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.

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