SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS

PRAYER PAUSE 

Friday 9 September 2016, Peter Claver

SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Although I am free in regard to all I have made myself a slave in regard to all.” (1 Cor. 9:16-19)

Reflection. Servus servorum. ‘The servant of the servants of God’ is one of the titles of Pope Francis. He dedicates his day to serve the people of God. But the Latin words can also mean ‘slave of the slaves’ and it was so applied by Peter Claver, a seventeenth century Spanish Jesuit priest, to his work among the thousands forcibly transported across the Atlantic from Africa to work in Latin America. Criticised, as St Teresa of Calcutta is today, for not speaking out about the causes of injustice, he, like her, saw the immediate need to ‘do something’ about people caught up in excruciating suffering and concentrated on that.

Prayer. Lord Jesus, make us sensitive to the immediate needs of others and let us not be diverted by abstract solutions. Amen