Monday, 31 August 2015

ASTONISHMENT SEIZED THEM

PRAYER MOMENT  


Tuesday 1 September 2015


ASTONISHMENT SEIZED THEM


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Be quiet! Come out of him!” And the evil spirit throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, “What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.” (Luke 4:31-37)


Reflection. Each gospel writer describes the amazement of the people when Jesus begins his work. We are now reading Luke and for him astonishment is a recurring theme: at the end, after Jesus had risen, the disciples in the upper room “stood there dumbfounded.” This emphasis helps us grasp how new, bewildering and “stretching” the arrival of Jesus really was. The evil spirits knew immediately who he was and, since they had such clear knowledge, it is puzzling why they did not give up immediately instead of continueing to torment humanity up to this day. But for men and women of every age there is this astonishing realisation of whole new possibilities, unimagined before, of what we can be and what we are called to.


Prayer. Lord, help us too to be astonished at your presence and fill us with joy and confidence for the future. Amen.




















Thursday, 27 August 2015

FIVE OF THEM WERE WISE

PRAYER MOMENT  


Friday 28 August 2015, St Augustine


FIVE OF THEM WERE WISE


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “The kingdom of heaven will be like this; ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.” (Matt.23:1-13)



Reflection. How does this story of the ten wise young women touch me? Jesus does not give flat dry explanations.He tells a story with multiple layers of meaning which each of us can relish in our own way. This story is about attentivenss. We celebrate Augustine of Hippo today who died in 430 as the Vandal invaders surrounded his city. He had spent his early life searching for the truth and his later life teaching it to others. He was deeply attentive to the culture in which he grew, wandering from his childhood faith and then coming back to it with an intensity that lit up succeeding centuries. Pope Benedict is perhaps one of his most renowned recent devotees.


Prayer. Lord, help us to be attentive to the movements of culture and faith than are part of our world to day. We pray that we do not grow weary and let our lamps go out. Rather may we always be in our own way a light for the world. Amen.




















Wednesday, 26 August 2015

NOW WE CAN BREATHE AGAIN

PRAYER MOMENT  


Thursday 27 August 2015, St Monica


NOW WE CAN BREATHE AGAIN


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Brothers, your faith has been a great comfort to us in the middle of our own troubles and sorrows; now we can breathe again as you are still holding firm in the Lord.” (1 Thess 3:7-13)



Reflection. Paul finds encouragement when he realises the faith of the young church in Thessalonika which has remained faithful to the message he preached to them. Augustine rejoiced in his moment of conversion when he realised the persistence of his mother Monica in holding him in her heart and prayer during the years of his wandering. From time to time I find myself trying to comfort a parent whose child has become difficult. And I often use the example of the faithful love of Monica. The faith of others strengthens us and our own faith strengthens others. We are linked in that one journey. The full inderstanding of what we are for others is hidden from us except that we know for certain we do not exist in isolation. We live in relationship as the Trinity does. 


Prayer. Lord, help us to strengthen one another in our faith. We are a “communion of saints” and bound to each other. Help us to live that community. Amen.




















Tuesday, 25 August 2015

A LIVING POWER

PRAYER MOMENT  


Wednesday 26 August 2015


A LIVING POWER


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “We thank God for you  because you heard the message  we brought to you as God’s message and not some human thinking; and it is still a living power among you who believe it.” (1 Thess 2:9-13)



Reflection. Luther was right in reminding the Church how easily we slip back into “human thinking.” We devise ways and rules, safe formulas and traditions. And we end up with a new version of the ancient “law”. When the Second Vatican Council was in its opening session, the organisers panicked when the assembld bishops threw out the carefully crafted agenda. They appealed to Pope John to intervene but the old man simply smiled and told them to “trust the bishops!” We too are called to trust the “living power” that we are given by Jesus in our baptism. Each day, each moment we are to live by that power.    


Prayer. Lord, help us to live by the power you give us in the Spirit. Help us to discover what this “daily bread” you give means for me in my daily life. Amen.




















Monday, 24 August 2015

JUSTICE, MERCY ABD GOOD FAITH

PRAYER MOMENT  


Tuesday 25 August 2015


JUSTICE, MERCY ABD GOOD FAITH


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “You have neglected the weightier matter s of the law – justice. Mercy, good faith!” (Matthew 23:23-26)



Reflection. This is the passage in Matthew where Jesus indicts the Pharisees for concentrating on protocol and the formalities of law while turning a blind eye to the purpose of the law which was to build a just and compassionate society. He is angry. He sees how leaders can thwart the plan of God and deny the people the freedom, justice and mercy that God always intended as marks of human relationships. And we know that, as he looks at our society today, he finds us still avoiding these “weightier matters.” Mercy is the key element in Pope Francis’ ministry. It can break down barriers and build community almost overnight.


Prayer. Lord, help us to be compassionate and forgiving today! Help us to break down the barriers between us. Amen.




















Sunday, 23 August 2015

HOW DO YOU KNOW ME?

PRAYER MOMENT  


Monday 24 August 2015, St Bartholomew, aka Nathanael


HOW DO YOU KNOW ME?


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.” How do you know me?” said Nathanarel. “Before Philip came to call you,” said Jesus, “I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” (John 1:45-51)



Reflection. This brief sound bite astonishes us. How did Jesus know him? And why did Jesus’ words have such an immediate and powerful effect on him? We don’t have precise answers other than the ones given by the whole thrust of John’s gospel. Jesus knows the Father and came so that he might reveal him to men and women; and he knows his own and his own know him. Fig tree or no fig tree, Jesus knew Nathanael through and through, as he knows each one of us. And it is a knowledge framed in love. Nathanael senses this and makes a confession that reappears several times in the gospel – with the woman by the well, Peter at the end of chapter six, the man born blind and Mary of Magdala.  



Prayer. Lord, you know me, “you know my rising and my lying down.”  Help me so that I may know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly. Amen.




















Saturday, 22 August 2015

DOES THIS UPSET YOU?

DOES THIS UPSET YOU?
A priest fixed up a run down church in New York and looked forward to welcoming the members for the celebration of Christmas. But a few days before a huge storm intervened and a wall partly collapsed. He was very upset. What could he do? He visited a second hand shop and saw a large decorated table cloth for sale. He bought it and found it provided just the right size temporary cover for the gash in the wall.
As he was locking up on Christmas night it was raining and he saw a woman, a stranger, trying to shelter near the church. He invited her in to wait while the rain eased. She entered and sat down and looked around. Then she saw the cloth. She asked to look at it more closely. Did it have the initials MDG stitched into a corner? It did. She told the priest this was the cloth she made for her husband in pre-war Austria and that it had disappeared with everything else – including her husband – when the Nazis invaded. The rain got heavier and the priest offered to drive her home.
On New Year’s Day there was Mass in the church and after it was over the priest saw a man sitting weeping silently. He went up to him and asked what was the matter? The man pointed to the cloth and said that years ago before he left Europe he had been married and his wife had made just such a cloth for him but she had disappeared in the war. The priest remembered where he had driven the woman and made a second journey there, this time with the man.
There is an Irish proverb that goes; ‘There was never a door shut but there was another opened.’ Something that upsets us can also be something that will soon delight us. When Jesus went deeper into the gift of life that God is offering and spoke of the “bread of life” as his body, the disciples got upset, “This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?” they said and then they left him. Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them, “What about you, do you want to go away too?” They must have felt devastated, seeing everyone disappear. They too must have been upset and tempted to follow them.
But they found within themselves some hidden depth which said, ‘I don’t understand but I am not giving up now.’ They were upset but they were prepared to wait for the clouds to lift. Deep down, they knew that something would happen soon. What it would be, they had no idea. When the time came for them to realise they were “filled with joy” (John 20:20).     
23 August 2015                                  Sunday 21 B

Joshua 24:1…18                                 Ephesians 5:21-32                              John 6:60-69  

Friday, 21 August 2015

YOU HAVE MADE THEIR JOY INCREASE

PRAYER MOMENT  


Saturday 22 August 2015, Mary Queen


YOU HAVE MADE THEIR JOY INCREASE


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, … you have made their gladness greater, you have made their joy increase.” (Isaiah 9:1-6)



Reflection. An echo of the Assumption comes to us a week later with this celebration of Mary as Queen of Heaven. The humblest of people becomes queen and mother of all. She is the new Esther who rose from nowhere to be the queen who saved her people from the evil schemes of Haman. In the middle ages the Church began to pray the Angelus at morning noon and evening, celebrating the Incarnation, the initial act of our salvation. And, at Easter time, she replaced it with the Regina Coeli gaudete, Queen of Heaven rejoice, in her joy at the fulfilment of the whole drama of God’s intervention. The title ‘Queen’ conveys not only honour and joy but also power. She can do so much if we ask her.   



Prayer. O Queen of Heaven rejoice, Alleluia. For he whom you bore has risen as he said, Alleluia. Pray for us to God, Alleluia. Amen.




















Thursday, 20 August 2015

YOUR PEOPLE WILL BE MY PEOPLE

PRAYER MOMENT  


Friday 21 August 2015, St Pius X


YOUR PEOPLE WILL BE MY PEOPLE


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Whereever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:1…22)



Reflection. If for no other reason, Ruth is remembered for these words. Naomi has lost her husband and her two sons but Ruth, the widow of one of her sons, stays with her and identifies fully with her people. When we want an example of breaking down racial, religious or tribal barriers we think of Ruth’s words. Inspiring and generous as they are they still represent an ideal hard to reach. We think of South Sudan today and of South Africa yesterday. And we can come closer to home because the fear of difference, of foreigners, of “them”, is played out, not only in the news – IS, Calais – but among people among whom we live. “The blood of tribe is stronger than the water of baptism,” a Nigerian bishop once said.



Prayer. Lord, help us to “break down the barriers” (Eph 2:14) that divide us and help us welcome others who are different - not just with words - but with all our heart. Amen.




















Wednesday, 19 August 2015

I WILL OFFER UP THE FIRST PERSON

PRAYER MOMENT  


Thursday 20 August 2015, St Bernard


I WILL OFFER UP THE FIRST PERSON


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, then the first person to meet me from the door of my house I will offer up as a holocaust.” (Judges 11:29-39)



Reflection. Well, of course, the first person Jephthah meets is his own daughter! This pagan story of human sacrifice to obtain victory in battle jars horribly on our minds today. Yet here it is in the middle of scripture and the selectors in Rome, far from passing over it in embarrassed silence, chose to include it in our daily readings for the Eucharist. Perhaps we can see a reason. Human sacrifice, awful as it is, is still with us with the suicide bombers who have suddenly become plentiful. And purified to the level where I do not take my own life but offer it, in a situation where I may lose it “by laying it down for my friends”, it takes on a new meaning and resonantes with Eucharist itself.



Prayer. Lord, help us to offer our lives for others so that all your people may come close to you and find the fullness of life. Amen.




















Tuesday, 18 August 2015

THE ELEVENTH HOUR

PRAYER MOMENT  


Wednesday 19 August 2015


THE ELEVENTH HOUR


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Then at the eleventh hour he went ot and found more men standing around and he said to them, ‘why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they said. (Matt 20:1-16)”



Reflection. The’eleventh hour’ is one of those gospel phrases that has found its way into current usage. It is never too late to take up a good work. And there is the other meaning: God does not make our sort of contracts where one is paid according to the work done or the hours put in. His ‘contracts’ are based on relationships and as long as there is a relationship it doesn’t matter how long or short one works. Teresa of Avila did a monumental work over a life time. Teresa of Lisieux died when she was 23. They both had that deep personal relationship with God. That alone is what matters.


Prayer. Lord, help us to grow in our relationship with you no matter what our age. Amen.




















Monday, 17 August 2015

WHY IS ALL THIS HAPPENING?

PRAYER MOMENT  


Tuesday 18 August 2015


WHY IS ALL THIS HAPPENING?


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: Gideon answered him, “Forgive me my lord, but of the Lord is with us, then why is it that all this is happening to us now?” (Judges 6:11-24)



Reflection. Enter Gideon, one of the many who rescue Israel in their trials. But at first he resists his call. He wants proofs, knowledge, certainty. All very understandable and modern. But God doesn’t offer proofs. He offers relationship. Constantly, in the gospels, we see Jesus refusing to give signs. He is not going to work miracles as proofs. If there is no relationship there is no miracle. We discover God “along the way” in our growing relationship with him. A great friend has just died after years of dementia and cancer. I don’t remember him saying, “why is all this happening to me?” But I do know that over the years he grew in a deep relationship with the Lord.


Prayer. Lord, help us to grow each day in our closeness to you. May we not grow weary when trials come in our path. Amen.




















Sunday, 16 August 2015

THEY DESERTED THE LORD

PRAYER MOMENT  


Monday 17 August 2015


THEY DESERTED THE LORD


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “The sons of Israel did what displeases the Lord and served the Baals. The deserted the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.”  (Judges 2:11-19)


Reflection. Israel looked back in sadness to the time when they turned away from God. In lucid moments in their history they recorded their constant failure to live up to the covenant. Is it so different from our own story today when we look back – both as the new people of God and as individuals? It seems to be so hard for humankind to hold steady to the course God has called us to walk. Yet we should never lose heart. We have achieved much  - both as God’s family and as individuals. We remind ourselves of the great hope that we have. The fourteenth century mystic, Julian of Norwich, wrote in her Showing of Love that “all will be well and all manner of thing will be well.”


Prayer. Lord, give us confidence to know that despite our failings you are faithful and walk with us and an all will be well. Amen.




















ASUNCIΌN

ASUNCIΌN
On 15 August 1537 a Spanish explorer came on a bend of the Paraguay River that appealed to him as suitable for a settlement. It was the feast of the Assumption of Mary and he called the place Asunciόn. The town that grew there became the “Mother of the Cities” of South America. Today it is the capital of a small country but for three centuries it was the centre of Spanish colonial expansion and control. Like Sao Paolo and San Francisco, the religious name of a great city does little to mask its earthy character.
For that Spanish captain it was a devout moment when he called down a name that carried enormous weight in Christian tradition. From early times, when they reflected on who Jesus of Nazareth really was, people had looked at his mother in wonder. “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that suckled you!” And by the fifth century Christians felt comfortable enough to actually call Mary, ‘Mother of God’. All sorts of thoughts flowed from this and a key one was, being so close to her Son in every way, Mary must have shared not only in his anguish and suffering but in his joy and victory. Just as the Lord rose from the dead and returned to the Father so his Mother was raised up (assumed) to heaven with him.
And just as the name Asunciόn is a mixture of earth and heaven, so too is every woman and man. But this day of Mary is perhaps specially a celebration of women. The secular world likes to remember Mothers’ Day as a gesture towards thanking our mothers, wives and women generally for their love and care. Recently I have been aware of several cases of women attending to their sick incapacitated husbands, day in day out, without a word of “poor me, what kind of life is this?” They have lost their freedom and have zero social life,. Yet they freely give up everything to attend to their spouse.
Such people come to realise the truth of Jesus words, “those who lose their life find it.’ They come to sense that their experience – though you would never wish it on anyone – is, in the end, precious. They touch here an extraordinary truth which the dominant culture of our time fudges: to give one’s life, to accept continuous hardship, to accept that options are closing all round me – these things do not have to be disasters. They can be life-giving.  “When you were young you went where you liked; now that you are old someone else will tell you where to go” (John 21:18).
Mary understood these things. In the grubby world of a remote province of a first century Roman colony, she saw her son driven to execution by the obduracy of his contemporaries. His Ascension and her Assumption are the descriptions we have for their triumph over the muddled reality we call this world, which is our home,  
15 August 2015                                  The Assumption of Mary

Revelations 11:19, 12:1-10                1 Corinthians 15:20-26                      Luke 1:39-56

Friday, 14 August 2015

BLESSED IS SHE

PRAYER MOMENT  


Saturday 15 August 2015 The Assumption


BLESSED IS SHE


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Yes, blessed is she who believed the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:39-56)


Reflection. The Assumption of Mary may feel like a hard celebration to relate to. After all what does ‘assumption’ mean? It has the ordinary meaning we know but here it recalls the ancient belief of the Church that Mary shared in the glory of her Son who died and rose again and returned to the Father. Today we remember the complete belief of Mary in the promise given to her, a promise for all people. She is blessed because she identified with it totally and so are we too insofar as we hear this promise and reply with her, “Let it be done to me.” Today is a celebfration of the countless women and men who give themselves totally to their families and to all those they meet who are in need of their compassion and love.   


Prayer. Lord, may we come to share your glory as Mary did. Teach us to have a compassionate heart for all those who are suffering or in need. Amen.




















NEVER HAS THERE BEEN SUCH A PROPHET

PRAYER MOMENT  (Internet breaks and Power cuts have silenced me for some days. Apologies.)


Wednesday 12 August 2015


NEVER HAS THERE BEEN SUCH A PROPHET


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Since then, never has there been such a prophet in Israel as Moses, the man the Lord knew face to face.” (Deuteronomy 34:1-12)


Reflection. Our passage today describes the death of Moses within sight of the promised land. He did not make it but the people did, under a new leadership. It is perhaps a moment to recognise that, even now, we are all part of a bigger picture. We may not make it but others will and in that way we do our part. Mikhail Lermontov, a Russian poet and novelist, was killed at the aged of 26 in 1841 in a stupid duel. It makes no sense except that he had profound influence on some of the greatest of Russian writers – Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov – who followed him later. We may not be able to chart our influence as we can that of Moses and Lermontov but our efforts do matter, even if they seem to us like a widow’s mite.


Prayer. Lord, help us to be generous and not look for any name or reward for ourselves. Amen.




















Saturday, 8 August 2015

INSIDE OUT MORALITY

INSIDE OUT MORALITY
Supports structures, whether from traditional culture or church teaching, are no longer so influential in helping people stay in their marriages when the going gets tough. In what we sometimes call “developed” countries people often enter into relationships and marriage with unexpressed conditions – the main one being, ‘so long as it works.’
But then I came across an article (by Sally Read in the Tablet, 13 June) in which she spoke of a friend of hers, “who got divorced during our peer group’s whirl of divorces. But while everyone else has since remarried or at least co-habited, she has remained alone.” Read explores this outcome and writes, “it is clear this does not come from any human ruling. When she prays, she feels with certainty that if she can’t be with her husband she should remain alone. It is as though the indissolubility of her marriage is written in her blood.”
I was moved by this story because it goes “behind the scenes” of all our anxious discussion about the erosion of culture and religion. Yes, it is true that many people, whether they live in “developed” or “developing” countries, are not so much moved by “human rulings” as they are by personal feelings. But what if personal feelings were to go full circle and come, as it were, from the inside, to the same conclusion as human rulings? In other words, could it be that we are moving towards a personal morality which is more sensitive to the inner voice in all of us?
“No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me” (John 6:44). I always find this a powerful statement. What is it, “to be drawn by the Father”? It has certainly nothing to do with human rulings or traditional culture. It is that powerful attraction of love that we know in our own relationships and which is always faithfully and permanently present in God’s relationship with us.
The woman referred to above listened to her inner stillness and discovered that she is not faithful to her ex-husband because she is “emotionally hooked” on him. Rather she is faithful to the covenant she made with him even though the covenant is broken. Her friends go on at her, “get over it and find someone new.” But she prefers to wait and meanwhile “God seeps deeper and deeper into her” and while she is pained by her broken state she often feels “calmed by joy.”
What we glimpse here is morality, that is, the way we live, as it were coming from the inside out. It is not imposed by custom or teaching or fashion. It comes from the heart of a person.   
9 August 2015                        Sunday 19 B

1 Kings 19:1-8                        Ephesians 4:30-5:2                             John 6:41-51

Friday, 7 August 2015

WELLS YOU DID NOT DIG

PRAYER MOMENT  


Saturday 8 August 2015, St Dominic


WELLS YOU DID NOT DIG


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “The Lord has brought you into the land… with great and prosperous cities that you did not build, houses you did not furnish, wells you did not dig…” (Deutreronomy 6:4-13)


Reflection. We inherit so much. It is true we count the blessings of the present time with all its improvements even over the past fifty years not to speak of the last four centuries. But in the larger picture we inherit so much going back over the ages. In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius of Loyola has a “cry of wonder” at the way the whole of creation is at my service and he gives a brief list of the elements of nature and all God’s work and he ends up with that Pauline cry (Galatians 2) that it is all “for me.” We stand in gratitude for everything that we inherit and on top of that the promise of divine life that we share and will share to the full.


Prayer. Lord, help us to be truly grateful for for the gift of life and all that it brings us. Amen.
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  




















Thursday, 6 August 2015

PUT THIS QUESTION TO THE AGES

PRAYER MOMENT  


Friday 7 August 2015


PUT THIS QUESTION TO THE AGES


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Put this question to the ages that are past, that went before you, from the time God created man upon the earth. Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other?” (Deutreronomy 4:32-40)


Reflection. There is a gasp of wonder as the story of the choice of Israel and its deliverance from Egypt unfurls. This is for real! God has made himself known to this people out of all the people on the earth. And a following question arises. Why us? And what is it all for? They cannot provide answers and even today people ask, “What is it all for?” If we have no vision of what it is all about we may get stuck in the present with its problems and not see the wider picture. The struggle of our age is perhaps between those who think with Protagoras, the Greek sophist of 2500 years ago, that “man is the measure of all things” and it ends there, and those who see man, humanity, as called to be divine, which is the true measure of the ages.


Prayer. Lord, help us to lift our eyes to you when we feel stuck in our daily concerns. Amen.
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  




















Wednesday, 5 August 2015

SON OF MAN

PRAYER MOMENT  


Thursday 6 August 2015, The Transfiguration


SON OF MAN


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “And I saw coming on the clouds of heaven one like a son of man.” (Daniel 7:1…14)


Reflection. Jesus reveals himself for moment  on the mountain to three of his disciples as God had done to Moses on Sinai. Three of the gospels tells us this though fo John his wole gospel is  a revelation of the one who came to “dwell amongst us.” As an accompanying text we read Daniel and the appearance of the mysterious “son of man.” This title of the “human one” would be the preferred way of Jesus to describe imself and in it we see the One who stands at the centre of all history> Everything takes its meaning from him and in him is the fulfilment of all our striving. When asked by a journalist what Jesus meant to him, Pedro Arrupe, said, “Everything; he means everything to me.”  


Prayer. Lord, you are the one who fulfils all our hopes Help us to centre our lives in you. Amen.
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  




















Tuesday, 4 August 2015

BORN OF A WOMAN

PRAYER MOMENT  


Wednesday 5 August 2015, St Mary Major


BORN OF A WOMAN


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “When the completion of the time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, so that we could receive adoption as his children.” (Galations 4:4-7)


Reflection. It may seem odd to celebrate the building of church in Rome in the middle of the fifth century but that is what we do today, the feast of St Mary Major. The building itself is a “theological poem in honour of the divine motherhood of Mary.” For three centuries the Church pondered how to put into words their belief in Jesus as divine. The result, in 325, was the Nicene Creed. But what does that make Mary? After pondereing for a further hundred years they agreed, at Ephesus in 431, that she could and should be called the Mother of God. Many could not take it but that is our faith. In recent years the Church emphasises it on 1 January. And a more ancient tradition celebrates the construction and beautiful decoration of a church in Rome in her honour on this day.


Prayer. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death Amen
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  



















Monday, 3 August 2015

THEY BOWED DOWN BEFORE HIM

PRAYER MOMENT  


Tuesday 4 August 2015, St Jean Marie Vianney


THEY BOWED DOWN BEFORE HIM


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “The men in he boat bowed down before him and said, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:22-36)


Reflection. There are moments in the gospels where the divine bursts into people’s consciousness and this incident of Jesus walking on the water, and Peter going with him, is one of them. Today we remember the Curé d’Ars, Jean Marie Vianney, the parish priest of a small village in France in the nineteenth century, who would often spend fourteen hours in the confessional as people came to him from all over France and beyond. Holding these two reflections together we see “a touch of the divine” beaking into our lives and we want to breathe in that world . Jesus preferred the title of “Son of Man” but occasionally the people realise who he is – and the called him “Son of God.” Jean-Marie woke up many to this reality in post-revolution France.


Prayer. Lord, help us to perceive your presence in our lives; help us to notice the wonders of you intervention today. Amen
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  



















Sunday, 2 August 2015

CUCUMBERS AND MELONS

PRAYER MOMENT  


Monday 3 August 2015


CUCUMBERS AND MELONS


Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.


Reading: “Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! Here we are wasting away, stripped of everything.” (Numbers 11:4-15)


Reflection. If we were Israelites marooned in the desert we migt have come up with a different list of our favourite foods as we looked back to happier times. Apple pie would be on mine. Here in Zambia I came across a group of Zimbabeans yesterday who look back with regret to their lives in Zimbabwe before their land was taken from them. Regret for the lost past is natural but it can ditract us from the present - which is all we have! The past is gone and the future is uncertain. The Israelites were failing to let the experience of their formation into a new people – painful as it ws at times - sink deep within them. We can do the same. What I live now is my life – not some happy past nor some wished for future.  


Prayer. Lord, help us to live in the present moment and to see you with us there in all the events of our day. Amen
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  



















Saturday, 1 August 2015

THE BREAD OF LIFE

THE BREAD OF LIFE
It seems once we win one battle another looms. The Greeks, to whom we owe the very concept of democracy, were part of the great win/win achievement when Europe organise herself into a community for mutual benefit. Together with many countries in Europe, it seemed like the final step in ending forever a long history of oppression by powerful neighbours.
But the peace did not last. A new oppression has emerged. It is not violent and if it kills it does it in hidden ways. The oppression is economic. Greece’s partners in Europe blame her for not managing her affairs. But commentators point out that the whole economic system was skewed against her and her citizens are now facing ruin because those same “partners” demand repayment of loans that are totally beyond her ability to repay. So much for the concept of  “community!”
In intense anger Greece has fought back and all Europe is scrambling to ask “how did we get it so wrong?” Africa seems to show little interest and in the country where I live Greece’s trauma is tucked away in brief articles in the middle pages. That is a pity for the Greeks are showing resilience and are determined to be awkward! The smooth running of the system just won’t do. “Peace! Peace! And there is no peace.” Good! Someone has the courage to scream at the emptiness of a hollow system. Surely we should take notice?
Where does this energy to rebel, to question and to be awkward come from? It clearly comes from an inner source, an inner power. We can put different names on that energy but many of us would call it the Spirit of God. There is a moment in John’s gospel where Jesus meets a broken women who can’t even face going to the well with others. She can’t face their taunts. She goes on her own at the hottest time of the day when there is no one around. She meets Jesus and one thing leads to another and he speaks of this Spirit and the woman is transformed.
Later he meets not an individual but a whole crowd and he speaks of the same Spirit but this time in the form of bread which people can eat and it becomes a part of them. Most don’t buy his message and move off. But a seed is sown and a few stay. And these gradually start a movement which is unstoppable despite persecution and indifference. A force came into the world that will simply not lie down in the face of injustice. “Give us that bread always,” the people plead. It is the bread of energy, struggle, questioning and engagement in the questions of our time.  
2 August 2015                                    Sunday 18 B
Exodus 16:2…15                                Ephesians 4:17…24                          John 6:24-35