NOT A SINGLE STONE WILL BE LEFT ON ANOTHER

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 25 November 2014

NOT A SINGLE STONE WILL BE LEFT ON ANOTHER

                     

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.

Reading: “All these things you are staring at now – the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.” (Luke 21:5-11)

Reflection. Jesus gives this bleak message to the people who were admiring the stonework and decoration of the temple rebuilt by Herod the Great in the last period of the pre-Christian era. Naturally they ask when this will happen and his answer moves beyond the destruction of the temple in the year 69 to the end times which are “not so soon.” The perspective we have during these last days of the church’s year is of the impermanence in physical terms of what we achieve and create. We look around at fine buildings and great technological advances and have to say, ‘yes, these are wonderful but they won’t last.’ The only thing that lasts is the integrity of our response to God. This alone we can take with us when we go.

  

Prayer. Lord, help us the see the impermanence of all things. They are only stepping stones on our way to you. Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ