Opening Prayer Series: Eighth Sunday of Year A

Opening Prayer Series: 

OPENING PRAYER

 

The Opening Prayer for the Eighth Sunday of Year A reads as follows:

Let us pray

(that God will bring peace to the world and freedom to His Church)

Lord, guide the course of world events,

and give Your Church the joy and peace 

of serving you in freedom. 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS 

In making this prayer tangible for during this week the following reflection questions emerged

 

1.            What is the peace that God will bring to the world and why should we
           pray for it?

2.            What is the freedom that God will bring to His Church?

3.            How would you explain to someone who asked you 'why is God not
           guiding world events when floods, cyclones, earthquakes, fires occur
            and provide loss of life and so much devastation?'

4.            What is God's joy and peace?

5.            How can the Church serve in freedom in countries where they cannot
           practice the faith in freedom?

6.            How do I serve the Church in freedom in my parish?

 

The two central themes of today's Gospel from chapter 6  are as follows:

Verse 24: Serve God alone and not 2 Masters.

Verse 25-34:  Trust in God for material needs and not to be anxious about Tomorrow.

 

Although these themes are vital to our catholic lives, it is so much harder to put into practice since the world encourages wealth and material needs, fashion particularly and wining and dining in general. The point of this gospel is Jesus assuring us that He knows that we need all these things- food, drink etc, but as His disciples we need to set our hearts on the kingdom first and on His righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. 

 

As His disciples, we are to put God first in our lives and trust Him, even when things do not seem to be going in the direction we may wish. We are not to worry about tomorrow (the future) since today has enough trouble of its own. From a personal perspective, I have fallen for the trap so many times of worrying about the future only to find that God graciously allowed the dreaded fear to not occur. I did not add another cubit to my span of life for worrying.  This part of the Gospel is always a timely reminder to me of God's providence.

 

So let us recommit this week to setting our hearts on the Kingdom first and trust God and His providence. After all our goal is Heaven- so let us trust the God with whom we hope to spend eternity.