Disturb us, O Lord

Disturb us, O Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;
when we have arrived safely
because we sailed too close to the shore.
Stir us, O Lord, to dare more boldly,
to venture more seas, where storms shall show your mastery,
where losing sight of land we shall find the stars.
In the name of him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow him.

Author Unknown

To do the work of Christ is really quite simple.
It means to be faithful in little things,
for to be faithful in little things is a big thing.
It means to do one’s task, no matter how humble,
not only thoroughly but joyfully.
It means to make oneself available,
yet never seek the limelight.
It means to make oneself useful,
without seeking to push oneself.
It means to carry one’s own burden, without,
as far as possible, becoming a burden to others.
In a word, it means to be at one’s post,
helpful and faithful, loyal and constant.
Lord, make me an instrument
for the building of your kingdom.

Lord, look on us and take pity on us,
for at times we too are like sheep.
Save us from a blind following of the herd.
Help us to listen to your voice,
to trust you and to follow you,
even if it means leaving the crowd
and walking a lonely path.
Lead us from fear to trust, from error to truth,
from hate to love, from war to peace,
from despair to hope, and from death to life.

Amen.

Tolerance is an important part of charity.
Without it, it is difficult
for two persons to get on together.
Moreover, tolerance is the bond of all friendship,
and unites people in heart,
in opinion and in action,
not only with each other,
but in unity with Our Lord,
so that they may really be at peace.

(St Vincent de Paul)

A Day at a Time

God provided a mysterious food called manna
for the Israelites during their time in the desert.
However, they were told not to stockpile the manna,
but to gather only what they needed for one day.
Jesus told his disciples not to worry about tomorrow.
He said, When you pray to your heavenly Father,
you are to say: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
No matter how difficult life may be,
for those who trust in God
and who live a day at a time,
the manna falls every day.

Prayer

Gracious and Holy Father,
give us the wisdom to discover you,
the intelligence to understand you,
the diligence to seek after you,
the patience to wait for you,
eyes to behold you,
a heart to meditate upon you,
and a life to proclaim you,
through the power of the Spirit of Jesus, Our Lord.

Amen.

(St. Benedict)

When many of his disciples were leaving him,
Jesus turned to the apostles and said, "Will you also leave me?”.
These words were addressed to us too.
It is not the Lord who leaves us, but us who leave him.
But why should we want to leave the Lord,
who alone has the words of eternal life?
We need to make our own Peter’s profession of faith.
Every Sunday we get a chance to do so.
We need the Lord to strengthen our faith.
We also need to confirm one another.
Lord, confirm our decision to stay with you.
Draw us closer to you in bonds of trust,
so that we may follow you in love and freedom.

Today pollution has become a big issue,
and rightly so.
People want clean water, clean air and clean food.
But we should be even more concerned
about the most dangerous pollution of all – evil.
Pride, anger, hate, lust, greed, envy.....
all of these are dangerous pollutants.
So what must we do?
We must purify the source – the heart is the source.
It is the well-spring from which
all our thoughts, words and deeds flow.
If the heart is clean, all that flows from it will be clean.
Blessed are the clean of heart: they shall see God.

The gift of hearing is a precious gift.
But it is only with the heart that we can hear rightly.
The cry of a needy person may reach our ears,
but unless it reaches our heart
we will not feel the person’s pain,
and it is unlikely that we will respond.
And the gift of speech is a precious gift.
But again it is only with the heart that we can speak rightly.
For our words to ring true, they must come from the heart.
If they come only from the lips,
they will have a hollow sound and will have little effect.
But words that come from the heart, enter the heart

Faith without Works

A watch may have a gold chain,
but if it doesn’t tell the time it is useless.
A fruit tree may be teeming with blossoms,
but if it doesn’t produce fruit it is useless.
A lamp may be studded with diamonds,
but if it doesn’t give light it is worthless.
And a faith that doesn’t result in good works is dead.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
And the fruit of service is peace. 

Goodness

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 this light others find their way,
and you will be glorified.    

Children

Jesus warned those who would lead the little ones astray
But he blessed those who care for them
One of the most touching things about children is their openness.
But this same openness
Leaves them extremely vulnerable
They may not say much but they feel everything
They are like crocuses
Which appear in the open in February
Frail, delicate, beautiful creatures-
Innocents abroad in an unpredictable climate
If they are embraced by the sun
They will bloom to their full potential
But is they are assailed by hail
They will die a premature death
Love is to a child what sunshine is to a flower.  

Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind.
Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years;
people grow old only by deserting their ideals.
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair,
these are the long, long years that bow the head
and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt;
as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
So long as your heart receives messages of beauty,
cheer, courage, grandeur and power
from the earth, from man, from the infinite,
so long are you young.
When the heart is covered with the snow of pessimism
and the ice of cynicism,
then I am old indeed,
and may you, Lord, have mercy on my soul.

General Douglas MacArthur.

Jesus saw that the rich young man had great potential,
so he invited him to enter the world of sharing.
But he wasn’t  up to it – riches got in the way.
As he went away a sadness descended on   him,
the sadness that descends on us
when we choose to live for ourselves.
Even though Jesus was sad to see him go,
nevertheless, he let him go.
There is no point in forcing people to make sacrifices.
If you take things from people, they are impoverished;
but if you can get them to give them up, they are enriched.
People are essentially good,
but this goodness has to be awakened and called forth,
if they are to enter the kingdom of love.

James and John were two opportunists.
Their one aim was to rise in the ranks.
To achieve this end they did not hesitate to beg.
They did not mind how much envy and resentment
they aroused in their companions.
Their aim was to scramble up the career ladder.
But at what price to themselves ?
If in the course of their rise to the top,
people lose themselves, their own souls,
whatever they do or achieve will be worthless.
Power hardens the human heart.
A hard-hearted person is incapable of love.
It is by giving that we receive,
and it is by serving that we grow in love.

Prayer for Forgiveness

Lord, we seek your forgiveness
for those we love,
for those we only barely know,
for those close to despair,
for ourselves.
Bless us with your mercy.
Release in us springs of fresh love
and healed relationships.
Lord, this is your work.
We cannot do it for ourselves.
Bless us all with tears of repentance
and the grace of reconciliation.

Amen

Remember that you have only one soul;
that you have only one death to die;
that you have only one life to live,
which is short and has to be lived by you alone;
and that there is only one glory, which is eternal.
If you do this, there will be many things
about which you care nothing.

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
There are those who give little of the much which they have,
and they give it for recognition,
and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome
and there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life,
and their coffer is never empty.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks
and from behind their eyes he smiles upon the earth,

Kahlil Gibran

Preserve me God, I take refuge in you.
My happiness lies in you alone.
You are my portion and my cup,
you yourself are my prize.
I keep you ever in my sight,
even at night you direct my heart.
With you at my right hand, I shall stand firm.
And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead,
nor let your beloved know decay.
You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.

Psalm 15

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
Jesus does not rule as earthly kings rule.
He has no palace, no throne, no crown, no army.
Yet we give him an allegiance and a loyalty,
which we would not give to any other person
or institution on earth.
Alone and unarmed he stood before Pilate.
Pilate had thousands of soldiers to call upon.
Jesus had no soldier to call upon.
Yet Jesus was incomparably the greater of the two.
Jesus is the hope of the human race.
He rules, not by force, but by love.
Lord Jesus, may your kingdom come,
and may you remember me on that day.

The hill flowers fade,
but will bloom again next year.
But we never get back our youth.
Life is a fragile gift which we enjoy only briefly;
our life is like the warming of oneself in the sun.
We live in a flash of light; before we know it,
evening comes and night falls.
But the very fleetingness of life
makes it all the more precious.
Lord, may your gentle and sure light
guide us on the unfolding road,
so that we may walk with confidence
towards the light that never fades
and the life that never ends.

God’s Abiding Love

“Write your name, Lord Jesus,
upon my heart, there to remain
so indelibly engraved that no prosperity,
no adversity shall ever
remove me from your love.
Be to me a strong tower of defence,
a comforter in tribulation,
a deliverer in distress,
an ever present help in trouble,
and a guide to heaven
through the many temptations
and dangers of life.”

(St Thomas á Kempis)  

JOY

There is a clear note of joy in today’s liturgy.
Joy is a blend of laughter and tears.
It consists in having a love affair with life.
It is having a heart aglow with warmth
for all one’s companions on the road of life.
It is looking for the happiness that comes in small packages,
knowing that big packages are few and far between.
It is making the most of the present,
enjoying what is at hand right now.
Joy is love bubbling over into life.
And it can coexist with pain.
Joy is the flag we fly when Christ, the Prince of Peace,
has taken up residence in our hearts.

Lord Jesus, come into our weakness,
Come into our fears.
Come into our anxieties.
Come into our failures.
Come into our divisions
Come into our grieving.
Come into our loneliness
Come into our darkness
Come into our doubting
Come into our despair
Come into our poverty of heart
Come into our searching
Come into our joys and hopes
Come into our dying
Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Lord, grant us in all our tasks your help,
in all our doubts your guidance,
in all our weaknesses your strength,
in all our dangers your protection,
and in all our sorrows your consolation.
Give us the kind of faith
that will enable us to live out joyfully
the mystery of our fragile human condition,
which sees us suspended between earth and heaven,
between time and eternity,
between nothingness and infinity.

Amen.