but help us to use it as a springboard to raise our minds and hearts to you. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY

UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY

‘Familiarity’ is both a pleasant and a dangerous word. It comes, of course, from ‘family’ that first home where we learn the security that opens up the world to our exploring. ‘He is now with his family,’ conveys the sense of a person coming out of some trial, captivity or sickness that kept them away from where they want to be; rooted in ‘familiar’ surroundings. And to be ‘familiar’ with a person, in whatever degree of intimacy, is a great experience and makes one feel accepted and loved.

Yet we know we cannot live our lives bound up in the familiar. If we never venture forth towards the strange, the unknown, we begin to wither. Traditional rural societies disliked any change as their survival depended on keeping to well-tried ways. But modern urban living has stretched people to explore new ways of living and relating which can be totally un-familiar.

This weekend, in Ireland, there has been a referendum. Voters were offered the chance to amend the constitution so that it says: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.” There was a lively and thoughtful debate and the proposed change was overwhelmingly approved by the people. All the political parties were in favour. The Bishops of the Catholic Church were against but they were not surprised by the result as it had been clear for some time that this was the mind of the people.    

Ireland has been a Catholic country for a millennium and a half. So what made her people vote in a way that the church clearly opposed? Why did they not follow their bishops’ lead? There are obvious answers and not so obvious ones. The church has lost much credibility through the widening gap between what people feel is acceptable, particularly in sexual matters, and what she, the church, teaches. And also, since the leaders of the church, the bishops, are perceived, on the whole, to have failed in their response to the tragedy of child abuse, they have lost much of the respect they formerly enjoyed.   

But there are further considerations that bring us into quite unfamiliar territory. The phrase ‘secular agenda’ is frequently used to explain the radical shift from religious observance on the one hand to its abandonment or at best its privatisation on the other. Secularism and religion are viewed is incompatible with each other in much the same way as reason and faith were in times past. To see religious yearning at the heart of secularism or, conversely, to see a link between secular fulfilment and religious practice is to pose questions that may seem absurd. Yet, unless we want to say that the world has gone totally astray, we do have to explore what this referendum result – and so much else in the global “secular” world - is saying to us.  

This weekend we also celebrate the feast of Pentecost, an event that plunged us into the unfamiliar and the astonishing, that changed the world forever.

24 May 2015               Pentecost

Acts 2:1-11                  1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13               John 20:19-23

FOLLOW ME?

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 23 May 2015

FOLLOW ME?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to stay behind until I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.’” (John 21:20-25)

Reflection. Eastertide ends with Jesus in Jerusalem about to undergo his passiona and Paul in Rome about to endur his. I have just been reading of the North American martyrs of the seventeenth century and the torments they endured before their deaths.We end Easter time on a high but we remind ourselves that it always means that journey to the cross. There is always this weight on our shoulders as followers of Jesus and I am thinking of one who is day in day out caring for her invalided husband who constantly suffers. When Isaac Jogues was sent back to the land of the Iroquoi, who had already tortured him, he went with dread but he knew deep down this was what he “wished for and should have prized above all else.”

     

Prayer. Lord, as we leave Eastertide, strengthen us for our journey and help us know that our difficulties and trials are our following of you. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

DO YOU LOVE ME?

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 22 May 2015 (Internet problems!)

DO YOU LOVE ME?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Then Jesus said to him a third time, ‘Simon Peter, do you love me?’ Peter was upset that he asked him a third time and said, ‘Lord, you know everything, you know tha I love you.’” (John 21:15-19)

Reflection. It might upset us too – to be asked three times by someone we love – if we love them. But we know the context. We know Peter had denied him three times. And this was a delicate, non-judgemental way, of confirming Peter who had wept bitterly when the cock crowed three times. It seems to be deeply appreciated that some acknowledgement of wrong doing restores relationship. To say, ‘I am sorry,’ to say, ‘I was wrong,’ seems to be hard for us at times. But if we can say it it is the beginning of something new. In fact, we suspect that Peter grew up fast in his faith when he hit rock bottom and then wept when he realised. Sin is a strange thing. It brings havoc. But if it is acknowledged it brings even more healing than was there before.

     

   

Prayer. Lord, help us to acknowledge our faults, our compromises, our avoidance. Send us your Spirit to make us whole. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wednsday 20 May 2015 (This did not go yesterday, the internet being down)

BY NOW THEY WERE ALL IN TEARS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “By now they were all in tears; they put their arms round Paul’s neck and kissed him; what saddened them most was his saying they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.” (Acts 20:28-38)

Reflection. The early Christians learnt that being drawn into the mystery of Jesus meant being drawn closer together. The bonds which they formed with one another were something new and there is a long tradtition that they were known for their love for one another. We are not surprised. To be drawn to the source of love is to be touched by it and to discover that I share that love with others and they with me. But it is a charged love full of the realisation that it will be tested and indeed Paul tells them “fierce wolves” will invade the flock without mercy. And so it has always been since that time. But the wolves’ attcaks can serve to deepen that love.

   

Prayer. Lord, you lead us into the love that is your life in the Trinity. Help us to touch that love and give and receive it. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

YOU WILL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 19 May 2015

YOU WILL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will ever see my face again.” (Acts 20:17-27)

Reflection. Have you noticed that the last days of the church’s year in November speak of the end of the world while the last days before Pentecost speak of the beginning of the Church? There is a finality about them which is very much a beginning. There is a nervous handover feel about them. “I have finished my work. Now it is your turn!” It is a little scary but it is the moment everyone longs for: my first day at work, my being placed in charge, my own home, my own decisions. The diciples were sad to see Jesus go but they also rejoiced as their new dignity sank in. The elders at Miletus had tears in their eyes at Paul’s words but they went back to take responsibility for their church.  

   

Prayer. Lord, let us see thse last days of Easter as a spring board that renews us for our tasks. Send your Holy Spirit to guide our imagination and courage into fruitful paths. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

I AM NOT ALONE

PRAYER MOMENT 

Monday 18 May 2015

I AM NOT ALONE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Listen, the time will come – in fact it has come already, when you will be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me.”(John 16:29-33)

Reflection. Sometimes a person can be stretched to the limit. They are in prison or they are imprisoned in an illness that is painful, debilitating, isolating and desolating. Jesus drank the cup of hiuman suffering and found himself alone when all those closest to him left him and fled. He now tells his discuples in his farewell talk that even in his lowest moment he is not alone. The Father is with him in the Spirit and it is central to our faith that we - not only know this in our head but grasp in our heart – that the Spirit of Jesus is with us always, whatever our circumstances.. How far away this realisation is from gangs fightinmg and killing one another and governments letting poor people drift helplessly in the sea.  

   

Prayer. Lord, in this week before Pentecost help us to know, deep down that your Spirit is with us always. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

RISE UP!

Rise up!

We are celebrating the feast of the Ascension, the final event in the life of Jesus and the opening event in the life of the church. We can see three periods in the evolution of God’s entry into human history. First, there is the OT which really only gets going with the passage of the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. For forty years they wandered in the desert. It was not an aimless wandering but a time of formation. It had high moments, like the Covenant on Sinai, and low moments, like the fashioning of the golden calf. All the highs and lows were steps on a journey in the creation of God’s people.

The second period was when Jesus came among us. He also went into the desert for forty days – a clear sign of continuity and fulfilment of the promises to Israel. His proclamation of the kingdom of God also met with highs – as when he was “filled with joy by the Holy Spirit” (Luke10:21) – and lows as when all his companions ran away when he was arrested in Gethsemane. All of this too was formative for the infant church.

So it is not surprising that there is a third period, inaugurated when Jesus showed himself to them after his resurrection for forty (that number again) days (Acts 1:3). In this way he confirmed his companions in their mission. When the period was over, we are told, he “was lifted up while they looked on.” This is the final period in the history of the Church and the world and it is the time we are living today.      

These are the bare facts. But clearly we have to unwrap this parcel of good news which “filled the disciples with joy.” (Luke 24:52) In the 5^th chapter of Mark we have the story of Jairos’ daughter, a little girl aged 12 who had died. Jesus goes into the room where she is laid out and says to her in Aramaic, Talitha kum! Little girl, rise up! He is curing the little girl and giving joy to the parents but he is doing much more than that.

He is giving a sign that he has come so that every human being “rises up.” The will of God is that his people and all creation reach their fullest potential – “life to the full.” The poet, Robert Browning, wrote, “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” In other words we cannot be satisfied with what we can grasp. We are made to reach further than that.

We know that there is a longing within us for more than we experience now. We may not be able to describe it. We may even get side-tracked into searching for ephemeral things, things that don’t last – more money than we need, power that gives us status, an excessive concern to look beautiful and smart. But if we go deeper we discover that the “more” we search for, the “more” that will satisfy us, is to do not with things but with values, especially human values of love and service. These are the things that satisfy our hearts – and prepare us for eternity.

So when Jesus says to us, Talitha kum, he is inviting us to rise up with him, to rejoice, as the disciples did, in the knowledge that we are capable of more than we think. There is nothing wrong with spending your life fishing in the Sea of Galilee but maybe you are called to something more, something that stretches you beyond your grasp, something that calls you to reach out to others and in doing so enables you to discover something about yourself that you never knew. 

17 May 2015                                         Ascension

Acts 1:1-11                                           Ephesians 1:17-23                                 Mark 16: 15-20

ANYTHING YOU ASK

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 16 May 2015

ANYTHING YOU ASK

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name.” (John 16:23-28)

Reflection. As we approach the final week of the Easter season three interlocking themes dominate: the recurring mention of the Father and Jesus’ invitation to lead his friends into a relationship with him through the coming of the Spirit. And then there is the invitation to his disciples to respond though a habit of prayer, which, like breathing, is to be a constant way of keeping alive in the Spirit. We are invited to ponder this climax of the Easter message: Jesus invites us into the life of God through prayer and promises us “anything we ask.” Even what this means the Spirit will teach us.

   

Prayer. Lord, we ask to understand ever more deeply the message of Easter and what you are inviting us to live each day. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

A WOMAN IN CHILDBIRTH

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 15 May 2015

A WOMAN IN CHILDBIRTH

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birh to the child she forgets her suffering in her joy that a child has been born into the world.” (John 16:20-23)

Reflection. John has few parables but this is one. Luke tells us of a woman who suffers because she has lost something precious. She sweeps the house and searches until she has found it. John uses this drama from ordinary life also to speak of suffering and joy. The paschal mystery of death and resurrection is not far from us. In fact it is the only way to live. It is written into life: no sweat, no sweet. But still, we fight against it when it comes and wish it were not so. But it is. The people of Burundi are the latest to come head on with this sadness written into our DNA. The call of Jesus is to be awake, “gird your loins,” prepare for action. The time for joy will come soon.

   

Prayer. Lord, we pray to be ready to respond to the challenges built into our life. Help us not to lose heart but to know that this is our time. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

WITH US

PRAYER MOMENT 

Thursday 14 May 2015, St Mathias

WITH US

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “We must therefore choose someone who has been with us all the time that the Lord Jesus has been travelling round with us.” (Acts 1:15-26)

Reflection. Before Luke gets into the body of Acts there is one bit of business to tidy up: Judas. He left a hole in the college of the apostles, a group that was clearly designed by Jesus to represent the twelve tribes of the new Israel. Having chosen Matthias we hear no more about “the twelve.” The new Israel would not be based on selected tribes but the whole of humanity. Still there is an urgency to complete the group of “friends” (John 15:14) the Lord had chosen and to whom he “has made known everything.” This community, this group that is “with us,” which will gradually be called “church,” is the vital channel for the divine life to flow from the vine into the branches. Its number must be completed.  

Prayer. Lord, may we too be counted among your friends, those who are “with you” in your joys and sufferings, your anxieties and longings for our world. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

AFTER THAT PAUL LEFT THEM

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wednesday 13 May 2015

AFTER THAT PAUL LEFT THEM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “At this mention of rising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing. Others said, ‘we would like to hear you talk of this again.’ After that Paul left them.” (Acts 17:15-18;1)

Reflection. Paul is in Athens, the centre of intellectual inquiry. He has high hopes that these intelligent people will use their reason to examine his words. But most don’t. They just laugh. They give him a superficial hearing and move on. So he moves on too – to Corinth. The Spirit never forces. But if we fail to pay attention, that’s it; an opportunity missed. This astonishing freedom fills our whole day. We can grasp opportunities or we can let them slip. The Christian life is one of constant discerning. Where is the Spirit calling me at this moment? As we continue our journey we are invited to form habits of prayer and examination of conscience to help us find our way to life and joy in the Spirit.

Prayer. Lord, help us to be attentive to your Spirit at each moment, to notice the myriad occasions when you knock at our door. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

UNLESS I GO

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 12 May 2015

UNLESS I GO

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Still, I must tell you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I do go I will send him to you.” (John 16:5-11)

Reflection. The disciples were “sad at heart” when Jesus said he was going just as a child might be sad at heart when delivered to their first school by their parents. Jesus was saying to them, “now you are on your own. It is up to you.” There is a fear and a thrill when we come into a moment of responsibility. This is my work, my marriage, my house. Now it is up to me. We long for, and perhaps also dread, this passage from dependency to independence. Yet we know that is what growth is all about. And here we have the promise of the Soirit to be with us all the way.

Prayer. Lord, may we sieze the moments of responsibility you give us, full of hope that you are with us and delight in our efforts. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

SHE WOULD TAKE NO REFUSAL

PRAYER MOMENT 

Monday 11 May 2015

SHE WOULD TAKE NO REFUSAL

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Lydia sent us an invitation: ‘If you really think me a true believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay with us,’ and she would take no refusal.” (Acts 16:11-15)

Reflection. Paul had just crossed over to Europe and was trying to connect with people in Philippi and goes to a place where people traditionally meet for prayers, down by the river. He meets Lydia who listens intently to Paul. The Lord “opens her heart” and the next thing is she “and her household” ask for baptism. So quick, so simple, so powerful. Lydia reveals herself as a tough ‘no-nonsense’ lady and once she is convinced she takes “no refusal.” It is a beautiful miniature of how the Spirit works and we need to transpose it right into our situation in our daily life and in our hope for the Church as we prepares for the Synod in Rome in October: to listen, to have our hearts opened by the Spirit and to go for it.   

Prayer. Lord, help us to be open to your Spirit in our hearts and to act on what we receive. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

LEAP OF IMAGINATION

LEAP OF IMAGINATION

A few years ago I stood at Cape Point wrapped in my private thoughts as Japanese tourists clicked their cameras. I was thinking of the sailing ships that rounded that treacherous cape of wrecks in the sixteenth century and the people I revere who were on them. Francis Xavier was one. Alessandro Valignano was another. Less well known than Xavier he was a star organiser of the Jesuit missions in Japan and China. He left a description of life on board those ships that beggars belief.

The ship was so packed people had to stand on deck in the searing heat by day – they could be becalmed (at a standstill) on the ocean for 50 days - and sleep in the open during the cold at night. The food was scarce and tasteless, the water foul. There was no way to wash so there was the stench of clothes and bodies. Disease was rife and often half the passengers died. Valignano remarks in conclusion; “it is extraordinary that so many Portuguese seek to come to India each year … but they do.”

The migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean today are driven by the same desire for a better life. In fact migration is as old as history. The difference today is, not that we are packed into a fragile boat but, that we are packed onto a fragile planet. We are running out of room, or such is the perception. We do not yet know what Pope Francis will say in his forthcoming letter on the environment but population pressure is certainly an issue.

When we read the gospels and ponder Jesus’ command, “love one another as I have loved you” we are forced to ask how this fits with our reluctance, as the human family, to make room for one another. The planet obviously has a limited capacity to sustain human life. Animal life, as we know, has its own physical way of limiting numbers. But humans have to use intelligent ways that accord with human dignity. How this can be done is a question Europe’s governments are facing up to and they need all the help they can get. It is more than likely they will pay attention to what Francis has to say.

One of the pope’s sayings is; “God always forgives, men and women sometimes forgive; nature never forgives.” We have not reached the point where we are faced with nature’s harsh judgement. There is still plenty of scope for us to open our hearts and our doors to others. We are not the first generation to be faced with stark choices. The scriptures sometime give us examples of huge leaps in imagination that people make. When Peter admitted gentiles to baptism it may sound like a small thing to us. But for him and his companions it was a highly contested decision. It signalled a complete break with their Jewish roots.

So as the migrants continue to try to reach Europe despite the dangers and the translators push to present the pope’s words in multiple languages, we are called to pause and examine how we welcome people different from us into our space.

10 April 2015                                                 Easter Sunday 6 B

Acts 10: 25…48                                             1 John 4:7-10                          John15:9-17        

THE SPIRIT WOULD NOT ALLOW

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 9 May 2015

THE SPIRIT WOULD NOT ALLOW

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “They thought to cross into Bithynia, but as the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them, they went through Mysia and came down to Troas.” (Acts 16:1-10)

Reflection. I am always astonished by this sentence. It gives a picture of Paul’s little party on their journeys and planning what to do next. They decide on a plan but we are bluntly told the Spirit says ‘No.’ So it is back to the drawing board and they have to think of another plan. Time after time in the Acts of the Apostles we have vivid instances of the Spirit guiding the infant church. And it draws us to realise that that is exactly how we are called today. Deep within us we discover the guideline, “do this” or “don’t do that.” Reflecting on our day we often find: “that was great, thank God,” or “what I did was really stupid, let me try something else next time.” Yes, the Lord guides us now through his Spirit as he guided our ancestors in the faith in those days.

Prayer. Lord, help us to listen to your Spirit deep within us and give us courage to follow the path proposed to us. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

THEY WERE DELIGHTED

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 8 May 2015

THEY WERE DELIGHTED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter. The community read it and were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.” (Acts 15:22-31)

Reflection. So the biggest crucial challenge to the early Christian community was resolved “with delight.” The enormous question of the relationship between the new community and its Jewish roots was solved in a way that gave everyone consolation. This “harmony in the Spirit” has been a gift to the Church ever since. It was experienced at the close of the Second Vatican Council in December 1965 and our prayer is that it will be experienced at the close of the coming synod in Rome later this year. It is, of course, also a gift to each of us personally in our lives as we face our own challenges. If we respond “in the Spirit” we will experience that same consolation and encouragement.

Prayer. Lord, help us to be faithful to the Spirit who lives within us as we face the challenges in our daily lives. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

REMAIN IN MY LOVE

PRAYER MOMENT 

Thursday 7 May 2015

REMAIN IN MY LOVE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. If you keep my commandments  you will remain in my love.” (John 15:9-11)

Reflection. The word ‘remain’ here is the same word as is used in John chapter one when the disciples ask Jesus, “where do you live (remain, stay)?” And he says, “come and see.” We have ‘come and seen’ through our following of the gospel and we come to the point where we realise that living, or remaining or staying, are all words trying to express the union with God that Jesus is offering his disciples and us. When Francis Xavier was off the coast of Cape Comorin in the “worst storm I have ever experienced” he commended himself to God, to Mary and all the saints, and felt “happier in the thick of the storm than afterwards when delivered from it.” That is a key experience: deep consolation in the experience of “living in God” in the midst of our journey – with all its storms - in this life.

Prayer. Lord, you invite us to “remain in me.” Help us to do that by keeping your commands, especially your command to “love one another.” Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

LOOK INTO THE MATTER

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wdnesday 6 May 2015

LOOK INTO THE MATTER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Certain members of the Pharisees’ party who had become believers objected, insisting that the pagans should be circumcised and instructed to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and elders met to look into the matter.” (Acts 15:1-6)

Reflection. This was another big crisis in the early days of the church. They had endured persecution, they had reached out to the pagans and now they were faced with an internal revolt - to put it dramatically. Basically they were being asked, “Are you going to throw over board two thousand years of our history, years that gave us identity and cohesion in the face of our enemies?” The apostles and elders, as we shall see tomorrow and Friday, answer “yes”, even if they do it diplomatically. It is hard for us to grasp what a courageous and faith filled decision that was. They had tried so hard to work within Judaism but now they have reached an impasse. They have to decide and their decision leads to a final break. Though they would always reverence their Jewish roots they now had to strike out on their own.    

Prayer. Lord, give us the courage to be faithful to your Spirit in our hearts and conscience even when it seems to go against what everyone expects. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

MANY HARDSHIPS

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 5 May 2015

MANY HARDSHIPS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: They put fresh courage into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith. “We all have to experience many hardships,” they said, “before we enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:19-28)

Reflection. We know it from history and we know it from ourselves: the world resists change with all its might. It resists the kingdom. It is all for the history books now but for sixteen years Ian Smith resisted every effort at peaceful, and later forceful, change in Rhodesia. It was utterly obvious what would have to happen but he went on resisting. History is full of such things and we don’t hyave to look far today to see that resistance is alive and thriving. It is also true personally; but the difference is I have the power to change myself. I don’t have the power to change the world. We read of Paul and his mission to change people’s way of thinking. What a struggle!

Prayer. Lord, help us to be open to change in ourselves. It may be hard but it is the gateway to your kingdom. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com