OF COURSE I WANT TO

PRAYER MOMENT Friday 9 January 2015 OF COURSE I WANT TO Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within. Reading: “A man covered in leprosy implored Jesus, ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretchd out his hand, touched him and said ‘of course I want to. Be cured!’” (Luke 5:12-16) Reflection. This whole period, from Advent through Christmas, is the introductory revelation of who Jesus was and what he came to do. It will be completed in Holy Week. I am in Preston, in the UK, and the Christmas lights are still on in the High St. They too are a revelation but possibly a remote and vague one to busy shoppers. We are thrown, so soon after Christmas, into the busy life of Jesus and the exerpt today ends with, ‘he would always go off to some place where he could be alone and pray.’ As we return to the full engagements of normal life in a new year we seek for a sharpened sense of the revelation of God. And times where we can be alone, in our mind and hearts, help us do this. Prayer. Lord, we believe ‘you want to’ give us life to the full. Help us to withdraw at times to dispose ourselves to receive that life. Amen. David Harold-Barry SJ

PRAYER MOMENT Wednesday 7 January 2015 THEIR MINDS WERE CLOSED Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within. Reading: “They were utterly and completely dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.” (Mark 6:45-52) Reflection. Gerry Hughes, who died aged 90 just before Christmas, was an author and spiritual guide and in the book I am reaing, God where are you?, he says more than once, ‘it took me twenty years to understand the meaning of this.’ He was referring to one or other insight he picked up along the way. The disciples too took ages to grasp who Jesus was and what he was doing. ‘They were utterly dumfounded’ were the exact word that Luke uses of them after the resurrection. The great thing is we do have the time to understand but we do need to keep hammering at the door so that our minds are opened. Prayer. Lord, let us not be satisfied with easy answers and ways; help us to ponder in our hearts the mysteries revealed in the scriptures and come to a deeper knowledge of you. Amen. David Harold-Barry SJ

SQUARES OF HUNDREDS AND FIFTIES

PRAYER MOMENT Tuesday 6 January 2015 SQUARES OF HUNDREDS AND FIFTIES Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within. Reading: “Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifies.” (Mark 6:34-44) Reflection. Five loaves, two fish, groups of hundreds and fifties, twelve baskets and five thousand men. It is all very precise and makes one wonder seeing it was written down nearly forty years later. Yet planning and details are expressions of faith, hope and love. Our first reading today is about love; ‘let us love one another’ (1 John 4). And love is seen in action and fruitful action calls for deailed planning. It makes all the difference when we set about projects. And planning is an expression of hope because we don’t know how things will work out but it they are well planned they have a good chance of success. And faith is the whole ambience in which we take the plunge in the first place. Prayer. Lord, help us to show our hope and love in practical planning and action so you’re your reign may be revealed. Amen. David Harold-Barry SJ

Seeing only the wallpaper

Seeing only the wallpaper

‘A hard journey we had of it; the worst time of the year.’ T. S. Eliot describes the journey of the Magi and the journey of all of us towards knowledge. We make many false turnings and have a ‘hard time’ really getting to know another person. Even John the Baptist struggled to ‘know’ Jesus. Twice, in so many sentences, he says ‘I did not know him.’ It was a journey for him too.

What is it to ‘know someone’? We can be like people who see the wall paper but not the wall. Wall paper is out of fashion but there was a time when people covered their walls in colourful designs of paper. Growing up I was sometimes reminded how, aged two, I made short work of an aunt’s favourite wall paper. Wall paper is what you see and admire but without the wall behind it would look a little silly.

When we see a disabled person we see the disability. We sympathise with the wife or husband who now has to care for their spouse who has Alzheimer’s or cancer. We knew the person before they were struck by this infirmity but we now find it difficult to spend time with them now that they are diminished and are ‘no longer the person I knew.’ But, of course, they are the same person. It is just that I have a problem making the journey to where they are now.

Perhaps it is even more difficult with someone who has always been disabled, physically or intellectually. Again, I see the disability and I find it hard to move beyond that to the person. Prudence is a young man in our l’Arche community in Zimbabwe who is disabled in mind and body. He is unable to ‘do’ anything. He just is. If you try to spend time with Prudence you will notice an amazing peace. I do not know for sure but he seems to accept every moment just as it is. He has no future and no past. He is just there teaching patience and calmness to anyone who pays attention.

The journey to know people is the journey to know God. It is the same journey. John is clear about this. ‘How can you say you love God whom you cannot see when you ignore those around you whom you can see?’ That’s the journey. And we need the wisdom of the wise men from the east to make it.

4 January 2015                        The Epiphany

Isaiah 60:1-6                           Ephesians 3:2-6                       Matthew 2;1-12    

    

I DID NOT KNOW HIM

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 3 January 2015

I DID NOT KNOW HIM

             

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I did not know him myself and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came.” (John 1:29-34)

Reflection. It may strike us as odd that within the space of few lines John says twice, ‘I did not know him myself.’ Maybe we can say he knew him as his cousin. They probably often met at each other’s homes. But John did not grasp who he was. And this is one of John, the evangelist’s, themes: how do we come to know Jesus. It has to be in the same way John, his cousin, came to know him – through a gift which we call faith. The New Testament is clear about this. All the disciples grew into faith, including Mary. That dawning of faith ‘like the dewfall’ is available to all people if they are introduced to it by parents, teachers, books, or experiences. There are many who ‘do not know him.’ Those of us who say we know him are called, like John, to make him known by how we live.

Prayer. Lord, help us to make you known by the witness of our lives. May we be ‘the salt of the earth’ for others. Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ

AMONG YOU – UNKNOWN TO YOU

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 2 January 2015

AMONG YOU – UNKNOWN TO YOU

             

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “There stands among you  - unknown to you the one who is coming after me; and I am unfit to undo his sandal-strap.” (John 1:19-28)

Reflection. Before Christmas we had Matthew and Luke introducing Jesus to us. Now we have John’a version. Here both John the Baptist and Jesus are already adults and the dominant theme is John the Baptist’s withdrawal. Even his words diminish. To the threefold question of the Pharisees he replies, ‘I am not the Christ.’ ‘I am not.’  ‘No.’ The Lord is ‘among us’ in this New Year and always but he is often ‘unknown’ to us and our ‘whizzing’ society, as john Bradburne used to call it. The challenge for us is to withdraw and allow God to come forward into our space.

Prayer. Lord, help us to welcome you into our life in this new year. Help us to go beyond the clutter and ‘know’ your presence. Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ

MAY HIS FACE SHINE ON YOU

PRAYER MOMENT 

Thursday 1 January 2015

MAY HIS FACE SHINE ON YOU

             

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.” (Numbers 6:22-27)

Reflection. This is a beautiful ancient Jewish blessing. And we know that to be looked at with love is life giving. The name Cardinal Bea might mean little now but he was a great man and once came to our college when we were juniors and he looked at me with gentle encouraging eyes. I have never forgotten it. Jesus looked at Zacchaeus in his tree and Peter after he denied him with such eyes. This is the blessing for the New Year for all of us. May the Lord shine his face on us.

Prayer. Lord, shine your face on us and give us courage in 2015 to engage in acts of justice and peace wherever we are in your world. Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ