Reflections
15 February 2012
Gospel
Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Mark 9:7
For prayer and reflection…
Uncrowd my heart, O God.
until silence speaks
in your still, small, voice;
turn me from the hearing of words,
and the making of words,
and the confusion of much speaking,
to listening,
waiting,
stillness,
silence.
Esther de Waal ‘Lost in Wonder’, p.42
22 February 2012
Gospel
…the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Mark 1:12-13
For prayer and reflection…as we move into the season of Lent…
It is important to remember that the word 'Lent' itself comes from the old English word for 'spring'. It's not about feeling gloomy for forty days; it's not about making yourself miserable for forty days; it's not even about giving things up for forty days. Lent is springtime. It's preparing for that great climax of springtime which is Easter – new life bursting through death. And as we prepare ourselves for Easter during these days, by prayer and by self-denial, what motivates us and what fills the horizon is not self-denial as an end in itself but trying to sweep and clean the room of our own minds and hearts so that the new life really may have room to come in and take over and transform us at Easter. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, Easter Message, 2009, http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2213
See also the Ecumenical Lenten Resource www.sacc.asn.au
7 March 2012
Our Scriptures
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25
For prayer and reflection…
When we are anxious we are inclined to overprepare. We wonder what to say when we are attacked, how to respond when we are being interrogated, and what defence to put up when we are accused. It is precisely this turmoil that makes us lose our self-confidence and creates in us a debilitating self-consciousness.
Jesus tells us not to prepare at all and to trust that he will give us the words and wisdom we need. What is important is not that we have a little speech ready but that we remain deeply anchored in the love of Jesus, secure about who we are in this world and why we are here. With our hearts connected to the heart of Jesus, we will always know what to say when the time to speak comes. Henri Nouwen
14 March 2012
Scripture
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… Ephesians 2:4-5
For prayer and reflection…
But the great thing is that God gives us so many opportunities of responding to his ever-present love. To be able to come through, or be carried through, the Gethsemane of things which make what was once seemingly impossible, possible, is part of the gist of what it means to be a sharer in what Resurrection means. It’s the end of promoting the phony self and the shallow living out of half a life - it’s about a new sort of space to grow in. John Michael Hanvey ‘Prayed Out’
21 March 2012
Gospel
…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:24-25
For prayer and reflection…
We fear nothingness. That’s why we fear death, of course, which feels like nothingness. Death is the shocking realization that everything I thought was me, everything I held onto so desperately, was finally nothing.
The nothingness we fear so much is, in fact, the treasure and freedom that we long for, which is revealed in the joy and glory of the Risen Christ. We long for the space where there is nothing to prove and nothing to protect; where I am who I am, in the mind and heart of God, and that is more than enough. Richard Rohr, adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations
28 March 2012
Gospel: Voices from Mark 14:1 - 15:47
“Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”
“Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
“Could you not keep awake one hour?”
All of them deserted him and fled.
But he denied it, saying, “I do not know or understand what you are talking about.”
But again he denied it.
But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know this man you are talking about.”
And he broke down and wept.
“Crucify him!”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last…
For prayer and reflection…
My back is turned to him, I have been told that he forgives me, but I will not turn and have the forgiveness, even though I feel the eyes on my back. But God does not give up: for he takes my head between his hands and turns my face to make me smile at him.
He has taken a pair of human hands with which to turn our stiff-necked heads, and bring our eyebeams into line with his own. Austin Farrer
11 April 2012
Gospel
Peace be with you…
Peace be with you…
Peace be with you…
John 20:19-31
For prayer and reflection
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. Dag Hammarskjöld
18 April 2012
Gospel
Jesus said, “You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24: 48-49
Prayer
Father,
we see in Jesus Christ
your love and
compassion for the
whole world.
By your Holy Spirit
renew and empower us
to witness to the world,
that all may know your
life and love. Amen
The Willochran (Anglican Diocese of Willochra) http://www.diowillochra.org.au/Diowillochran/April%202012%20(2132KB.pdf
24 April 2012
Gospel
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11
For reflection…
Our real journey in life is interior;
it is a matter of growth,
deepening,
and of even greater surrender
to the creative action
of love and grace in our hearts.
Thomas Merton
1 May 2012
Gospel
Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5
For prayer and reflection
Ronal Rolheiser describes some of the faith struggles we face in these days…
The struggle to live, love, and forgive beyond the infectious ideologies that we daily inhale, that is, the struggle for true sincerity, to genuinely know and follow our own hearts and minds beyond what is prescribed to us by the right and the left ... the struggle to be neither liberal or conservative but rather men and women of true compassion.
The struggle to link faith to justice ... the struggle to get a letter of reference from the poor, to institutionally connect the gospel to the streets, to remain on the side of the poor.
http://www.ronrolheiser.com/columnarchive/?id=894