ASTONISHMENT SEIZED THEM

PRAYER MOMENT  

Tuesday 1 September 2015

ASTONISHMENT SEIZED THEM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Be quiet! Come out of him!” And the evil spirit throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, “What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.” (Luke 4:31-37)

Reflection. Each gospel writer describes the amazement of the people when Jesus begins his work. We are now reading Luke and for him astonishment is a recurring theme: at the end, after Jesus had risen, the disciples in the upper room “stood there dumbfounded.” This emphasis helps us grasp how new, bewildering and “stretching” the arrival of Jesus really was. The evil spirits knew immediately who he was and, since they had such clear knowledge, it is puzzling why they did not give up immediately instead of continueing to torment humanity up to this day. But for men and women of every age there is this astonishing realisation of whole new possibilities, unimagined before, of what we can be and what we are called to.

Prayer. Lord, help us too to be astonished at your presence and fill us with joy and confidence for the future. Amen.

FIVE OF THEM WERE WISE

PRAYER MOMENT  

Friday 28 August 2015, St Augustine

FIVE OF THEM WERE WISE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The kingdom of heaven will be like this; ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.” (Matt.23:1-13)

Reflection. How does this story of the ten wise young women touch me? Jesus does not give flat dry explanations.He tells a story with multiple layers of meaning which each of us can relish in our own way. This story is about attentivenss. We celebrate Augustine of Hippo today who died in 430 as the Vandal invaders surrounded his city. He had spent his early life searching for the truth and his later life teaching it to others. He was deeply attentive to the culture in which he grew, wandering from his childhood faith and then coming back to it with an intensity that lit up succeeding centuries. Pope Benedict is perhaps one of his most renowned recent devotees.

Prayer. Lord, help us to be attentive to the movements of culture and faith than are part of our world to day. We pray that we do not grow weary and let our lamps go out. Rather may we always be in our own way a light for the world. Amen.

NOW WE CAN BREATHE AGAIN

PRAYER MOMENT  

Thursday 27 August 2015, St Monica

NOW WE CAN BREATHE AGAIN

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Brothers, your faith has been a great comfort to us in the middle of our own troubles and sorrows; now we can breathe again as you are still holding firm in the Lord.” (1 Thess 3:7-13)

Reflection. Paul finds encouragement when he realises the faith of the young church in Thessalonika which has remained faithful to the message he preached to them. Augustine rejoiced in his moment of conversion when he realised the persistence of his mother Monica in holding him in her heart and prayer during the years of his wandering. From time to time I find myself trying to comfort a parent whose child has become difficult. And I often use the example of the faithful love of Monica. The faith of others strengthens us and our own faith strengthens others. We are linked in that one journey. The full inderstanding of what we are for others is hidden from us except that we know for certain we do not exist in isolation. We live in relationship as the Trinity does. 

Prayer. Lord, help us to strengthen one another in our faith. We are a “communion of saints” and bound to each other. Help us to live that community. Amen.

A LIVING POWER

PRAYER MOMENT  

Wednesday 26 August 2015

A LIVING POWER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “We thank God for you  because you heard the message  we brought to you as God’s message and not some human thinking; and it is still a living power among you who believe it.” (1 Thess 2:9-13)

Reflection. Luther was right in reminding the Church how easily we slip back into “human thinking.” We devise ways and rules, safe formulas and traditions. And we end up with a new version of the ancient “law”. When the Second Vatican Council was in its opening session, the organisers panicked when the assembld bishops threw out the carefully crafted agenda. They appealed to Pope John to intervene but the old man simply smiled and told them to “trust the bishops!” We too are called to trust the “living power” that we are given by Jesus in our baptism. Each day, each moment we are to live by that power.    

Prayer. Lord, help us to live by the power you give us in the Spirit. Help us to discover what this “daily bread” you give means for me in my daily life. Amen.

JUSTICE, MERCY ABD GOOD FAITH

PRAYER MOMENT  

Tuesday 25 August 2015

JUSTICE, MERCY ABD GOOD FAITH

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You have neglected the weightier matter s of the law – justice. Mercy, good faith!” (Matthew 23:23-26)

Reflection. This is the passage in Matthew where Jesus indicts the Pharisees for concentrating on protocol and the formalities of law while turning a blind eye to the purpose of the law which was to build a just and compassionate society. He is angry. He sees how leaders can thwart the plan of God and deny the people the freedom, justice and mercy that God always intended as marks of human relationships. And we know that, as he looks at our society today, he finds us still avoiding these “weightier matters.” Mercy is the key element in Pope Francis’ ministry. It can break down barriers and build community almost overnight.

Prayer. Lord, help us to be compassionate and forgiving today! Help us to break down the barriers between us. Amen.

HOW DO YOU KNOW ME?

PRAYER MOMENT  

Monday 24 August 2015, St Bartholomew, aka Nathanael

HOW DO YOU KNOW ME?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.” How do you know me?” said Nathanarel. “Before Philip came to call you,” said Jesus, “I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” (John 1:45-51)

Reflection. This brief sound bite astonishes us. How did Jesus know him? And why did Jesus’ words have such an immediate and powerful effect on him? We don’t have precise answers other than the ones given by the whole thrust of John’s gospel. Jesus knows the Father and came so that he might reveal him to men and women; and he knows his own and his own know him. Fig tree or no fig tree, Jesus knew Nathanael through and through, as he knows each one of us. And it is a knowledge framed in love. Nathanael senses this and makes a confession that reappears several times in the gospel – with the woman by the well, Peter at the end of chapter six, the man born blind and Mary of Magdala.  

Prayer. Lord, you know me, “you know my rising and my lying down.”  Help me so that I may know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly. Amen.

DOES THIS UPSET YOU?

DOES THIS UPSET YOU?

A priest fixed up a run down church in New York and looked forward to welcoming the members for the celebration of Christmas. But a few days before a huge storm intervened and a wall partly collapsed. He was very upset. What could he do? He visited a second hand shop and saw a large decorated table cloth for sale. He bought it and found it provided just the right size temporary cover for the gash in the wall.

As he was locking up on Christmas night it was raining and he saw a woman, a stranger, trying to shelter near the church. He invited her in to wait while the rain eased. She entered and sat down and looked around. Then she saw the cloth. She asked to look at it more closely. Did it have the initials MDG stitched into a corner? It did. She told the priest this was the cloth she made for her husband in pre-war Austria and that it had disappeared with everything else – including her husband – when the Nazis invaded. The rain got heavier and the priest offered to drive her home.

On New Year’s Day there was Mass in the church and after it was over the priest saw a man sitting weeping silently. He went up to him and asked what was the matter? The man pointed to the cloth and said that years ago before he left Europe he had been married and his wife had made just such a cloth for him but she had disappeared in the war. The priest remembered where he had driven the woman and made a second journey there, this time with the man.

There is an Irish proverb that goes; ‘There was never a door shut but there was another opened.’ Something that upsets us can also be something that will soon delight us. When Jesus went deeper into the gift of life that God is offering and spoke of the “bread of life” as his body, the disciples got upset, “This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?” they said and then they left him. Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them, “What about you, do you want to go away too?” They must have felt devastated, seeing everyone disappear. They too must have been upset and tempted to follow them.

But they found within themselves some hidden depth which said, ‘I don’t understand but I am not giving up now.’ They were upset but they were prepared to wait for the clouds to lift. Deep down, they knew that something would happen soon. What it would be, they had no idea. When the time came for them to realise they were “filled with joy” (John 20:20).     

23 August 2015                                  Sunday 21 B

Joshua 24:1…18                                 Ephesians 5:21-32                              John 6:60-69