FORGIVE EACH OTHER

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 1 March 2016, St David   

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 1 March 2016, St David   

FORGIVE EACH OTHER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “That is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you forgive one another from your heart.” (Matt 18:21-35)

Reflection. Forgiveness is the immediate result of repentance – at least with God. We are not so quick. Forgiveness is untying a knot, opening a gate so a prisoner can walk free, rescuing a stranded climber on a remote mountain, saving a drowning swimmer. A surge of new life and renewed energy flows into a person forgiven. You can see it in the lost son of Jesus’ story. The more real the repentance, the more effective the forgiveness. Sometimes it is hard to repent. If a person meets a willingness to forgive it helps them repent. God loves to forgive, to give new life, new energy. He just looks for that seed of repentance.

Prayer. Lord, help us to repent and help us to forgive. They are so close to each other. Amen.

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “That is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you forgive one another from your heart.” (Matt 18:21-35)

Reflection. Forgiveness is the immediate result of repentance – at least with God. We are not so quick. Forgiveness is untying a knot, opening a gate so a prisoner can walk free, rescuing a stranded climber on a remote mountain, saving a drowning swimmer. A surge of new life and renewed energy flows into a person forgiven. You can see it in the lost son of Jesus’ story. The more real the repentance, the more effective the forgiveness. Sometimes it is hard to repent. If a person meets a willingness to forgive it helps them repent. God loves to forgive, to give new life, new energy. He just looks for that seed of repentance.

Prayer. Lord, help us to repent and help us to forgive. They are so close to each other. Amen.

NOT ACCEPTED

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 29 February 2016   

NOT ACCEPTED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.” (Luke 4:24-30)

Reflection. Our readings grapple each day with the question of conversion, changing one’s mind. Naaman the Syrian opens his mind twice: once when he listens to a little captive girl and again when he listens to his own servants (2 Kings 5:1-15). He is a foreigner, an outsider. The lost son in the parable has to go to a foreign country before he can clear his mind and recognise the compassion of God. There is something frightening about familiarity, habit, complacency, routine. They dull the mind and leave us incapable of seeing things differently.

Prayer. Lord, help us to keep an open mind to the surprises you send us each day.  Amen.

OLD HABITS DIE HARD

OLD HABITS DIE HARD

An old missionary used to come in from a hard day in the outstations and take off his boots in his upstairs room. He would take off one and then fling it across the room to a corner; then he did the same with other. The priest downstairs put up with this for a while but finally got tired of this ritual and went up to complain. Next day the old man returned as usual and flung one boot across the room. Then he remembered! The man downstairs waited a long time for the second boot but there was silence. This maddened him even more and he mounted the stairs and said, “For heaven’s sake, throw the other boot as well so as I can get some peace!”

Old habits die hard, they say, and it is probably because we are unaware of them. They are so ingrained. They are part of us. We devised our ways of coping with life years ago. Some of our eccentricities are harmless but some are the opposite. I can size up another person and all their behaviour is viewed through the lens I have created. Then one day someone praises that person using words quite different from what I would have said. I wake up with a jolt and, maybe, change my way of thinking about the person.

Whatever else Lent is it is a time for paying attention to jolts and not inoculating ourselves from them. They come but I brush them aside because they do not fit with my lens. Those people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them or the ones who died in the Malaysian missing plane – they must have been guilty somehow. Perhaps we are not so crass as to believe such things today. But we can still be in the habit of categorising people: Muslims, migrants, prisoners or the disabled.

We can read about the “stone rejected which has become the keystone” and quickly say we understand its meaning. But can we file it away so easily? Rejection is a constant theme since Eve chose the apple. I think I am a reasonable person and yet hidden away are these dark habits I am hardly aware of. I am weighed down by the burden of my own self-centredness which makes my compass always point in my own direction. I hear the words, “Choose life,” (Deut 30:19) but they don’t get through because I have built up habits over the years that block out the word than liberates.

28 February 2016                   Sunday 3C in Lent

Exod. 3:1…15                        1 Cor. 10:1…12                                  Luke 13:1-9

HE CAME TO HIS SENSES

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 27 February 2016   

HE CAME TO HIS SENSES

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Then he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger? I will leave this place and go to my father’ … His father saw him and was moved with pity.” (Luke 15:1 ..32)

Reflection. That moment of coming to my senses – how can it be described? It is a new creation, a new life. What has to happen for a person to come to that moment? Some circumstance jolts a person into a new way of thinking. We can sense the surge of the moment – like turning on a light switch. All is clear. It is a moment of intense joy, but also mixed with sorrow for the blindness that preceded it. And the father’s joy is also intense. He is moved with pity. This charged scene sums up our longings for the Year of Mercy: that the world, each one of us, comes to our senses.

Prayer. Lord, we ask for you mercy in this year of grace, for each one of us and for all your people.  Amen.

THE STONE REJECTED

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 26 February 2016   

THE STONE REJECTED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone. This is the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see.” (Matt2:33-46)

Reflection. This story of the vineyard is coupled with the one about Joseph, the dreamer, rejected by his brothers, which we read today, a Friday in Lent preparing us for Good Friday. The people rejected Jesus who came from God and we go on rejecting dreamers or anyone or anything that comes near to threaten our “space”. We hold on dearly to what we consider is our way of thinking, our way of life. Even if we think we are free rational people we still spontaneously sift out intrusive thoughts or people that threaten our comfort.  

Prayer. Lord, give us open minds and hearts to welcome your coming in whoever of whatever approaches us.  Amen.

A GREAT GULF

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 2 February 2016   

A GREAT GULF

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and stop anyone crossing from your side to ours.” (Luke 16:19-31)

Reflection. The great gulf, in Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, doesn’t only exist in eternity. It is with us today. The drive towards wealth and power, and the absence of any sense of the effects of this lust on the lives of the poor, is real. And when we follow the media or simply look around we are aware of the “gulf” between avarice and compassion in the attitudes of many people today. It is marvellous to note the multitude of efforts made worldwide to bridge that gulf by people of good will everywhere. But the reality remains and the rejection of the light continues.

Prayer. Lord, teach us to always be attentive to our thoughts and actions.  Amen.

YOU DO NOT KNOW

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 24 February 2016   

YOU DO NOT KNOW

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Promise that these two sons of mine will sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You do not know what you are asking,” answered Jesus.” (Matt 20:17-28)

Reflection. Jesus has been speaking about his going to Jerusalem and the rejection and suffering he will endure there. It makes no impact. They are obsessed with what they can get out of this new movement for themselves. You can sense the sadness in Jesus as he patiently answers the request. And we have to notice how widespread this attitude is among us today. So often we are in something with an eye to what we get out of it. This is bound to be part of the deal but when it becomes the only part we have lost the plot.

Prayer. Lord, teach me to be generous and not to count the cost.  Amen.

YOU, HOWEVER

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 23 February 2016, St Polycarp of Smyrna, now Izmir   

YOU, HOWEVER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master and you are all brothers.” (Matt 23:1-12)

Reflection. The “breaking in of the kingdom” means that everything from now on is going to be different. Something new is happening in your midst. Be attentive to it. You, of all people, must notice it. Welcome the change that is happening in you and around you. Time is short and we are preparing for the final revelation. So, see the events of today as struggles and sufferings pointing to a new world coming to birth. Look everywhere for the signs and encourage and welcome them. Be part of it. It is all happening today.

Prayer. Lord, may we may we have a sense of our world struggling to come to a new birth. May be give our strength to bring it about. Amen.

ON THIS ROCK

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 22 February 2016, St Peter   

ON THIS ROCK

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.” (Matt 16:13-19)

Reflection. These words are painted in six foot letters round the inside of the dome of St Peter’s in Rome proclaiming the traditional view of Peter as the foundation Jesus left for his Church and the sign of unity. They are words that have been variously interpreted depending on the church we belong to but their meaning for Catholics is of Peter and his successors as the centre of unity and authority. For other Christians the meaning of the text focuses more on faith as the foundation. Whatever we say it is clear that Jesus wanted his followers to be united and give a clear witness to the world.

Prayer. Lord, may we all be one as you and the Father are on. Amen.

ON THE MOUNTAIN

ON THE MOUNTAIN         

Palaeontology is the study of life in prehistoric times by using fossils as evidence. It allows us to trace and wonder at the evolution of humans, animals and plants. We are astonished at the development of the human body and the brain and the emergence of consciousness and the ability to reflect. The Bible is not a scientific work but it picks up the story on another level. At a certain point in this movement of growth God chose a people whom he would train to be accustomed to hear his voice so as to prepare them for the next stage.

The founder of that people was terrified by the task he was set. “As the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abra(ha)m, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended on him” (Gen 15:12). God is now approaching his people who are at last able to grasp something of the relationship he is offering, but it is frightening for them, this new experience so much beyond their imagining. And God makes a covenant with them, which is constantly renewed despite their backsliding and infidelity.

Almost two thousand years later a child is born in a stable. Again there was terror (Luke 2:9) but gradually they begin to understand; “God has visited his people” (Luke 7:16). Again, Peter and his companions were “heavy with sleep,” and again they were overcome with awe. But they were able to say, “It is wonderful for us to be here” (Luke 9:32, 33).

The irruption of God into our life can be terrifying - and delightful? Perhaps the terror comes from realising that his coming will test us like smelt steel. We will have to change and that we don’t want. Out there on the world stage we can read about it and desire it will happen. Pope Francis addressed the drug barons, and those who cause thousands to migrate, in Mexico this week. But will they change their ways of thinking?

This is the last great frontier of human evolution; for people to become reconciled – one to another. All the rest was easy when compared to this last step for humanity: reconciliation between people, with creation (ecology) and with God. They all go together and they start with a person become reconciled with his or her self.   

On the second Sunday of Lent we always have the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain when he gave us a brief glimpse of his glory. It soon passed and he returned to the business of preparing his friends for his rejection and death in Jerusalem. But it was a glimpse revealing our destiny and giving us the courage to face change.

I heard recently of someone who had a big responsibility and the pressures on him became too great and he took his own life. He seems to have identified himself with his ability to do his job. If he could not do the job it was best to end it all. I know it is easy to say but moments of stress call us to change; to stop identifying myself with my abilities, position, success or whatever. A person is far more than the circumstances of their life. Reconciliation, the last frontier, begins with reconciliation with one’s self.

21 February 2016                               Lent 2C

Genesis 15:5…18                               Phil 3:17 – 4:1                                    Luke 9:28-36

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 20 February 2016   

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you … be perfect.” (Matt 5:43-48)

Reflection. God is an inclusive God and does not go in for the neat distinctions in which we take comfort. Margaret Thatcher used to ask her aides of people she was about to meet, “Is he one of us?” We can list our “enemies” easily. They are people who threaten my security, my view of the world – members of the opposition, migrants or others who do not “fit in.” To be perfect is to be free of all desire to judge and categorise; to open my heart to people who are different and to recognise that people on the whole are doing the best they can.

Prayer. Lord, open our hearts to accept others – even the difficult and less attractive. Amen.

BE RECONCILED

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 19 February 2016   

BE RECONCILED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Leave your offering there before the altar and go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.” (Matt 5:20-26)

Reflection. Reconciliation is the last stage of growth. After we have done our physical growth and trained our minds the hardest bit still awaits us. We can “fix” many things by our wits but building relationships between people is the last frontier. The Colombian government and the FARC have been trying to do it for years and are getting nearer. Now the Syrians are trying. And so it is in communities and families and even with ourselves. A low self-image can be a bigger handicap than blindness. A person can end their life rather than accept who they are. God calls us to reconciliation. It is the outstanding item on our agenda.

Prayer. Lord, help us to grow in reconciliation with one another, among societies and with nature. Amen.

MY LIFE IN MY HANDS

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 18 February 2016   

MY LIFE IN MY HANDS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I have no helper but you and I am about to take my life in my hands.” (Esther 4:17)

Reflection. Queen Esther is risking everything for the life of her people. She puts herself entirely in the hands of God. Francis Xavier once wrote about a three day storm when he was at sea. “Great is the difference between the one who trusts in God having all that he needs about him, and the one who trust is God having nothing to his name.” Our prayer journey is about reaching that point where we do hand over everything to God and put ourselves totally in his hands. Easier said than done! Ruth Burrows often reminds us of how we cling firmly to ourselves and find it so difficult to let go.

Prayer. Lord, help us to grow in this Lent into real prayer where we learn to trust you completely and not just a little bit. Amen.

THEY REPENTED

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 17 February 2016   

THEY REPENTED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.” (Luke 11:29-32)

Reflection. ‘Repent’ is a short sharp word but its full meaning is to ‘change one’s way of thinking’ – one of the hardest things for men and women to do, even in the face of facts to the contrary. We might think the evidence for climate change is overwhelming but many just refuse to change their way of thinking about it. And so it is with many issues, global and personal. People find it so hard to change and I have to ask myself where I am in this? Am I rooted in some opinions or am I open to change?

Prayer. Lord, help us to be open to contrary views and listen and weigh up all we hear. Amen.

OUR FATHER

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 16 February 2016   

OUR FATHER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” (Matt 6:7-15)

Reflection. Prayer is about discovery; discovering my place in the order of things. A child cries when hungry or uncomfortable. Later their cry becomes more specific: “I want!” And later still, as a teenager, it becomes less specific because it is less clear what a teenager wants. It is a matter signs and silences. Later perhaps clarity reappears and the grown person passionately wants. The whole journey involves others at every turn. Prayer takes that journey beyond touch and feel, word and smell. It reaches out to another level of our being. “Your kingdom come” is closer to poetry than to a strategic plan. It embraces life but does not impose structures or solutions. It opens up rather than closes down.   

Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come! Amen.

WHO ARE YOU?

WHO ARE YOU?

In A Man for all Seasons, a play about Thomas More who defied the king over a matter of conscience, Norfolk pleads with Thomas to join him in obeying the king “for fellowship’s sake.” Thomas replies, “And when you go to heaven for following your conscience and I go to hell for not following mine, will you come with me ‘for fellowship’s sake’”?

What a tonic it is to meet someone who thinks out their position and sticks to it whatever the surrounding weight of opinion! Where I live we are approaching an election and if you ask people it is rare to hear a reasoned statement of how they will vote. The pressure to do as others do or how our tribe does or for some other social reason is hard to resist.

As we begin Lent we find the readings demanding we make choices. The Israelites were mired in political, social and religious trouble at the time of the exile. Their leaders reminded them of Moses’ words about their fragile origins: “My father was a wandering Aramaean.” He went down to Egypt and endured many trials but God rescued him and gave him the land “where milk and honey flow” (Deut. 26). Yet the Israelites abandoned God and followed “the people round about” and ended in disaster.

Each first Sunday of Lent we have an account of the temptations of Jesus in the desert where Satan tries to deflect him from his mission. “Do something popular!” Follow the crowd! But Jesus turns away and “sets his face like flint” (Is. 50:7) to follow what is deepest within him, the Father’s will. He will walk the road alone, “despised and rejected” by the men and women of his time.

If we were to make one Lent resolution we could do no better than to get in touch with what is deepest within us; to strive to discover my greatest yearning – something that can easily be hidden under the layers of cultural and social pressure that surround me. No one is immune to these subtle forces. All the time we compare ourselves – maybe almost unconsciously – to others and we make our decisions accordingly. We trample on what is deepest within us just as the Israelites trampled on their covenant with God in the desert.

This Lent we are invited to “return to the desert” with Jesus and learn again the meaning of the new covenant he has made with us – a covenant that cost him his life’s blood. I had an uncle who went to his death in the Great War in Europe and on his memorial card the family wrote the words of John, “Greater love than this no one can have than to lay down their life for their friends.” (John 15:13). In the end, coming in touch with my conscience and following it is the greatest act of love a person can show.  

14 February 2016                               Sunday 1 C in Lent

Deut 26:4-10                                       Rom 10:8-13                                       Luke 4:1-13

    

YOUR WOUND QUICKLY HEALED

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 12 February 2016   

YOUR WOUND QUICKLY HEALED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound would be quickly healed.” (Isaiah 58:1-9)

Reflection. On this first Friday of Lent the invitation to conversion becomes sharp and compelling. “You oppress your workers on your fast days.” You perform the outward duties of religion but you neglect the inner journey of connecting with the person beside you. You control your life without being opento mystery. Today Patriarch Kirill meets Pope Francis in Cuba. It has taken a jump of imagination for both to meet again after 1000 years. No one knows where all this will lead other than ultimately to restored union. What we celebrate today is the beginning – a step in the journey to remove barriers between people

Prayer. Lord, bless our efforts, great and small, to break down the barriers between people. Amen.

CHOOSE LIFE

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 11 February 2016, Our Lady of Lourdes   

CHOOSE LIFE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God.” (Deut. 30:15-20)

Reflection. Lent wastes no time in reminding us that life is about choices; choices that give life and choices that diminish us. The newly emancipated Israelites in the desert are now free to make a choice. Then the gospel for today comes in rather bluntly and says the choice that gives life is the one that, “loses life for my sake.” (Luke 9:22-5). I have just been for medical “tests” and m awaiting the outcome, I found myself asking, “what if they find something life threatening?” How will I take it? Finding the roots of our experience in the gospel is not always straightforward.  Lent helps us move that way. 

Prayer. Lord, may we see our own experience in our Lent readings and darw life from that source. Amen.

TURN AGAIN

PRAYER MOMENT

Ash Wednesday 10 February 2016   

TURN AGAIN

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion.”  (Joel 2:12-18)

Reflection. The felled tree reveals its rings. The standing tree scarcely holds our glance but the sawn tree shows each year of life and growth. Lent follows Lent and what is the difference? Well, quite a lot! But we don’t see it. Each Lent is a precious time to stop, to “touch” our life and go a little deeper. When we do we discover our ache for God. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer.” To adapt Yeats a little, all our twists and turns bear meaning and growth when we keep our ear attuned to the Falconer. 

Prayer. Lord, may Lent be a grace filled time for your people and in particular we ask your blessing on the meeting of Francis and Kirill. Amen.

WILL GOD REALLY LIVE AMONG MEN?

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 9 February 2016   

WILL GOD REALLY LIVE AMONG MEN?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens cannot contain you.”  (I Kings 8:21-30)

Reflection. Solomon saw the ark as a symbol of God “living among men” but he would have had no idea of God’s plan to actually move about among men and women of every age - starting in Galilee. Are we living in a time where that sense of his presence is gradually slipping away and we feel we can do without God? Or are we purifying out notions of who God really is and clawing our way back to a sense of his “living with us”?

Prayer. Lord, help us to know that you are living with us and struggling and suffering with us each day. Amen.

A CLOUD

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 8 February 2016, Josephine Bakita of Sudan   

A CLOUD

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The cloud filled the Temple such that the priests could no longer perform their duties.”  (I Kings 8:1-13)

Reflection. Today we would say she was trafficked; a victim of forced seizure, slavery and harsh treatment. Josephine Bakita (1869-1947) must have often felt a dark cloud enveloping her. The trauma of being snatched from home as a child and never seeing her family again combined with the horrors of her treatment would scar anyone forever. But the cloud lifted and she found a new family and friends and gradually made her way back to normality and peace. And she discovered Jesus had been journeying with her all along – her passion, his passion. She found herself and many came to her for healing – not miraculous healing - everyday healing, such as we try to do to one another.    

Prayer. Lord, do not let us be deterred by clouds. Amen.

Ah!

Ah!

The late Jesuit Michael Paul Gallagher used to greet a new batch of students by introducing them to the distinction between Ha! Aha! and Ah! ‘Ha!’ is my reaction to a piece of passing information that does not touch my life. ‘Aha!’ denotes I have understood something or agree with a speaker. But when I am filled with wonder I say ‘Ah!’

In the film Japanese Story a geologist accompanies a Japanese business man into the desert of Australia to explore for minerals. Their relationship is formal and each finds the other a pain in the neck but they have to do the job. Aha! Then their car gets stuck in the dust and nothing they can do at first helps. Slowly their formality melts as they realise their common danger. Predictably a relationship develops between them but the man cannot handle it and drowns himself in pool. She is devastated and no one grasps what she is feeling. They all “help” but they only make it worse for her. For them it is Aha! For her it is Ah!   

When Peter first got to know Jesus he moved quickly from Ha! to Aha! He heard his words and saw the adulation of the crowds. He even witnessed some cures and exorcisms. But he could handle all that. He knew of the tradition in Israel of prophets and teachers with followings and some, like Elijah and Elisha, even worked miracles. Aha! Not a big deal!

Then suddenly an event occurs that changes everything. They had been fishing all night without success. But Jesus says, “Put out into the deep water.” Peter felt there was little point but decided to do it anyway. We know what happens next: two boats are filled to sinking point. Peter is utterly dumbfounded. He falls on his knees and says, “Leave me, Lord, I am a sinner.” Ah!

I feel sure that every one of us has had some experience of Ah! in our life. It is that moment when something really takes hold of us – maybe for a minute or maybe for a life time. Religious people can stay permanently in the Aha! stage. They can pray and worship regularly but nothing actually touches them and there is no change in their life. They acknowledge God in private and in public – Aha! - but they keep him at a distance. In fact, if they only realised it, they create God in their own image! They worship a God who fits in with their plans.

The catch of fish hit Peter just as the “light from heaven” (Acts 9:3) struck Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola and countless others down to our own day. This Ah! experience is a gift from God. We cannot manufacture it for ourselves. But we can dispose ourselves by being people who make a habit of pausing in wonder before the world we are given, and the people who are our companions on the journey. And if we pause in our prayer without hurrying on we are also preparing our heart for the visitation of God. And then we will utter, “Ah!”    

7 February 2016                     Sunday 5C

Isaiah 6:1-8                             I Corinthians 15:1-11                         Luke 5:1-11

A HEART TO UNDERSTAND

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 6 February 2016, Paul Miki & Co (Japan), Martin Thomas & Co (Musami)   

A HEART TO UNDERSTAND

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil.”  (I Kings 3:4-13)

Reflection. Solomon prays for wisdom and in today’s gospel (Mark 6 30ff) “large crowds” seek Jesus in their thirst for understanding. The best of our writers and filmmakers mirror back to us this search and the joy of life is to seek true wisdom. I knew the Jesuits who, with the sisters, were lined up on this day in 1977 at Musami in Zimbabwe and shot. You would not notice much that was extra special about them. They were ordinary like the rest of us but on that day their search for wisdom found them at the end of the barrel of a gun. As with Paul Miki and Co, in 1597 Japan, their lives suddenly exploded into eternity.

Prayer. Teach us, Lord, the wisdom that leads us to give our lives for others.. Amen.

HE LIKED TO LISTEN

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 5 February 2016, Agatha   

HE LIKED TO LISTEN

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “When Herod heard John speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.”  (Mark 6:14-29)

Reflection. Herod does not come across as an attractive person in the gospels yet he is quite representative. Nowhere are we told that the Pharisees – except for Nicodemus – “liked to listen” to anyone. Herod had an inward battle which he lost. He was drawn to a good man, liked to listen to him and knew he was innocent but he went ahead anyway and killed him. Maybe they don’t kill others but many do listen to the good news but then ignore it! It clashes with their own  stance towards life. The powerful wealthy king was a loser. Agatha, the poor and weak Sicilian girl, found an inner strength to follow through on what she had listened to and made her own.   

Prayer. Teach us, Lord, not only to listen but to savour your words and let them change our life. Amen.

TAKE NOTHING FOR THE JOURNEY

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 4 February 2016   

TAKE NOTHING FOR THE JOURNEY

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purse.”  (Mark 6:7-13)

Reflection. St Francis would have taken these instructions literally but we, most of us I suppose, pack spare clothes and a laptop, power point projector, books and papers. Yet there is an underlying call here that applies to Francis and to all of us: we are to work as though everything depends on us while at the same time believing that the outcome is beyond us. It is in the hands of God. It is his work. We entrust the outcome to him even as we work. Luther had a powerful thought about “the word.” We strive to utter it but is has a power all its own which is beyond us.  

Prayer. Lord, help us to work and trust that the outcome of all we do is n your hands. Amen.

HE WAS AMAZED

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 3 February 2016   

HE WAS AMAZED

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “He could work no miracles there … He was amazed at their lack of faith.”  (Mark 6:1-6)

Reflection. This is Mark’s version of Sunday’s gospel from Luke. It is even sharper in its presumptive questions. “Where did the man get all this?” They quickly close their minds to his message. And Jesus is amazed. Early in his mission he discovered people did not want the good news. And his own people seem to have been more adamant than most in their refusal to listen. But we cannot he too surprised. It happens all the time. “People prefer darkness to light.” (John 3:19) We can see this in ourselves. As always the gospel calls us to a radical choice

Prayer. Lord, help us not to shut our hearts to your call but to welcome it with courage. Amen.

THE LORD WILL SUDDENLY ENTER

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 2 February 2016. The Presentation   

THE LORD WILL SUDDENLY ENTER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his temple.”  (Malachi 3:1-4)

Reflection. In the film Nicholas and Alexandra the Grand Duchess enters the great hall with a ceremonial flourish and everyone bows to her. She whispers to her sister, “I so love an entry!” Jesus enters God’s temple in the arms of Mary unnoticed by all save an old man and an old woman. Our thoughts expand to take in the scene. Born in a stable, the Lord now enters the Jewish world that was fostered by God over hundreds of years. But no one recognises it except a tiny remnant. The Jewish world became the whole world but still we struggle to recognise his presence in our midst. We are invited to stop and ponder.

Prayer. Lord, may we know your presence among us! Amen.