6/1/08

The Magi were led to Christ by the light of a star.
But they saw the star only because
they were not afraid to travel in the dark.
The fact is, we cannot see the stars
in the bright light of day,
but only in the darkness of night:
And the darker the night
the brighter they shine.
In a sense, all of us are night-time travellers.
However we need no longer fear the darkness
because with the coming of Christ
a light has come into the world,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that no darkness can overpower.

Baptism was not over and done with
the day we were taken to the font.
We are baptised by all that happens in life.
We are baptised by hardship; in its turbulent waters
we are purified by all that is false and useless.
We are baptised by suffering; in its murky waters
we grow in humility and compassion.
We are baptised by joy; in its gurgling waters
we experience the goodness of life.
We are baptised by love; in its singing waters
we blossom like flowers in the sun.
Baptism is like planting of a seed.
It will take a lifetime for this seed to grow and ripen.

All of us are wounded by sin.
The part of us which is most deeply
damaged by sin is the heart.
The heart is so beautiful, so innocent,
but it can be betrayed, scorned and broken.
Darkness of heart is the blackest night of all.
Emptiness of heart is the greatest poverty of all.
A heavy heart is the most wearisome burden of all.
A broken heart is the most painful wound of all.
Only love can heal the wounds of the heart.
Lord, send your Holy Spirit to us,
to heal the wounds of our hearts
so that we may produce the fruits of love.

Lord, make me an instrument of your love.
Where the darkness of loneliness reigns
let me bring the light of friendship.
Where the darkness of bitterness reigns
let me bring the light of forgiveness.
Where the darkness of hurt reigns
let me bring the light of healing
Where the darkness of discord reigns
let me bring the light of harmony.
Where the darkness of sadness reigns
let me bring the light of joy
Where the darkness of doubt reigns
let me bring the light of faith
Where the darkness of despair reigns
let me bring the light of hope
Where the darkness of hatred reigns
let me bring the light of love.

The Beatitudes

The beatitudes are the badges
of a true discipline of Christ.
They are the marks of a child of God.
They make us rich in the sight of God.
They open our minds and hearts
to a new way of seeing and judging.
They give us a whole new set of bearings.
The things the beatitudes stand for
are very beautiful and precious –
Things such as peace, goodness, joy, love,
gentleness, compassion, mercy, integrity.
A person who lives according to the beatitudes
is already living in the kingdom of heaven.
Eternal life will merely be the full blossoming
of a plant that is green with life.

Pruning time is a painful time for a fruit tree.
The pruner rids it of all those suckers
which use up a lot of energy but produce no fruit.
However, the aim of this surgery is not to inflict pain,
but to help the tree produce more and better fruit.
Lent is a kind of spiritual pruning time.
There is much that is useless
and perhaps harmful in our lives,
which saps our energy,
and diminishes our spiritual fruitfulness.
Of what shall we prune ourselves this Lent
so that we may become more fruitful branches
of Christ, the true Vine?

The Gospels show clearly that Peter was a man of action;
he always needed to be doing something.
So on Mount Tabor, instead of contemplating
in silence and wonder the glory of his Lord,
he wanted to build three tents.
There is a time for stillness,
for contemplation, for wonder,
for adoration in the presence of God.
A time to heed the words of the psalmist:
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Sometimes we are too busy.
We would be better to be silent,
to be listening, to be wondering,
to be adoring in the presence of God.

There is a thirst in every human heart.
Each of us is like that lonely Samaritan woman.
We are thirsting for something
something that will satisfy all our longings.
But often we search in the wrong places
We draw water from many wells:
the water of praise to quench our thirst for self-esteem;
the water of success to quench our thirst for importance;
the water of pleasure to quench our thirst for joy
But we still get thirsty.
Only God can give us what we are looking for
He alone can cause a spring to well up inside us.
The water from this spring will sustain us
in our journey to the Promised Land of eternal life.

Lord, today we come before you as sinners.
Only slowly do we admit our faults.
Only gradually do we bring them into the light.
Lord, give us a bright sorrow for sin
and save us from morbid guilt.
Give us such confidence in your mercy
that we can bring our sins to you.
Only then Lord do you have a chance of healing us
and raising us up, which is all you ever want.

What can I say to you my friend,
in your hour of grief?
Just a word from my heart,
In the midst of your sorrow seeds are being sown –
seeds of consolation, hope, resignation and even gratitude,
This winter will pass,
and spring will come again visit the garden of your heart.
You will see these seeds grow, blossom and bear fruit.
Then your sorrow will turn into joy,
a joy no one will be able to take away from you.

PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS

Lord, remember not only people of good will
but also people of ill will.
Do not remember only the sufferings
that have been inflicted on us,
but remember too the fruit we have bought
as a result of this suffering:
the comradeship and loyalty,
the humility and courage,
the generosity and greatness of heart
that has grown out of it.
And when they come to judgement,
let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.

(Prayer found in Auschwitz)

On Easter Day we still feel pain,
our own pain and the pain of others.
But a new element has been introduced.
It doesn’t remove the pain,
but it gives it a meaning, and lights it up with hope.
All is different because Jesus is alive
and speaks his words of peace to us.
Therefore, there is a quiet joy among us,
and a deep sense of peace.
Jesus has broken the power of death,
and given us the hope of eternal life.
Lord, guard this hope with your grace,
and bring it to fulfillment in the kingdom of heaven.

While Jesus was alive, Thomas was as strong as an oak.
But when Jesus was put to death,
he became a reed shaking in the winds of doubt.
The truth was – though he didn’t realise it at the time,
that it was the Master who was the oak.
He was a mere sapling growing in his shade.
When the oak fell he was defenceless.
All of us are shaken by the winds of doubt.
We need to look at the Lord’s wounds,
and hear his gentle voice saying to us:
“Cease doubting and believe.”
Then with Thomas we shall make bold to say:
“My Lord and my God.”

All through life’s day, you walk with us, Lord
But often we don’t recognise you,
for we are blinded by work and worry,
doubt, confusion and fear,
and so you remain a stranger to us.
Before the days end we will ask many questions,
experience many sorrows and disappointments.
And then, suddenly, whether we are young middle- aged, or old,
we will find that night is approaching.
In that moment we pray,
that, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus,
our eyes will be opened, and that we will recognise you.
And you will not vanish from our sight,
but stay with us to guide us to the Father’s house.

Compassion is not learned without suffering.
Unless we have suffered and wept,
we don’t really understand what compassion is,
nor can we comfort someone who is suffering.
Unless we have walked in darkness,
we can’t help wanderers to find their way.
But if we have suffered we become pathfinders to others.
And it is by reaching out to others
that we ourselves are healed.
Jesus bore the marks of our violent world on his body.
Those wounds were the proof of his love.
They were they mortal wounds the Good Shepherd
picked up in caring for his sheep.
The wounds of Jesus are a source of consolation,
courage and hope to us in our sufferings.
By his wounds we are healed.

May the Lord of life bless you always.
May your hidden life in Christ
Be a new energy surging up within you
May the Holy Spirit shape your innermost being
And guide your every word and deed.
Then all who know you will see in you
The power of the risen Lord
May the Lord make of you
His messenger of peace.

It is a chilly day by the seaside,
far too windy for my comfort.
But the gulls don’t seem to mind the wind.
In fact, they seem to enjoy it.
I watch them flying about:
they go with it, they go against it,
they soar into the sky, they plunge back to earth.
All the time they are using the wind,
they are availing of it’s power.
And I reflect how we, the disciples of Jesus,
are so easily blown off course by the winds of adversity.
Lord, send us the Holy Spirit who will enable us
to turn the hard and easy to our advantage,
so that everything that happens to us
May bear us along the road to your kingdom.

We are born in exile and die there too.
As soon as we set sail on the great voyage of life,
we begin our return.
We spend our lives dreaming
of a homeland we have never seen.
Like homing birds that are released in a strange country,
and know no rest until we return home,
so it is with us.
When we die, we do not so much go to God as return to him.
You have made us for yourself, O Lord,
and our hearts will never rest until they rest in you.

Do not let yourselves be guided
By the spirit of self-indulgence
Look at the legacy of self-indulgence produces:
Bad temper, fighting, jealousy, cruelty, meanness,
Revenge, impurity, idolatry and drunkenness
These are ugly things, and make life miserable
Rather, let yourself be guided by the Spirit of God
Look at the legacy the Spirit brings:
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness
Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-  control
These are beautiful things, and make life joyful
They are a foretaste of the joy of heaven
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us.

Nowadays, thanks to the security camera,
we are often being watched,
watched by a cold, dispassionate eye,
intent in catching us only in wrong-doing.
The feeling that someone is watching us
is not a pleasant feeling.
But the feeling that someone is watching over us
is a lovely feeling.
God is not watching us
God is watching over us.
The conviction that God is watching over us
gives us comfort in times of sadness,
strength in times of weakness,
and hope in times of despair

“Blessed are the hungry: they shall get their fill.”
It is in our emptiness that we are filled.
It is in our confusions that we are guided.
It is in our weakness that we are strengthened.
It is in our sins that we are forgiven.
It is in our hunger that we are fed.
We believe that God has a homeland prepared for us
where all our hungers will be satisfied
and our hopes will be fulfilled.
This conviction makes it possible for us
to travel onwards with an ache in our hearts
and an unquenchable longing in our souls.

BUILDING ON ROCK

There is nothing sure or lasting in this world.
Human opinions change from day to day,
but the words of Christ do not change or pass away.
However, those who listen to his words
but do not act on them, are building on sand.
Time will erase his words from their minds;
nothing will remain, nothing will come of them.
On the other hand, those who listen to his words
and who do act on them, are building on rock;
they will have something to show for their efforts,
something to be proud of,
and something that will last – eternally.  

In India the untouchables did not belong to any caste.
They were barred from the temples 
In the cities they lived in the slums, 
And did only the most menial jobs.
In the country they were forbidden to use the wells
Yet it was precisely the untouchables
Whom the great Mahatma Ghandi befriended.
He ate and drank with them,
And played with their children.
He once said: “I do not want to be reborn,
But if that should happen,
I would like to find myself among the untouchables
In order to share the suffering they are subjected to.
In this way ,I would have the chance to liberate them
And myself from their miserable condition”. 

The person in misery does not need
a look that judges and criticises,
but a comforting presence.
Jesus looked at the ordinary people,
and seeing how needy they were,
he had compassion on them
and began to minister to them.
Compassion means that I suffer with you;
I accept into my heart the misery in yours;
I become one with you in your pain.
I may not be able to relieve that pain,
but by understanding it and sharing it,
I make it possible for you to bear it.
Lord, give us warm and generous hearts
so that we may agents of your compassion to others.  

I rise today
with God’s strength to direct me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eyes to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to uphold me,
God’s pathway before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me-
from temptations,
from one man or many
that seek to destroy me.

Prayer for the end of the day

Grant, O Lord, that each day
before we enter the little death of sleep,
we may undergo the little judgement of the past day,
so that every wrong deed may be forgiven
and every unholy thought set right.
Let nothing go down into the depths of our being
which has not been forgiven and sanctified.
Then we shall be ready
for our final birth into eternity,
And look forward with love and hope
to standing before you,
who are both judge and saviour,
holy judge and loving saviour.

(Bishop Appleton)

The most important thing about each of us
is our capacity for goodness.
We can be a source of light.
We have hands that can care,
eyes that can see,
ears that can hear,
tongues that can speak,
feet that can walk,
and above all hearts that can love.
Unfortunately, through laziness, selfishness,
and cowardice, our light can be dimmed,
so that we become shadows of the people we could be.
Lord, help us to believe in our own goodness,
and to let the light of that goodness shine.
On seeing the light others see their way,
and you will be glorified.