Will be away for 4 days out of range of internet from 1 Aug. DHB

THE MIND OF CHRIST JESUS

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 31 July 2013

THE MIND OF CHRIST JESUS

Pause. Be still in the presence of God.

Reading. “Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Phil 2:1-18)

Reflection. Ignatius of Loyola, whose feast we keep today, shifted his thinking from gaining fame in the service of the king of Spain, to totally giving himself to the service of Jesus. But even then, at first, he had his own ideas what this might mean. He had to come to a second conversion when he left for ever his own plans and welded himself to the divine plan, just as Jesus himself did in the Garden of Gethsemane. And it was not just in the big issues but even in the smallest events of the day he set himself to “find God in all things.”

Prayer. Lord, on this day when we find ourselves in the midst of a charged election in Zimbabwe, teach us to have your mind and the see things through your eyes. Lead us to the peace and unity that you offer. Amen.

A GOD OF TENDERNESS AND COMPASSION

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 30 July 2013

A GOD OF TENDERNESS AND COMPASSION

Pause. Be still.

Reading. “A God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness, forgives faults, transgression, sin.” (Exod 33:7-11, 34:5-9,28)

Reflection. This description, found in the account of the intimate “face to face” meeting of God and Moses in the Book of Exodus, is consistent with the picture of  Jesus we have from the gospels. God allows the weed and the good seed to grow together. It is impossible to separate them as they grow and it is impossible for us to fully sort out motivations or the motivations of others for what they or we do. So often it is my kingdom that I seek when I do something good. God looks at us with the tenderness of a mother and with deep compassion and love..

Prayer. Teach me, Lord, to have a heart of compassion for others and also for myself. Give me the wisdom to understand your tenderness despite the often harsh realities of daily life. Amen.

I AM THE RESURRECTION

PRAYER MOMENT

Monday 29 July 2013

I AM THE RESURRECTION

Pause. Allow yourself to enter the quietness within.

Reading. “I am the resurrection. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live.” (John 11:19-27)

Reflection. We owe it to Martha’s, whose feast we keep today, conversation with Jesus that we have these words that are remembered at funerals. “I am the life.” First, the words “I am” are those used to Moses when God reveals his name in the desert. And then the word “life” recapitulates in one word the whole revelation. The context is Martha’s sorrow at the death of her brother Lazarus and a gentle complaint that Jesus didn’t do something to prevent it. The message is Jesus himself gives life and “to the full.”.

Prayer. Almighty Father, we live in charged times, times that give us hope but also are pervaded by dread. Teach us to have confidence that you are at work in everything drawing life out of every situation  because you love us and have sent your Son to lead us along the way of life. Amen.

Why do the innocent suffer?

Why do the innocent suffer?

Must the good suffer because of the wicked? Every time we open a newspaper we face this question. Those who work for peace in Syria say the problem could have been resolved in a few days after it first erupted but those in power refused. Two years later, after tens of thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have become refugees, a solution is further away than ever. Innocent children and their mothers crowd the cardboard camps of nearby Jordan.

It is an old question and three thousand years ago, in the same part of the world, Abraham bargained with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Are you really going to destroy the upright with the guilty? Suppose there are fifty upright people in the city” (Gen 18). It is an amazing almost playful passage where Abraham whittles down the number from fifty to ten and still God agrees, “I will not destroy the city if there are ten good people in it.” Clearly not even ten could be found and the cities were destroyed.

Centuries later the same happened to Jerusalem itself. Jeremiah reported that not even “one individual who does right “could be found in the city” (5:1). It was a grim statistic and the city was destroyed. But it prepares us for what Paul tells us: that Jesus himself was the one just man who was found in the city: “one man’s good act has brought justification and life to all humanity” (Rom 5:18).

Paul goes on to offer his answer to the question about the suffering of the innocent which weighs us down every time we switch on the television. The innocent do suffer and we are more and more aware of how much pain and injustice there is in our world. We cannot anaesthetise their sufferings by saying that Jesus, innocent that he was, also suffered and that he has set down a marker which says suffering no longer has the power to destroy. It is ultimately a gateway to life. I believe this. But not everyone does and it cannot make me indifferent to what I see around me. It is true it will all come right in the end as the fourteenth century mystic, Julian of Norwich, wrote “all will be well and all manner of things will be well.” But we cannot sit on our hands in the face of suffering in the meantime.

Combined with the hope that Paul and Julian describe there is the need on our part to do everything we can to combat suffering. And the same TV tells us how much is being attempted. The call is for us all to reach out; to ask, to seek and to knock (Luke 11:1-13).

28 July 2013                Sunday 17 C

Gen 18:20-32              Col 2:12-24                 Luke 11:1-13

WEEDS IN THE WHEAT

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 27 July 2013

WEEDS IN THE WHEAT

Pause. Pause to enter into  the silence within.

Reading. “While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed darnel all among the wheat.” (Matt 13:24-30)

Reflection. A fundamentalist is someone who wants everything neat. There is no room for grey areas. In Egypt today there are people like that while there are others who say we want an open society where all will be included: it will be messy but it will be free. God clearly prefers messiness. Caravaggio (1571-1610) painted some of the most beautiful pictures ever. But he also murdered someone. One of the last books of the renowned Cardinal Basil Hume was entitled Basil in Blunderland. Frankly we all blunder along. We make mistakes every day and yet we also get lots of things right.

Prayer. Lord, help me to be patient with myself. When I fail it is not a disaster. You have a way of making our failures fruitful for your purposes. My impatience with my failures is a sort of pride. Teach me the gentleness to find you in everything. Amen.

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 26 July 2013

LET US PRAISE ILLUSTRIOUS PEOPLE

Pause. Pause to enter into stillness.

Reading. “Let us praise illustrious people, our ancestors in their successive generations.” (Sir 44:1, 10-15)

Reflection. We do not think much about our ancestors: all those who came before us and fashioned the world we now inhabit. We have built on their achievements. Without them we would be on ground zero. The Church has a curious feast celebrating the granny and granddad of Jesus to whom she has given the names Joachim and Anne. It is a moment to celebrate our own grandparents and all who have gone before us. Important as we individually are we are also simply one person in a vast tapestry, a great community, of God’s people, inheritors and creators of the Kingdom of God which in concrete form is the earth we see and touch but which far transcends it.

Prayer. Lord, help me to rejoice in the world you have given me and all of us. Teach me to reverence the days and hours you have given me. Work with me to contribute to a world that is ever groaning in the pain of giving birth. Amen.