THEY ARRESTED THEM

PRAYER MOMENT

Easter Friday 1 April 2016   

THEY ARRESTED THEM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “They were extremely annoyed at their teaching the people the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead by proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. They arrested them…” (Acts4:1-12)

Reflection. It was a short honey moon and within a week of Good Friday we find ourselves reading about the arrest of the apostles. They were quickly tasting the reality of the cross. Easter does not cancel Good Friday. We will have Good Friday with us till we die. Yet we are often caught unawares and unprepared when suffering comes. Why me? And why now? I know it is easy to say but Good Friday is the very stuff of our lives. Easter just reinterprets it for us. We see things anew and can glimpse, for instance, why in 1943 a group of Dutch Jews sang psalms while the train carried them to their deaths.  

Prayer. Lord, may Easter cast new light on each day we live. Amen

HE OPENED THEIR MINDS

PRAYER MOMENT

Easter Thursday 31 March 2016   

HE OPENED THEIR MINDS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it was written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” (Luke 24:35-48)

Reflection. The disciples would have known the scriptures. They would have been taught them from childhood and in the synagogue week by week. They thought they understood them. But now they are “dumbfounded.” They realised they had had no idea what they meant. And we struggle too to make sense of some of the things that happen in our life. And we too hear his words, ‘Why are you so agitated and why these doubts?’ In our reading from Acts 3 today we hear Peter saying, ‘I know you had no idea.’ He could have said the same about himself.

Prayer. Lord, may we grow in understanding as to how you are at work in our world today, despite events that dismay us. Amen

JUMPING AND PRAISING GOD

PRAYER MOMENT

Easter Wednesday 30 March 2016   

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “He began to walk and he went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God.” (Acts 3:1-10)

Reflection. The Resurrection touched the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate dramatically. It touches us when we reinterpret our lives in its light. The Jews knew the Old Testament stories but when Jesus explained them to the two going to Emmaus they took on a new meaning. Their “hearts burned.” The call to us is to see our everyday life in a new way; as transformed by the new reality that builds on the old.

Prayer. Lord, may live the Resurrection in the events of our day; may we see your transforming Spirit ever at work. Amen

CUT TO THE HEART

PRAYER MOMENT

Easter Tuesday 29 March 2016   

CUT TO THE HEART

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do brothers?’ ‘You must repent’, Peter answered.” (Acts 2:36-41)

Reflection. The word for ‘repent’ here, metanoesate, literally means ‘go beyond your present way of thinking.’ The resurrection, the third and final (after the incarnation and death) world transforming event, had utterly shaken the apostles and disciples. They had a completely new understanding and now it was time to proclaim this vision to the world. They had an immediate impact and, we are told, thousands took note and received baptism. We live in hard bitten times but we can try, these days, to relive what it must have been like then and discover anew where it leads us now.    

Prayer. Lord, may we too be ‘cut to the heart’ as we realise the impact on our world today of your rising from the dead. Amen

AWE AND JOY

PRAYER MOMENT

Easter Monday 28 March 2016   

AWE AND JOY

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.” (Matthew 28:8-15)

Reflection. Matthew gives us a simple sentence packed with three messages. There is the experience of awe and joy at meeting the risen Lord. Then there is the turning away from death and its symbols and all the negativity in our lives. And finally there is the mission, shared by every Christian and person of good will, to be a person for others; to let their light shine in the world and, by their lives, announce the resurrection, as Francis of Assisi did.

Prayer. Lord, may our lives announce the resurrection! May we be people of wonder and joy! And may the world come to believe. Amen

TO DIE AND RISE ANEW

TO DIE AND RISE ANEW

In the early hours of last Monday, a dozen soldiers dressed in the uniform of the Congolese army burst into a room in North Kivu and shot dead Fr Vincent Machozi, an Augustinian friar. His crime? Speaking out about the atrocities committed against his people, the Yira, by powerful interests intent on syphoning off the wealth of the region, particularly coltan, a metallic ore used in our cell phones and laptops.

The progress of our planet, the coming together of people, the ease of communication – come at a price. My first reaction on reading about Fr Vincent was from the gut. He knew it was dangerous. He had already survived seven previous attacks since 2012. Surely prudence called for him to get out. The fact that he didn’t, the fact that he stayed knowing full well he was walking a knife edge, forced me to get out of the gut into the head and heart. He had even said, “I will be murdered. I feel it.” Yet, he stayed on.

Good Friday is not a distant event of centuries ago, a memory we keep as the climax of our story. Good Friday is here and now. There are many people dying today because their faith puts them in the line of fire. This is particularly true of Syria and Iraq but it is happening in Africa too and in Asia. To witness to the truth as Jesus did – and as Vincent Machozi did – brings us up against the hard wall of evil. Machozi could have got out, but in his heart he “set his face towards Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) knowing full well what this meant.

“The crowds were appalled on seeing him … astonished … speechless before him” (Is 52:14). They think Machozi’s crazy. They are confused, “without a shepherd.” They “stay there watching” (Luke 23:35),  not knowing how their cell phones are made and not caring, not knowing what IS is and not bothering to find out - unless they strike near home.

Then there are those intent on evil, on murder, be they Roman or Congolese soldiers.

And there is us! We like to think we are people who understand, people who accompany Jesus and share his sorrows and his joys. We are like the little people who stood near the cross, or at least “at a distance” (Luke 23:49). We don’t want to get too close. That might be dangerous and lead us to Machozi’s fate. We ponder Good Friday and we ponder this Friday  when we are alive and able to make choices, choices that bring us closer to the cross - or keep us at a distance.

The cross of Jesus is the fixed point around which all creation circles. We can say wise things about it and yet keep it at a distance. But we know we are called to go beyond words and thoughts and let the reality of its saving energy enter our hearts. Then, perhaps, we too can make “unwise” decisions, as Vincent Machozi did.

-o0o-

For a picture of Fr Vincent see http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/03/22/priests-murder-in-congo-shows-the-need-for-a-new-concept-of-martyrdom/

SITTING OPPOSITE THE SEPULCHRE

PRAYER MOMENT

Holy Saturday 26 March 2016   

SITTING OPPOSITE THE SEPULCHRE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Now Mary of Magdala and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.” (Matthew 27:61)

Reflection. What thoughts went through the disciples’ heads as they rested on that Sabbath day? “We had hoped he would be the one to set Israel free” (Luke 24:21) and now he is dead. What went wrong? We know people whose lives seemed a disaster. I am thinking of a disabled boy who “did nothing” and died aged 13 or one who got caught up in an abuse case and whose life plunged. And there are countless people we know who did not seem to “make it.” Holy Saturday is their day – and ours too. There is so little “to write home about” in our lives. And yet! And yet, there is tomorrow. Easter makes sense of everything.

Prayer. Lord, as we “rest” on the Sabbath open our eyes to the working of your love amongst us and fill us with hope. Amen

THE LORD BURDENED HIM

PRAYER MOMENT

Good Friday 25 March 2016   

THE LORD BURDENED HIM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the Lord burdened him with the sins of all of us.” (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)

Reflection. Stat crux dum volvitur orbis. The cross stands while the earth revolves. This Carthusian motto succinctly gathers up all our scattered thoughts as we come to Good Friday. The cross is the fixed point of creation. Everything else swirls around doing good or doing evil while thinking one is doing good. Creation is beautiful but it is wounded to the core. Everywhere and in every human heart there is a battle. Jesus comes to enter that battle and to struggle with us. His response – of facing suffering and death “like flint” (Isaiah 50) – is our anchor, our reference point, our inspiration and strength, but above all our source of courage.

Prayer. Lord, we stand with Mary by the cross filled with sorrow, like a mother by the bedside of her dying child. Give us a heart of compassion. Amen

YOU SHALL NEVER WASH MY FEET

PRAYER MOMENT

Holy Thursday 24 March 2016   

YOU SHALL NEVER WASH MY FEET

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “Never,” said Peter, “you will never wash my feet.” (John 13:1-15)

Reflection. Peter represents the world’s resistance to the kingdom of God that Jesus has come to proclaim and that resistance persists among us. Peter cannot conceive of the Lord going down on his knees and washing his feet. It is simply too much of a rupture of culture, tradition, custom. He stoutly resists. But Jesus has come to “break down the barrier” (Eph 2:14) that separates darkness from light. This gesture of washing their feet prefigures what he is about to undergo in his passion.

Prayer. Lord, may the barriers we place in your way be broken down this Easter. May we “catch fire” and welcome the new life you call us to. Amen

TO LISTEN LIKE A DISCIPLE

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 23 March 2016   

TO LISTEN LIKE A DISCIPLE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear.” (Isaiah 50:4-9)

Reflection. This servant song speaks of the sufferings the Lord will endure, and how he will set his face “like flint.” But for today the focus settles on Judas and his act of betrayal. We scapegoat Judas and place on him all the evil we imagine we would never do. Yet we are uneasy. There is a bit of Judas in us. The servant is led like a disciple. He learns even by ways of suffering and betrayal. The events of this week are not outside of us. They are our experience and we are called to learn, like a disciple.

Prayer. Lord, may we learn through your Passion to bear all things and never lose our peace and our joy. Amen

HE CONCEALED ME IN HIS QUIVER

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 22 March 2016   

HE CONCEALED ME IN HIS QUIVER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “He made my mouth a sharp sword, and hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow, and concealed me in his quiver.” (Isaiah 40:1-6)

Reflection. Why the emphasis on hiding and concealment in this servant song from Isaiah? The gospels describe the birth of Jesus as an event unnoticed by the world. And here the purpose of the Passion of Jesus is hidden from his contemporaries. God has entered into the human family and now transforms it from within, without fuss or fanfare. It is not seen either then or now except by those with eyes to see. By his total acceptance of what it is to be human he has transformed humanity and that means every single person who reaches out to be fully alive..

Prayer. Lord, through your Passion help us to enter into life in whatever way it comes to meet us. Amen

OR QUENCH THE WAVERING FLAME

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 21 March 2016   

NOR QUENCH THE WAVERING FLAME

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “He does not make his voice heard in the streets. He does not break the crushed reed, nor quench the wavering flame.” (Isaiah 42:1-7)

Reflection. For three days we read the “suffering servant” songs in Isaiah. Jesus suffered. He suffered with us. He suffered in us. He does not disregard the least of our suffering. We may be broken and wavering but he is with us. He transforms each of us and all creation from within. To use a parable from medicine he enables our immune system to work; by freeing us from the “viruses” that would destroy us he opens the way for our real destiny; life with God. Holy Week does not happen “out there. It happens within each one of us if only we allow the “immune” system space to operate.

Prayer. Lord, help us to enter into the sufferings of Jesus as he enters into ours. Amen

ALREADY BUT NOT YET

ALREADY BUT NOT YET

In all four gospels the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding a donkey and hailed by the people with palm branches, is described as an interlude in his life. It is not a glorious triumph when all Israel welcomes their Messiah. In fact he resumes his ministry, with all the mounting opposition surrounding it, as if nothing unusual had happened. Further, the Church has recently tried to change the name of this day from Palm Sunday to Passion Sunday as if to down play the idea of a triumphal entry into the Holy City and focus on the coming tragedy.

Yet it was a defining moment, a marker for the future. The inauguration of the kingdom did not happen on that day; but it was an event that announced the kingdom in a way that people, in time, could recognise. It had just enough of the taste of a Roman triumph, when the emperor entered Rome showing off his spoils of war, including the captives, and boasting of his victories, to whet the appetite of the believer. Here is our emperor, not on a white horse with gold trappings and an entourage of military might, but on a donkey, weak and alone and hailed by people who in a few days would turn against him.   

So the ephemeral palm welcome is a moment that touched hearts then and now. It was a sign people could understand of something they and we cannot fully grasp: the full flowering of the Kingdom of God. Jesus often said that the kingdom “is among you.”  But as we look around today, 2016, we wonder where it is. There is no need here to list the woes we are conscious of. They torment us day by day from the newsroom and from our own experience.

But what is important surely is to see also the signs of the kingdom wherever we look. Hospitals can be soulless places with nurses just “doing their job.” But they can also be invigorating places where kindness and care reign, as I discovered this week where a friend is being treated. There is the kingdom. And when a poor person shares the little they have with someone with nothing there too is the kingdom. Bobby Kennedy, assassinated during his run to become president of the United States nearly forty years ago, once spoke of “ripples of hope”. When we make a courageous move or do an act of kindness we send out these ripples and we do not know what shore they lap against. There is the kingdom.

What Jesus inaugurated by his life, death and resurrection is far from completion. But the seeds and the sprouts are there among us in countless acts by individuals of good will. When Jesus came to Nazareth and, after reading a passage from Isaiah, announced, “this is being fulfilled today even as you listen,” nothing changed there and then. But in fact everything changed. Something new happened that would gather momentum over the centuries. Today we are in the midst of that movement and when Holy Week comes round, year after year, we identify with it anew. One day we will see the completion of that work begun so long ago and we will find something better than palms with which to welcome it.    

20 March 2016                                   Passion (Palm) Sunday C

Luke 19:28-40                        Is. 50:4-7                     Phil 2:6-11                  Luke 22:14-23:56

THE PROMISE DEPENDS ON FAITH

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 19 March 2016, St Joseph   

THE PROMISE DEPENDS ON FAITH

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and all his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness that consists in faith” (Romans 4:13…22)

Reflection. The second Joseph, like the first, was a man of dreams and we can say there were two things: He was a descendant of David and so roots Jesus, his adopted son, in the heart of the Jewish people and of all humanity. But more importantly, he was a son of Abraham, the man of faith who “went out without knowing where he was going.” For Jesus, and later for Paul, faith is the rock on which we build our new life. The old covenant was built on physical descent; the new on faith and Joseph stands as one of the great witnesses to this.

Prayer. Lord, we celebrate the memory of Joseph with joy. Let is too live by faith and fulfil our dreams! Amen

TERROR FROM EVERY SIDE

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 18 March 2016   

TERROR FROM EVERY SIDE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “’Terror from every side!’ Denounce him! Let us denounce him”!’ All those who used to be my friends watch for my downfall.” (Jeremiah 20:10-13)

Reflection. Mark’s account of Gethsemane describes the terror Jesus felt as he approached his passion. We try to enter into what it must have been like. And there was the betrayal, the flight of friends, too to contend with. As we approach Holy Week we take time to enter deeply into what it must have been like. At the same time it is the suffering of people today. The cries of women in Syria as their children die and their husbands disappear. The ache of the homeless in our cities. The trafficked and those enslaved by drugs. The loneliness of the handicapped and the old. There is so much pain.  

Prayer. Lord, may we enter deeply into your pain which is also our pain. Let us weep for ourselves and for our children. May we find healing in you! Amen

ABRAHAM REJOICED TO SEE MY DAY

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 17 March 2016, St Patrick, patron of Ireland   

ABRAHAM REJOICED TO SEE MY DAY

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:51-59)

Reflection. Abraham “saw” the coming of the Messiah in the unusual birth of his son and in the “passion”, “death” and “resurrection” of Isaac. The faith of Abraham is the star guiding the Old Testament to Bethlehem. The Jews cannot see this. One person can have such influence. So it was too with Patrick, credited with planting the faith throughout heathen Ireland in the fifth century. And so it can be with each of us in our way as we live driven by faith in a world that resists change.

Prayer. Lord, may we live by faith as Abraham did  - and as Patrick did. Amen

DESCENDED FROM ABRAHAM

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 16 March 2016   

DESCENDED FROM ABRAHAM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “We are descended from Abraham and we have never been slaves to anyone.” (John 8:31-42)

Reflection. Three times in today’s gospel the Jews take refuge in their descent from Abraham as a way of avoiding facing the question posed by Jesus’ presence among them. His words and his mission demand too much of them. They are like the boy at the window on the first floor of a burning house hesitating while his father below is holding out a blanket and urging him to jump. “I can’t see you,” says the child. “But I can see you,” says the father. Faith is like that and as the tension mounts the Jews cannot make it.

Prayer. Lord, help us to embrace the Passion in whatever way it touches our lives. Help us to recognise it and welcome it. Amen

WHEN YOU HAVE LIFTED UP

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 15 March 2016   

WHEN YOU HAVE LIFTED UP

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.” (John 8:21-30)

Reflection. The Jews ask many questions, ending in, “Who are you?” Though they are not intent on knowing the real answers at least they are asking questions. Mysteriously, Jesus says they will never know the answers until the Son of Man is “lifted up.” They will not be convinced by words. They will be converted by realising the truth of his suffering. Suffering makes us real and, if we can accept it, leads to conversion. As we look at Syria and the peace talks we long for the two sides to open their eyes and hearts.

Prayer. Lord, open our eyes and hearts to see the suffering of the world; and allow it to speak to us and lead us to peace. Amen

YOU DO NOT KNOW ME

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 14 March 2016   

YOU DO NOT KNOW ME

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You do not know me, nor do you know the Father; if you did know me, you would know my Father as well.” (John 8:12-20)

Reflection. As we enter the final week before Holy Week the tension heightens but so does the revelation. John ratchets up the confrontation with the Jews and here he is quite blunt about the gap between their thinking and the reality before them. This tension will mount until it is suddenly he puts the Jews to one side in chapter 13 and turns to the disciples for the five following. It is to them that the fullest revelation is made, but they cannot grasp it now. The Holy Spirit will teach them later.   

Prayer. Lord, in this time we ask for a deeper belief in your divine presence among us and so we will find courage. Amen

UNDER THE NET

UNDER THE NET

Long before the net, as we know it – the seemingly infinite connections we can now make with each other and with knowledge past and present – Iris Murdoch, an English novelist, wrote a book, Under the Net. The idea for the title seems to be that under the complex web of human relationships there is the individual searching for her or his identity or true self. The main character of the book becomes involved in this seemingly never ending but elusive search: “one does make far too many concessions to the need to communicate … All the time I speak to you, even now, I’m saying not precisely what I think, but what will impress you and make you respond. That’s so even between us – and how much more it’s so when there are stronger motives for deception. In fact one’s so used to this one hardly sees it. The whole language is a machine for making falsehoods.” (p 59).

In the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John, chapter 8, we know that “the scribes and Pharisees” used the woman to trap Jesus. Their words show they had zero interest in helping the woman. They were bound up in their complex web of conventions and traditions which served them to support their privileged position in society and they were alert to any threat that would disturb it. But to their chagrin and confusion Jesus cuts a way through all their expectations and compulsive traditions and turns the whole question around, “Which of you has not sinned?” This had happened before when God cut a way though the Red Sea for the Israelites; a metaphor for cutting through all the bonds of culture and tradition, fashion and convention, flattery and deception that bind us and prevent us coming to truth.

When I think of myself, or anyone I know reasonably well, I find we are part of a complex network, caught up in compulsions, expectations and “proper procedures”. We say we are free but we also know we are as conditioned as a rabbit before a leaf of lettuce. We seem to have no choice. Though in our heart we know we are not like the rabbit, in practice we have something in common with it.

Jesus’ compassion for the woman cuts a path through her life. She can rise up and “go on her way and sin no more.” The Paschal Mystery of Holy Week cuts such a path for each of us. We can get out from under the net – both the internet and the personal net I have woven for myself over a lifetime of choices. The closer we come to Jesus in his Passion the clearer our life appears to us. And this clarity opens up a path we can follow “along the way” (Mark 10:52).   

12 March 2016                       Sunday 5C in Lent

Isaiah 43:16-21                       Phil 3:8-14                              John 8:1-11       

THE SCHEMES THEY WERE PLOTTING

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 12 March 2016   

THE SCHEMES THEY WERE PLOTTING

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughter house, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me.” (Jeremiah 11:18-20)

Reflection. Churchill called the first volume of his history of the Second World War, The Gathering Storm, a title that describe these final days of Lent. Indeed it describes countless human situations where people plan schemes for their own benefit that will harm others. A storm can bring destruction but it can also bring much needed rain for the crops and fields. It can cleanse the earth of chaff and the air of dust. The storm that is gathering in the last days of Lent is the “winnowing fan in his hand” to purify the nations “and all humanity will see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3:6,17)  

Prayer. I know – perhaps we all know – a family that is going through a storm that has been “gathering” for some time. I pray for them and for all in like situations. Amen

YOU DO NOT KNOW HIM

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 11 March 2016   

YOU DO NOT KNOW HIM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “There is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him and it was he who sent me.” (John 7:1…30)

Reflection. The Jews earlier had said, “we all know where he comes from” and they were thinking of Galilee. They had him sorted out in their own minds. But John writes on two levels. They have no idea where he really comes from. We continue to “sort out” Jesus and God in that we think we know him. But John is all the time pointing us beyond, to the mystery. There is a gap. And there is a gap in our world between the rich and poor, the haves and the have nots, the comfortable and the migrants who have only the clothes on their back. It is the same gap and we are not much better than the Jews at bridging it. 

Prayer. Lord, do not allow us to be settled and comfortable while our sisters and brothers suffer. Give us hearts to reach out to others. Amen.

YOU STUDY THE SCRIPTURES

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 10 March 2016   

YOU STUDY THE SCRIPTURES

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You study the scriptures, believing that in them you have eternal life; now these same scriptures testify to me, yet you refuse to come to me for life!” (John 531-47)

Reflection. The theme now shifts to a trial scene. Much is made of the trial of Jesus in the Passion. But the whole of John’s gospel is a trial – not of Jesus but of the Jews and, by extension, all human kind. We search the scriptures but we hurry to conclude we understand what they say to us. We make up our mind and come to comfortable conclusions. Yet the tradition hammered out in the Church is to allow the scripture to speak to us; to spend time listening to the word. Something completely unexpected can happen. Some surprise breaks on me; not something frightening but something that totally fits with me, with my life.

Prayer. Lord, may we give time to your word to speak to us, to sink into us and help us understand your gift to us. Amen.

DOES A WOMAN FORGET HER BABY?

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 9 March 2016   

DOES A WOMAN FORGET HER BABY?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the child of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you.” (Isaiah 49:8-15)

Reflection. We are going to read John steadily now until Good Friday; John, whose enduring joy is to show how God came to dwell among us so that we might dwell with him and in him and so have life to the full. There is fierce opposition to God’s invitation but he never wavers, he never turns his back and forgets us. We now walk that road of opposition, seeing it in the Jews while knowing that they represent all humanity which finds it so difficult to accept the gift that is offered. We prefer our own agenda – our own darkness – to the light. That we do this is agonising. But that is what we do.

Prayer. Lord, as we accompany you through the days of mounting hostility give us grace to be strong in our own struggles to welcome you. Amen.

AND THEIR LEAVES MEDICINAL

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 8 March 2016, St John of God who cared for the sick   

AND THEIR LEAVES MEDICINAL

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails … the fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.” (Ezek. 47:1…12)

Reflection. Continuing the joyful anticipation of the Resurrection Ezekiel speaks of the new era in poetry. Water will flow from the sanctuary of the temple in Jerusalem and give life to the dead waters of the Arabah. The new water will provide nourishment and healing and our imagination easily reveals to us that Jesus, risen and present in our world, sends his Spirit to give life to all sorts of human efforts and brings healing to all who search. Syria and the migrant crisis show people of good will striving to find solutions while still wanting to balance their generosity with securing their own interests.

Prayer. Lord, we ask you to open our hearts to the life and the healing you desire to give us through the Paschal Mystery we celebrate. Amen.

I SHALL EXULT IN MY PEOPLE

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 7 March 2016   

I SHALL EXULT IN MY PEOPLE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever for what I am creating … I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult in my people.” (Isaiah.65:17-21)

Reflection. We have noted many themes in Lent that presage the Paschal Mystery of Holy Week. We have seen readings around the theme of decision followed by calls for prayer and self-denial. More recently the themes have been on repentance and mercy introducing us to the Passion. Now, in week four, we come to a glimpse of the joy of the Resurrection. All the struggles and sufferings of humanity are taken up in the triumph of the cross when the meaning of history is revealed and God rejoices in his creation.

Prayer. Lord, may we have our eyes glued to the mystery you are revealing and see the events of our life in this light. Amen.

THIS AGE OF DISCOVERY

THIS AGE OF DISCOVERY

I forget the details but some days ago I heard a radio programme on a new medical discovery by a group of researchers. They were thrilled; they had pulled pack the veil on the mysteries of life a little more. When the people of Israel tasted the produce of the promised land for the first time they too had an ecstatic moment. When the people of South Africa looked each other in the eye in 1994 after years, centuries, of hostility, it was one such moment.

One of the most beautiful human experiences is to discover. I can think of examples in my own life; one was the day I met people living with disabilities for the first time. Up till then I saw them as “problems” for society to deal with – which normally meant locking them away somewhere out of sight. Then that day I met them as people and realised they were just like me in desires and needs – most of all the need for love, for relationship.

One of the best known of Jesus’ stories in the gospel is of the son who was a wastrel. He wanted a good time and he wanted it now. He had no thought for the future. His father respected his choice, his freedom, and the son spends all his money and then everything falls apart. But he has one great saving quality: he listens to that inner voice we call conscience.

He “came to his senses” and decided to go back to his father and confess he had messed up everything and would now forego his position as a son and settle for being a worker on the farm. Well, we know the father’s reaction. He was an incredible father. Far from berating his son and saying, “I told so, but you wouldn’t listen”, he welcomes him with joy and has a feast, a celebration.

We have to pinch ourselves to recognise how astonishing this reaction of the father was. But we have to also recognise the effect on the son. He literally became a new person – and a much better person than he was before. He had discovered something; the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness opened his eyes, freed him from his selfishness and set him on a new path. That day he danced more than any one at the party.

Forgiveness is such an unconditional thing that it is hard to accept it. Surely there should be judgement and punishment. The son’s elder brother thought so. He was scandalised by his father’s attitude but he could not dent his father’s joy: “he was lost and is found; he was dead and now he is alive!” This “discovery” is something to rejoice over. For those who experience it there is a whole new world.

At the beginning of Mark, chapter 2, Jesus astonishes people by curing a paralytic. But it is as clear as daylight that this is not his main purpose. His first words were, “your sins are forgiven.” The result of these words were hidden; those of the cure were manifest. But for Jesus the cure was only a sign. What really mattered was the new life brought by forgiveness.

As we approach the climax of Lent we realise this is the key to all Jesus said and did.

6 March 2016                         Lent Sunday 4 C

Joshua 5:9-12                         2 Cor. 5:17-21                        Luke 15:1-3, 11-32    

WHAT I WANT IS LOVE

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 5 March 2016   

WHAT I WANT IS LOVE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.” (Hos. 5:15-6:6)

Reflection. This reading from Hosea goes together today with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke18:9). They go to the heart of the matter, It is not so much what I do or have done – all my achievements – but have I loved? Have I loved with a love that goes beyond “kith and kin” to reach out to people who are on the margins: people who may have no one to turn to. The influx of migrants to Europe is a huge test. But there are tests of the genuineness of our love closer to home. They are harder to notice and easier to avoid.

Prayer. Lord, teach me the way of love. Amen.