Reflections
12 October 2011
From scripture…
For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:4-6
For reflection…
If you’ve never run away from God, I wonder who your God is? Paul Tillich
19 October 2011
Gospel
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40
For prayer and reflection…
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. Victor Frankl
26 October 2011
Gospel
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach”. Matthew 23:1-3
For prayer and reflection…
Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one. George Fox, 1656
2 November 2011
Gospel
Keep awake. Matthew 25:13a
For prayer and reflection…
May you awaken to the mystery of being here and
enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift and
find the courage to follow its path.
(Eternal Echoes, John O’Donohue)
8 November 2011
Gospel
… so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Matthew 25:25
For prayer and reflection…
Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life you are slowly turning this central thing into either a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature. C S Lewis
16 November 2011
Gospel
‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ Matthew 25:37-39
For reflection…
There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a hidden wholeness. … There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness, and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being. John Howard Griffin ‘A Hidden Wholeness. The Visual World of Thomas Merton’
23 November 2011
Gospel
Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. Mark 13:33
For reflection…
We are responsible for most of our own blindness and deafness. Yet the spirit of God goes on renewing the gift. John V Taylor ‘A Matter of Life and Death’
30 November 2011
Gospel
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Mark 1:3b
For reflection…
Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Trust them as the leading of God…
Religious Society of Friends: Advice and Query # 1
7 December 2011
Our Scriptures…
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
For prayer and reflection…
May we rejoice always, may we pray without ceasing, may we give thanks in all circumstances…for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us all.
8 February 2012
Gospel
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.
For prayer and reflection…
I found that everything stirred me with a deep and mute sense of compassion, perhaps some of the people we saw going about the streets were hard and tough - but I did not observe it because I seemed to have lost an eye for merely exterior detail and to have discovered, instead, a deep sense of respect and love. Thomas Merton, on seeing people on the streets of Louisville in 1948