What draws our attention

 Our attention can easily be swayed by memories of what has happened to us in the past, events that seem to be unfolding before our eyes, or the future that we hope for and pursue. What can elude us is how to be present in the moment without becoming trapped in a particular way of being. This can be so easy when we feel pressured by outside influences that seem to be beyond our control. There is the illusion that the urgent takes priority over the important, and we find ourselves overwhelmed. As we see Lent drawing to a close, this allows us to reevaluate what, or rather who, gives direction and purpose to our lives.

This means that we need to examine the past not to relive it but rather learn from how it has formed us into the person we are today. There can often be the temptation to wonder what would have happened if we had made different choices and how our lives may have unfolded. This pondering can produce a whole mixture of emotions, thoughts and memories. Yet, as Isaiah notes, learning to discover what sustains us and brings us life is important. This allows us to notice how we see the maps we have travelled and how we have arrived at who we are today.

At the moment, we can become aware of our own shortcomings. This can cause us to feel exposed and vulnerable when people notice our weaknesses and behaviour. This fear of being exposed to the opinion of others can cause us to withdraw from public view. The guilt and shame that can often hang over us like a dark cloud need to be viewed with the eyes of Jesus. He sees to the heart of our lives and our need for healing. He sees that each person needs to encounter the person of Jesus, who does not condemn us. In the sacrament of penance, we discover a God who can walk with us even when we feel heavily burdened.

This victory over sin and death helps us discover that Jesus does not abandon us to our own devices. He encourages us to keep pursuing the prize of eternal life. This is about looking towards a distant future and running with Jesus. We are called to discover God's pleasure when we notice the wind blowing through our hair. God encounters us daily in ways that nourish us and sustain us with hope. 

Being an Ambassador for Christ

 This is at the heart of our Lenten journey, and we seek to continue proclaiming God's work. This is the work of reconciliation, where we seek not to identify our faults but rather the desire to be reconciled with God. This is contained within the proclamation of St Paul to the Corinthians, where he states, "For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God (2 Corinthians 5.21). " This statement deserves to broaden our understanding of the radical nature of the incarnation. God seeks to transform our inner nature from an addiction to sin into a life that proclaims the goodness of God.

In the parable of the prodigal son, we discover a God who seeks us out even when we become distracted from the central mission of our life or become resistant to a life-giving relationship with God. He confronts both of his sons' ability to distance themselves from God. Both seek to inherit the goodness of God's creation for their own benefit. The younger son aims to take possession of this goodness to support him in his own lifestyle that distances him from God by indulging in behaviours that focus solely on his own pleasure. The older son seeks to take possession of the goodness of God by keeping the rules, but centres on what he is doing rather than the relationship with the Father. Yet we notice that God does not judge either of them but seeks to go out to meet them along the way. God provides and invitation to the feast of reconciliation. 

In our Eucharist, we discover bread for the journey. God will provide what is necessary to draw us into a life-giving relationship. At the heart of our journey, we are called to be reconciled, healed and nourished by God. When we adopt this sacramental way of life, we discover a God who meets and welcomes us home. God seeks to liberate us from the culture of death that focuses solely on our own needs. God presents a culture of life that proclaims the goodness of God to the whole of creation.

Where is our promised land?

 As we enter the midpoint of Lent, our minds and hearts can start to focus on what happens at Easter. A longing that yearns for something to celebrate in the desert arises within us. These noon-day devils can cause us to lose focus and wonder what is over the horizon, just out of reach. St. Paul reflects on this in the letter to the Corinthians when he noticed that our thirst and hunger can make us consume things that will not lead to our overall spiritual health. In particular, he warns about the spirit that complains about not being satisfied with the good things that God provides. 

In the burning bush, Moses starts to recognise that he is standing on holy ground. He encounters God in a new and unexpected way. This revelation is not solely for his good but also to help others journey with him. Similarly, Lent is never just about our own needs but how we accompany each other towards a future that can not be possessed, but that frees us to trust God more deeply.

This calls us to allow us to draw from the waters of life that are not simply to be refreshed for ourselves but to produce good fruit born by the spirit. As we enter into this midway point, let us encourage each other to seek God, who accompanies us even when we face the greatest challenges or the driest parts of our lives.

Knowing the unknown

 Half of our life is learning how to live and adapt to the vagaries of life. The second half of life is unlearning what we believe we already know. This can be deeply challenging because there is an inner desire to be authentic and genuine in how we interact with the world, God, and ourselves. Yet, as we grow older, we start to notice our inconsistencies, incompleteness and half-heartedness. There can be a longing to discover what will make us whole and holy.

In the Mountain of the Transfiguration, this story plays out with Jesus accompanied by Peter, James and John. Just at the point where Jesus encounters Moses and Elijah, it is as though Peter finally grasps who Jesus is as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. He gains an inner insight that wants to capture the moment by building three tents. He wants to be able to return to this truth that helps him discover that the divine life seeks to engage with our humanity. Yet, at the very moment of realisation, the disciples are covered by a dark cloud that hinders their vision and all their senses. They are deeply afraid that they can no longer see or touch Jesus. All they hear is the voice of God echoing the words spoken at the Baptism in the Jordan, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him."

This is often how we enter into Lent, where we are called to enter into the cloud of unknowing, where Jesus is obscured from us so that we can clearly hear his voice free from attachments. This can disturb us to be known even in our darkest nights when we surrender everything to God. Our listening transforms us and allows us to notice how we are changed from the inside out. It allows us to conform to Christ, who fills the spaces that make us more fully human and alive.

A long loving look at the real

 As we enter into Lent, we can become aware of what distracts us from living the Christian life. In our prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we can notice how we can seek to control external events, situations and things that influence our lives. This attention can easily consume our time, resources, and efforts to pursue outcomes that do not nurture us or feed others. They appear like real phantoms in the night but disappear like a morning mist. These disturbing experiences can both frighten, perplex and bewilder us as we seek to focus on what will bring us into a loving encounter with God.

What we notice is that there are three possible distractions in daily life. The first is trying to turn something tangible into a different substance. When we see ourselves hungering for something that will sustain us in life, we can seek to manipulate people, situations or experiences into a shape that fills our own appetite. This can rob us of noticing how to be present to the goodness of their natural way of being. Thus, bread is bread, and rocks are rocks. Each has its purpose but cannot act as a substitute for the other. This calls us to work with what is to hand rather than wishing it was somehow different.

In a similar way, we can notice how our time can be focused on activities that rob us of serenity and peace. They become all-encompassing and become our sole endeavour in life. They seek to take a life of their own and take on a personality of their own. They can take us away from relationships that sustain us and rob us of the joy of celebrating the life entrusted to us. We can start to become driven rather than guided, tending to worship our work rather than being thankful for how we can cooperate with God's creative plan. 

Lastly, we can notice how we can take unnecessary risks to test out whether God truly loves us. Rather than asking for help, we can plunge into activity. There can be a headlong pursuit of seeking our own ends rather than seeking what will enable us to become who we are called to be. Often, there is an impatience with God that wants to make things happen rather than allowing things to unfold.

As we enter into this season, let us take a long, loving look at the real and notice how God guides our daily lives. We want to be thankful for the situations and people entrusted to our care. We must be open to what brings life and aware of a God who walks close by our side.

Praise no one before he speaks

 We are often influenced by the words of another, not only to see what rings true to us but also what we are called to reflect on. In recent times, we have noticed how our responses to one another can be shaped by instant communication. There is a tendency to hear but not listen to the voice of another. Unfortunately, in an increasingly opinionated world, we only have to speak louder or more frequently to be heard. The trend is played out not only in the regular news cycle but also in applying those opinions that can influence and alter the lives of others. We often find people being labelled or alienated from us due to our viewpoints not being mirrored back to us.

The danger to ourselves and our community is that we become shaped by the instant unreflective response. We read or hear something and instantly notice a reaction inside ourselves that demands to be heard. Yet, when this happens, we must set aside time for prayer. This is the first time we have noticed our internal response, which may have been angered, saddened, or disappointed. This is not to stew on the feeling or reaction but rather to befriend it. This befriending of our internal response helps us to know what may be masked within us. By owning how we react, we can then have an honest heart-to-heart engagement with God to discover how we become a people of thanksgiving. This allows us time to consider the appropriate response and how we may invest in resolving a particular dilemma. It gives us room to open to changes in approach that aid others and myself to grow in a communal spirit that seeks the good of the whole body.

As Thomas Merton notes in "Thoughts into Solitude, p33, "To be grateful is to recognise the Love of God in everything. He has given us-and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love; every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude, therefore, takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, and is constantly awaiting new wonder and praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful man knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience." This changes how we see ourselves and others. Our gratitude emerges from a place that does not just plaster over the cracks of our own failures but from a generosity that seeks the good of each person, especially with the person from whom we are most easily estranged. 

Turn the other cheek

 The Gospel goes to the heart of the matter. Does God love us even when we do not behave lovingly. It appears on a daily basis that examples of people who cannot tolerate the life of another are thrown up to us. They go to war with them either in their own hearts or the concrete reality of daily life. It appears that hatred can become parasitical when ingested into our bodies. This parasite can take root and wants to be fed to be kept alive. Like any parasite, hatred can take a firm hold on us, and we can find recipes that stew within us. They can spew forth antagonism either in words or actions that seek to destroy the other. They can easily pass from the host to another person so easily that it is hard to heal the hurt they cause.

Yet Jesus stands in the midst of these conflicting thoughts, feelings and actions. He draws attention to the reality that it is only through love that the life of another can be transformed. This is actually at the heart of the incarnation when the Trinity ponders how humanity can be redeemed from the violence of sin. We discover that God does not stand idly by watching our own destructive instincts but intervenes to proclaim a different way of being. Jesus says, "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you; a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back."

This is contrary to what we read on a daily basis, which feeds on conflict and hatred. The magnification of this can be seen to be multiplied through social media, where we see people seek to use power, control and opinion to shape our response to issues of the day. The separation between persons grows greater when we cannot meet people face to face. Trading barbs over the internet or through the letter pages in newspapers only adds fuel to the flames. It isolates us into our own thought bubbles, and we lose the ability to read the other. We also lose the capacity to pay close attention to our own internal world and our capacity to empathise with the life of another. I believe our prayer can be founded on how we are called to be present in our existing reality with wit and humour. When we hold ourselves lightly, God, we are no longer just drowning in a sea of information, but we are formed in God's image and likeness. This is the path of transformation where we do not throw up our hands saying thus is the world, but thus do we make the world.

Where do we sink our roots?

 One of the miracles we witness in Australia is the desert flowers that bloom following heavy rains that filter inland. This spectacular ray of life not only emerges from what appears to be a dead and barren landscape but also attracts many birds to the middle of the desert. They can sense life instead of blooming in the middle of a wilderness. There is a fresh sense of hope that not only delights the eye but lifts the spirit.

This new life almost occurs in contradiction to what we believe there is only death. It helps us to experience a renewal of life that engenders faith. These fruits help us imagine the earth witnessing a deeper life within. They cause us to discover how this new life bears witness to the creative power of God present in our world.

The beatitudes presented by Luke bear witness to how new life can bloom where there seem to be only tears, hunger and poverty. They help us to discover how, in our deepest human need, God can accompany us with a charity that is more than skin deep. This helps us to know that it is at times when we are most deeply challenged, or our resources are stretched to the limit that we can trust in a God who will not abandon us. At times when we are comfortable, we tend to rely on our resources and credit ourselves for our own success. It is not that we are called to welcome hard times but to discover how we need to sink the roots of our faith deep into the earth, anticipating the saving rains so that we are not overwhelmed.

Real Life not Infotainment

 As we witness the scene unfolding with the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, we are struck by the seeming contradictions. Fishermen usually mend their nets during the day to fish by night. They are used to the hard work that goes along with an unsuccessful night of fishing. Lastly, it takes a person who is not a fisherman to tell them when they should go out and fish. It is these contradictions that can often preoccupy us in our daily tasks. We become used to the routine of daily life even when there do not seem to be any rewards at the end of the day. We can seem to go through the motions, but nothing gains traction.

As the Gospel unfolds, Jesus seeks to make us into people who are willing to go fishing in waters that are familiar to us. There can be a natural resistance that points out the fact that we have tried hard to bring in a catch but have not caught anything. In our disappointment, we can become despondent, wondering if we have done something wrong or whether it is worth the effort. Yet this is where Jesus steps into the scene to put fresh heart into us and a new vision or way of seeing.

I feel this is important because we can often focus totally on our work rather than what engages us in the work. As people who are called to pray, we discover that this is about being present to God in the midst of our daily lives. This is not about the quantity or length of our prayers but rather that we become present to God as ourselves. We seek to settle our minds, hearts and bodies into silence. It is from this silence that we can start to live as people who witness a life that connects us together. We can act in a way that draws others into God's creative plan. This is not by just being observers of life watching a reality show on television but an engagement with real people in real-time.

Presentation and the year of Hope

 In the Presentation, we notice how the old meets the new. Mary and Joseph bring the child Jesus to the temple for ritual cleansing of Mary and his presentation to the Lord as the firstborn in accord with the Mosaic Law. This consecration to the Lord recognises the deep longing in our hearts to be focused on God with all our heart, mind and body. This is not just an abstract ritual but a genuine desire to discover the light of Christ shining amid our assembly.

We see this seed planted especially in those consecrated to the religious way of life. In renewing their vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, they echo the words of Simeon, who longs to see the face of God. While they may perform many good works, the relational aspect of their lives witnesses to a life that is not their own. They are inspired by the Holy Spirit to be pilgrims of hope in our modern age. 

In our own lives, we, too, are called to witness the hope manifested in the Presentation. We are called to be witnesses to Christ with our whole life. We are gifted with the spirit to live for Christ in our baptism. We become a people who are consecrated to become more like Christ and to focus on how we live that out with our whole heart, mind and body. We are called to become wholistic so that our call to holiness is not just an achievement of our own but points to God. 

How do we fill our jars!

When I undertook the Ignatian exercises, I was called to reflect on the scene from the wedding in Cana. I recall that I came to Jesus with a long list of complaints saying that I did not have to fill six jars but over 37 jars with water. As soon as I finished filling the last one, the others were exhausted from their contents. I remember staying with this prayer at the time and even now. We seek to fill many jars with our natural gifts and are left feeling spent that there are never enough hours in the day to achieve what we desire. The focus is on ourselves and the demands that are placed upon us. We wrestle with the fact that there are only 24 hours each day and seven days a week. Where will I find the time to be all I want?

As I stayed with this scene, I was reminded that I had only been asked to fill six jars with water. Also, it was not my actions that turned the water into wine but the graceful presence of Jesus. This experience can become a sobering insight when we believe our salvation is achieved through effort and hard work. Sometimes, we have to realise that we are called to be people who cooperate with the Holy Spirit through the gifts we have to share. We are called to grow in a partnership with God and each other. Our spirituality grows through a relationship of mutuality that does not seek to change the world into our image and likeness but allows us to rejoice in God's creative plan.

Thus, what do I feel God is prompting us in our current age? The first is six days for work and one day for rest. Each day brings challenges, and we are called to fill our jars with the natural gifts and talents entrusted to us. It is also important to realise that by surrendering ourselves to God's grace, Jesus turns the water into wine. We enjoy not just any wine but the finest wine. So when we reach the end of the day, we can look back with thanksgiving for how we noticed God's graced presence that day. Then, on Sunday, it allows us to become present to a God who can rest with us and rejoice.

Review of Life

 As we approach a new year we can start to reflect on how we want to enter into 2025. There seem to be many things that can grab our attention about becoming our best self.  When we seek to make intentions we can focus on things that will produce that best self whether it is exercising more, seeking to loose weight, studying a new language, or focusing on a particular project. This can cause us to set goals that may be achieved. However, the question is who will we become as we seek the benefits of these activities? I think what motivates us to achieve these goals is probably more fundamental to whom we become.

The Holy Family helps us to reflect on the importance of how we build relationships with each other. This helps us to notice how we build up a community that can be sustained against the uncertainities of life. We seek to notice how we are called to become people who act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God. The gifts that we produce in each relationship allows us to give praise to God and bring hope to others.

As we enter into the new year we seek to live in a way that daily reviews how we become a people who seek God together. This is by seeking what builds each other up rather than tear each other down. We can witness too easily how easy it is to destroy life rather than seeking to build that which builds life. We are called to be people who seek the good of God in which every person is considered as a child of God.

Visitation

 Travelling overseas I have witnessed how many families are travelling with young children. This mass movement of people reflects much of what we have seen at the first Christmas when Mary travelled with Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We know that travel brings its own difficulties and trials along the way. The same is true whether we travel vast distances or just next door. We need to be prepared for what we may encounter along the way. We need to look out for fellow travellers who may experience difficulty. Ultimately, we also need to practice patience to arrive in a way that benefits others.

As we celebrate this Holy Season we ask that God may bless us with peace, hope and joy. Especially for those who cannot travel freely, those who find themselves homeless at this time and those who struggle to afford the necessities of life. Christmas calls upon us to refocus our lives on the person who seeks to bear poverty, rejection and isolation with an anticipation that every human life has dignity. Our hearts need to be open so that we can direct efforts that produce ways in which people can discover freedom of movement, shelter for their families and meaningful work that provides a living wage. 

As we celebrate another Christmas may we remember the peace of Christ that disturbs us!

Make the Paths Straight

Once again we listen to the teaching of John the Baptist. He reminds us to reach out to those in need and not to exploit our positions for personal gain. As we come closer to Christmas I pray that our hearts not be corsened. Have a peaceful preparation for the remainder of Advent.

From here to there

 I remember reading a book from Here to There, a story by Jon Faine about his travels with his son Jack overland from Australia to England. It related their real-life experience and encounters along the way. Often the countries they visited are ones that we would not normally overfly as they went through China, the "stans" and Iran. As we journey along the way we can often see the hassles of modern-day life that seem to beset us. Usually, there are many forms to fill out, tasks to be undertaken, and opinions to be taken into account. There can be a growing impatience that arises within us that wants to speed up the journey to our destination. But when we arrive we wonder what happened along the way?

As we continue on our journey to Christmas we are called to make the paths straight. This may be noticing where we try to cut corners or seek preference paths that have been marked out by others. Yet we need to find where we are called to be truly present to God who walks with us in these daily encounters. What gives us a clearer sense of purpose that enables us to see people as God sees them.

In reflecting on the news cycle we can often gain a sense of deja vu that we have been here before. Often many old conflicts can reemerge in new guises and new forms. We are called to hear again the voice of John the Baptist make the way straight to allow God to guide us truly along the way we are called to follow.

Sleepwalking into Christmas

 So many things need to be done as we prepare for Christmas. There are cards to write, decisions about buying gifts, menus to plan and people to visit. There can be a sense that we are caught up with so much frenetic activity that we have no time to sit back and contemplate who we are called to become. Suddenly, the day approaches and we try to wrestle our way into vacant parking spaces, reply to unexpected greetings in cards and wonder whether we will find time to rest.

Yet amid all this activity we need to take time aside to become present to the person at the heart of all this. By setting time aside for prayer and reflection we can find greater clarity to our activity. Rather than being faced with a tsunami of activity, we can discover those hidden graces that shape our day. We need to find space where we can be ourselves. God wants us not to sleepwalk our way into Christmas but with open hearts.

As we are guided along the way. I pray that you may find time to experience the places where the peace of Christ disturbs you.

Who do I listen to?

 We are besieged by information, opinions, and ideas that seek to grab our attention. This constant wave of ways of living, solutions to our problems and analysis of almost every human situation can create a crisis of trust. This crisis is reflected when people start to question and doubt even the most basic of human instincts and inclinations. The foundation of society is built around the belief that we share common values and aspirations. It is on these foundations that we choose people to govern us who share those ideals. Yet so often we can be disappointed because there is an appearance that they shape the world in their image and likeness.

The Feast of Christ the King helps us engage our imagination with God's vision. In proclaiming this feast, he does not seek to be a person who amasses wealth, power, and popular approval.  Rather he seeks for us to discover and share the vision that every life has fundamental worth. That each person is loved by God and that we can discover who we are called to become as people created in God's image and likeness.

As we approach the end of the Church's liturgical year this can give us pause to reflect on how we are called to listen to the voice of Christ in our daily lives. To make room for prayer so that our hearts may enlarge to embrace the vision and the people we encounter. May we be blessed to become a people who can listen to the voice of Christ.

The End is Nigh!

We live in interesting times and it is natural to be shaken by the unfolding calamities that seem to appear daily on our television screens and news feeds. They can naturally cause us to fear the future and wonder what will unfold. There seems to be a rush into highlighting differences between nations, stoking the fires of conflict and retreating into our own castles. Almost daily we are called to navigate the opinions of others who seek to offer solutions or point to fresh problems. In an age where everything is questioned, we wonder whose voice we will listen to and trust.

As we draw towards the end of the year we can believe that it is only those who seek to seize control of the situation, remedy the ills of society with instant solutions and who seek to smell the breath of popular opinion who will guide us through uncertain times. Yet we are called to surrender ourselves to divine providence that is called to engender a sense of trusting obedience to the voice of God. This discernment of direction means that we need to know the limits of power and wealth to transform the situation of the heart. There is a need to be people who are open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and seek to remain in the presence of God.

This is not undertaken by a fatalistic vision that abandons hope but rather builds hope through the accompaniment of each other. This seeks to be people of faith who seek Christ who offers his life to us so that we may not become lost in our own fears. As we review the year may we learn how God is present in our times and calls us to trust that we are not abandoned.

What do we value and what is our net worth?

  The Gospel readings for this weekend seek to examine how we become good stewards of the possessions that we are entrusted with for the good of the whole creation. How we use these possessions seeks to determine whether we own them or whether they own us. How we use our own possessions for the good of another determines how our characters are shaped and what values we seek to uphold. The Gospel provides the contrast between a narrow focus on our own needs in isolation to the greater needs of another. Often, we can become focused on building and preserving our wealth, achieving a particular position, or having status within society. The danger is that when we focus on these external signs of success, we can become slaves to that which is under our control, what makes us look good or causes us to see our value determined by the opinion of others. We become shaped by our wealth, status, or power. Yet all of these can be taken from us suddenly due to sickness, poverty, or loss of employment. 

This is where our prayers need to be a place where we discover what truly brings life. This is not just that we become people who say prayers, but we discover how our prayer shapes our responses. This is where we are called to notice how our response to the generosity of another may be shaped by the quantity, they give more than the quality of their giving. Jesus brings this into his reflection on the widow's mite compared to the giving of others who give vast amounts to the treasury. The emphasis is on the wholehearted response of the widow who trusts God is more generous in sharing than those who give just what is left over. This reflects the abundance of the goodness of God who does not measure a person's worth by how much they own but through the goodness of their life.

This is also noticed in the life-and-death discussion of Elijah and the woman. On the surface, this just is about the practical needs of sharing a cup of water and a piece of bread. This dialogue draws both into a more profound trust that God will meet us at the time of our greatest need when we have little to share. This abandonment to God's providence allows the person to see that their value is not determined by what they own but by the person they are called to become. Sometimes we can be people who hoard God's gifts or squander them on what satisfies us rather than trusting that we might be in the right place, for the right time, and for the right purpose.

 God seeks to reframe our way of living so that we spend our time, treasure, and talent on what brings life to others and not just ourselves. This is a challenge for all of us to examine how we spend our time and money. Our diaries and our bank accounts become Theological statements that show what we truly value. This is where we allow God to meet us in the practical events of daily life. Not ignoring our responsibilities but not ignoring the needs of the other. It is often those who have the least who appear the most generous. How do we trust God to provide what is needed for the good of another and not just to make us feel good? This frees us to make steps in faith to allow God to be at the centre of our giving and receiving. To seek who I am called to be for this day and this time.

 

Rearranging our priorities

 When we hear Jesus's commandment to love God and our neighbour, we can subtly mishear them. He does not draw on any new text but refers back to the book of Deuteronomy. What we tend to hear is that we need to love God with all our strength, all our mind, all our soul and all our heart and to love ourselves as our neighbour. This way of listening to God puts all the emphasis on our own efforts and abilities. Yet we discover in our prayer that God gently reorders our priorities. This lets us notice that our initial entry into prayer observes what we can see and how we feel about these observations. It helps us become aware of what we are thinking and how it directly affects our lives. Yet as spend time in prayer it is almost as if our thoughts are shed and we are drawn to a deeper appreciation of what nourishes us. This quietening of our minds and hearts helps us to enter a place where we can encounter God in a silent place. This way of being present can appear timeless. It is from this timeless place that we can be renewed and discover what truly nourishes us. This allows us to clarify our thinking and our actions.

Thus we start to see how the commandments are actually written and called to be lived. We are called to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and all our strength and love our neighbour as ourselves. This gentle reordering shapes our priorities to a rule of life that is simple and liveable. This is not about working harder or longer but allowing us to cooperate with God's way of being present in our lives. 

This is important to how we structure our days. We are called to encounter God wholly as ourselves. Our holiness is not something that is added on but emerges from the inside out. This way of being present then helps us to look at the context in which we are called to live and how our lives make a difference to others through our actions. This allows our prayer to become truly incarnate by being aware of the environment in which we live and acting in a way that embodies what our hearts desire in union with God and each other. 

Compassion

 The ability to walk in the shoes of another requires empathy for the difficulties that another person lives with. This is more than just being distressed at the suffering it is an actual identification with the person who suffers. Thus when we can be distressed by many things then move on to another subject. Empathy allows us to be present to the other for their good. This is an essential part of our humanity, that we can accompany others suffering. 

Yet in itself, we notice how compassion is the next step. This is the scene played out in the Gospel. A blind man cries out for help and the crowd seeks to silence him. His persistence grabs the attention of Jesus and he calls the man to him. The crowd then is healed as well as they call the blind man forward. They seek to encourage the man to have courage and stand up. The man trusts both the call of Jesus and the encouragement of the crowd. He is healed and then follows Jesus along the road.

Similarly, we are called to be healed of our infirmities by a person who can identify with our weaknesses. Jesus calls us each day to come to him not because we have it all together but because we know our own limitations and struggles. Each day as a community we are called to encourage each other to stand up, come to him and be healed. 

The Mystery of the Cross

The mystery of the Cross is brought into sharp relief in the readings for this weekend. We may be familiar with the reality of the Cross in daily life. Suffering seems to be a part of our daily life whenever we turn on the television, surf the net or read our newspapers. There seem to be many instances where people suffer violence from the ravages of war, the reality of how this impacts our own lives and how the images can distress us. Even locally we can become aware of those who need our prayers for healing, those who wrestle with division in their own homes and how inner conflict can isolate us from each other. There seems to be so much that can overwhelm us that the burden can seem impossible to bear.

Yet amid so much suffering  we meet the suffering servant, Jesus who seeks to take what seems to crush us upon himself. This can confuse us as we seek to make sense of our own anguish and navigate paths through this suffering. As we gaze upon the Cross our attention is often drawn to the cross that causes the suffering or the person who suffers. There is a sense of compassion and bewilderment at times about why a good man needs to suffer. Yet is the person who suffers who helps us to make sense of our own suffering. He does not do this out of duty or obligation but out of a profound outpouring of love and compassion, Jesus accompanies us even in our suffering and does not abandon us. He seeks to show us how mercy can be found at the time of our greatest need. 

This evangelisation of others helps us to encounter a person who will not abandon us but allow us to witness to holiness,mercy and life. As a Christian people this witness is best lived out when we seek to alleviate suffering and address the causes of suffering out of love and compassion. Our community grows together as we gather, especially at times when we challenged by the reality of suffering. We can become a people of God who are healed through the Sacrament of Anointing, reconciled through the Sacrament of Penance and nourished through our sharing of the Eucharist at Mass. God does not abandon us but offers his very self so that we can be healed.

In this we witness the suffering servant who came to serve not be served. Who witnesses to the compassion of Christ who offers his very self to us. This is where we acknowledge how all the baptized are called to preach all the Gospel to all the people all the time. 

Wisdom, Discernment and Providence

 How do we trust everything to God? This is not just an abandonment of responsibility for our actions but rather a considered approach to the way we live our lives. We are called to be people who are prayerfully attentive to the situation in which we live. This is noticing how we are present in the world in which we live while also considering how we listen to the voice of God. This incarnate way of living centres the way we see things to be in harmony with God's creative nature which is ever ancient and ever new. We are people who not only hear the Word of God but seek to allow that Word to be written upon our hearts. This allows us to become people who seek to live that Word in whatever environment we are called to live.

Our discernment seeks for us to think, feel and sense ourselves into what brings all things before God daily. The first step in our prayer is that we think about many things and we need to sift them to distinguish the dross from the pearl. This process allows us to not only think about the pearl but to allow all our senses to become curious about what we are called to hold on to. This application of the sense helps us to appreciate how the Word engages us practically and not just theoretically. It allows the Word to sink deeper into us. Allowing us to notice how it becomes one with us there can be a sense of nourishment that is not just based on our hunger but by a deeper encounter with what truly fills us. This allows us to notice how through this simple pattern of prayer we can start to look at our lives differently and attend to things more readily.

By allowing this to become a daily practice we trust to rely on what comes to hand rather than fretting about the future or being anchored in the past. There is a growing confidence that God can help us to be present in this moment and this place. Even when we have difficult choices to make or the circumstances constrict us with possibilities there can be a clearer understanding of the next obvious step. This is not blind faith but a disposition that we can be guided to trust that God will show us the way. 

What makes us teachable

 We live in an age where we know much about life but struggle to live an integration of that life. Every day we can be bombarded with self-help programs to discover who we are called to become by doing things differently. There can often be a discomfort inside ourselves that this becomes overly complex and we look for a way that is simple and achievable in our own lives. Nowhere is this felt more often than in relationships, particularly where the focus is on marriage. The pressure that people can feel is that they need to be perfect rather than transformed. This can often be the tension that can develop where we expect someone to be different from who they are. When we look back on the Saints who have guided us through the week I believe they can give us some hints about how to develop a relationship founded on Christ.

St Jerome reminds us that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. I believe this is not just about reading scripture but allowing us to be absorbed by scripture into the heart of Christ. This is the starting point for all prayer as it seeks to discover how God faithfully communicates with us through the written word. This written word is not just to be written on the page but is to be written on our hearts.

St Therese of Lisieux in reading through the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians in Chapters 12 and 13 discovered that her vocation was to love rather than undertaking a particular role or function. This is not a self-serving love that sought to obtain special preference for herself but a self-giving love that sought unconditional love for the good of the other. This allows us a vision that sees ourselves encountering the love of God through our everyday encounters with each other.

The Guardian Angels remind us that in each sacrament of life both in Marriage and Priesthood there is a guardian angel and an empowering angel. This guides us to safeguard what brings life to the other while also encouraging us to witness God's love in daily life. They help us to not just focus on our own needs but on how we encounter others and become detectives of grace.

The last word probably belongs to St Francis of Assisi which is best proclaimed in his prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness,  joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Especially in our current age and as we prepare for the Feast of the Holy Rosary on Monday we are called to be people who pray and fast for each other and for our world. To seek the peace of God that is at the heart of all creation. 

Casting out devils and protecting the innocent

 I used to be an avid follower of current affairs but now I am hesitant to listen to the radio, open the newspapers, or turn on the television. It is not just that it seems to report daily the conflicts that beset us but can often cause us to feel powerless against forces beyond our control. There is a poverty or emptiness that seeks to resist being filled with violence and hatred. We discover in this place a humility that allows us to abandon everything to God and not just trust ourselves. The need to discover our original innocence is not a wishing away the problems of the world but rather an acknowledgment of how we can be present to the world differently.

In the Gospel, there is the acknowledgment of the person who gives a cup of water to another because they belong to Christ. This act of charity is not just a reward for being Christian but rather an understanding that all belong to Christ. The law of charity can not be contained to one particular religious group but follows the promptings of the Holy Spirit to reach out to those in need. It also acknowledges how we need to acknowledge daily the obstacles that remain within us that prevent us from seeking to be good to others and not just ourselves. 

There is a temptation at times like these to retreat into our own castles and lift the drawbridge. That seeks to defend ourselves against the ravages of the world and hunker down for a quieter age. Where we become consumers of life rather than participants in something greater. The truth that we often need to appropriate to ourselves is that we are part of the solution not just part of the problem. In an age where trust has been stretched almost to breaking point and credulity has been tested by who we believe we can wonder who will lead us to a life of meaning. I think this is where we need to become a people of prayer not just people who say prayers. 

Our prayer is an honest seeking of who God is in the midst of our current age. This is not just an intellectual pursuit to find the right words or an industrious effort to look busy about many things. I believe it is a discovery of how we can listen to God in a way that slows us down to a walking pace. This allows us to not only become aware of how many of our thoughts and feelings that disturb us do not find their origins in God. It allows a place to sift through the competing demands both physical, emotional, and spiritual that besiege us daily. By providing these oases of grace we can start to appreciate where we can make a difference. Rather than looking for what is falling apart, we discover simple acts that hold things together. These daily selfless acts run contrary to the me-too culture that wants to focus on my problems and wishes to narrow our focus only to what affects me. God seeks to expand our hearts by allowing us to discover in our own emptiness, poverty, and humility that it is the precepts of the Lord that gladden the heart. Sometimes it is important to remember that we need to plant seeds not drop bombs.