PRAYER MOMENT Thursday 23 October 2014 I HAVE COME TO BRING FIRE TO THE EARTH Pause. Be still in God’s presence. Reading: “I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were blazing already … I have come to bring division …mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.” (Luke 12:49-53) Reflection. “I have come to bring division” and “Peace is my gift to you” are, as we know, not two contradictory sayings of Jesus. Peace comes from doing what is right, from what is deepest within us. This may cause hurt and division. Franz Jugengetter (I am sure I have the spelling wrong) was an Austrian peasant farmer called up into Hitler’s army but he refused to serve. His wife pleaded with him but he told her he had to make this decision. He was jailed and then executed and of course his wife was devastated. But years later she understood and was proud of him. “Peer pressure,” “following the crowd” and “everyone does it” are familiar sentiments. How hard it can be to follow what, at the deepest level, we know to be right. We don’t like – most of us – to be different. Yet every leap forward for humankind – and we only know the big ones, like Copernicus and Einstein – meant, at the time, division and often ridicule and persecution for individuals. In big ways and small, this is the way to peace. Prayer. Lord, teach us to have courage and do what your Spirit, deep within us, calls us to do. Amen.. David Harold-Barry SJ

PRAYER MOMENT                      

Thursday 23 October 2014

I HAVE COME TO BRING FIRE TO THE EARTH

                     

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.

Reading: “I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were blazing already … I have come to bring division …mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.” (Luke 12:49-53)

Reflection. “I have come to bring division” and “Peace is my gift to you” are, as we know, not two contradictory sayings of Jesus. Peace comes from doing what is right, from what is deepest within us. This may cause hurt and division. Franz Jugengetter (I am sure I have the spelling wrong) was an Austrian peasant farmer called up into Hitler’s army but he refused to serve. His wife pleaded with him but he told her he had to make this decision. He was jailed and then executed and of course his wife was devastated. But years later she understood and was proud of him. “Peer pressure,” “following the crowd” and “everyone does it” are familiar sentiments. How hard it can be to follow what, at the deepest level, we know to be right. We don’t like – most of us – to be different. Yet every leap forward for humankind – and we only know the big ones, like Copernicus and Einstein – meant, at the time, division and often ridicule and persecution for individuals. In big ways and small, this is the way to peace.

Prayer. Lord, teach us to have courage and do what your Spirit, deep within us, calls us to do. Amen..  

David Harold-Barry SJ