Twentieth Sunday of Year A Collect

The Collect for the Twentieth Sunday of Year A reads as follows:

O God who have prepared for those who love You

good things which no eye can see,

Fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of Your love,

so that loving You in all things and above all things,

we may attain your promises

which surpasses every human desire.

 

 

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

 

1. What does God's love mean for me?

2.  How is my love for God? What one aspect will I change this week?

3. What challenges do I have in relationship with God's love for me?

4.How will I live out my love for God this week by loving Him in all things and above all things?

5.What are the promises that God offers and that we wish to attain?

 

Today's Gospel of the Cannite Woman bringing her need to Jesus expresses not only the faith of the woman, in face of rejection but shows that with perseverance she is able to get the healing for her daughter.  Parents want to be able to give the best to their children, but when they are sick, they will go to extraordinary lengths to assist the sick child in order that they will be well again.   This woman is no different.  She is persistent in her requests to Jesus, not for herself, but for her sick child.

 

Some people might think that God is a begrudging  God wanting us to grovel before Him, before He considers our need.  No definitely not.  They are mistaken.  .

When we are praying and/or interceding for another person, we too need to be persevering and persistent.  God hears the first time- in fact He knows the need before we even ask.   Being persevering in prayer when interceding is important as it brings not only the request but the people for whom we ask closer to God and ourselves as well.  We enter into dialogue with Him about our concern, just as the Cannite Woman did with Jesus.  When we recognize that we have nowhere else to turn, clinging to the only One who can answer us is an act of faith.

 

We need therefore to pray with faith when we are praying ourselves, but especially when we are interceding for other people and we need to persevere in asking, knowing that God will bring something good from our prayer.  It may be not we asked or what the person thinks that they need at that time, but God will always do what is best for us.  We need to persevere in prayer and pray with faith. 

 

 

 





Nineteenth Sunday Year A

The Collect for the Nineteenth Sunday of Year A reads as follows:

 

Almighty ever-living God,

whom, taught by the Holy Spirit,

we dare to call God our Father,

bring, we pray, perfection in our hearts

the spirit of adoption as Your sons and daughters

that we may merit into the inheritance

which You have promised.

 

 

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

 

 

1. How would you describe your father (either living or deceased)  to someone who had never met him?

2. What qualities  of my father reflect/ed God as Father?

3. What does it mean to me to call God as my Father?

4. What does it mean to me to be a son or daughter of God?

5. How will being a son or daughter of God make a difference in my life this coming week?

6.  What changes in my attitudes/behaviours will I make this week to merit my inheritance?

 

 

Matthew's Gospel Chapter 14:22-33 is the story of Christ commanding Peter to come to him across the water.   I love this gospel because of the encounter Peter has with Jesus.  Peter has enthusiasm and faith and yet  fear and doubt.  He is willing and enthusiastic to follow Christ's command to walk on the water and whilst he has faith, he is successful at what he thought was impossible. Of course, as soon as he took his eye from Jesus  and allowed doubt and  the fear of the wind to grip him, he faulted. However he cried out with a prayer from the heart ''Lord save me'.

 

Peter's enthusiasm and faith in Jesus is there to remind us that we too must possess these qualities. We must be prepared to give our all in faith and trust Jesus with the outcome.  Without that initial step of Peter from the boat, he would not have experienced his walking on water- something no doubt he thought impossible. Remember he was a fishermen so knowledge of the water was like the back of his hand to him. He trusted Jesus in his heart initially to do what he asked. Do we do the same?

 

Then of course there is Peter's doubt and fear which sets in.  Why does it set in? Precisely because he took his eye and focus from Jesus and allowed self doubt and fear to rule his thoughts.  He looked down rather than kept his gaze on Jesus.   I don't know about you, but I can sure relate to this side of Peter's personality.

 

So how is this story from the gospel relevant to us?  Let's be practical for a moment.  Perhaps you have a new business,  craft or hobby or language you would like to learn or have started. Maybe you started it, like Peter, with enthusiasm and joy and you made some progress in learning or starting the new business.  You started or want to start with enthusiasm because you know with God's help you can learn this new skill.   However then you met up with the knockers in life- perhaps yourself as the inner critic or perhaps others who made unhelpful comments. These added up in your mind and the doubt and fear crept in or it might have hit like a force of wind.

Either way, you no longer saw the goal of learning the new skill with the help of Jesus as the goal, but the doubt and fear grip you instead.  Do you cry out in faith and in fear ''Lord save me''. Do we hear the voice of Jesus say '' Courage it is I''.

 

God gives us both the enthusiasm and faith and the doubt and fear  in our personalities but we can choose to live with one or the other.  Which one will you choose?

 

 Let us stay focused as we keep our eye on Jesus this week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Collect for the Transfiguration of Our Lord reads as follows:

O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration

of Your Only Begotten Son

confirmed the mysteries of faith by the witnesses of the Fathers

and wonderfully prefigured our full adoption of Sonship,

grant we pray, to your servants,

that, listening to the voice of your Only beloved Son,

we may merit to become co-heirs with Him.

 

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

 

1. What does the feast of the Transfiguration mean to me?

2. How does this feast impact on my life and how might it impact this coming week?

3. What does it mean to me to be a co-heir with Christ?

4.  What is the quality of my listening to the voice of Christ in my prayer and in my life?

5.  What are the hindrances/blockages that get in the way of my listening to the voice of Christ?

6. What steps will I take during the month of August to work towards removing one of those blockages.

 

Let us think for a moment what are the qualities required for listening- listening to a friend, listening to a programme on TV/radio or listening to nature?

 

1. There needs to be a decision/choice to listen. Without this conscious choice to listen, then we may be still hearing aurally but not consciously. The choice to listen changes the nature of our listening.

 

2. We need to be receptive to what we are hearing. If we listen to a friend with the attitude of we are waiting for them to finish so we can launch into our own monologue, then our friend will not have felt listened to and we have lost an opportunity to be receptive to someone else. Listening is a two way process. We need to listen with our ears and our heart and with our mouth shut.  You know the old saying that God gave us 2 ears and one mouth for a reason.

 

3. We need to let go our own needs/ agendas/thoughts when we truly listen to another person. We need to listen with our heart.

 

4.We need to tune in to what the person is saying and often what the person is not saying- what is between the lines...body language can give us vital clues but when we are really tuned in, we can pick up what is really being said and felt.

 

5. We need to suspend our own thoughts/agendas or hypotheses( even when they are accurate) so that we can truly listen.  The other person may not be ready to hear what we have to offer- they need at first to be heard and often people who are heard and feel heard make their own decision/choice of what to do. It becomes obvious to them and we do not need to actually say it.  We, by listening have given them a path of receptivity to themselves.

 

When we listen to the voice of God, many people find it frightening because they are not used to being receptive, silencing the noise of life around them to find the quiet inner voice of God within them.

A lot of what I have said about listening above also applies to our listening to the voice of God. Obviously we cannot see God so do not have the benefit of body language but as we come more accustomed to listening to God, we do understand at some level His body language for us.

 

First there is the choice/decision.. this is crucial.  I want to listen to what God wants to say to me. Perhaps God does not want to say something to me but He would like me to be in His presence.

We need to silence the outer chatter, which initially can be tricky if we do not know how.  Learning to slow down our breathing and using a phrase or word when the outer chatter pops up in our mind can be most useful as it helps us to refocus and to reaffirm our choice to listen to God and to be in His presence.

 

Remember listening on a human or God level is a two way process.  Often we may have a lot to tell God- He is listening.  How much of our conversation with God is us talking and us listening? 

 

The other aspect about this Feast that is important for us is that it gives us hope of future glory- our future glory. We too will be transformed when we get to Heaven.

However, we can start the process now- the decisions we make for good/evil/not so good,  the temptations we avoid, the decisions we make to grow in our faith and to live it out with passion and zeal- all of these steps are part of our process of transformation.  Sometimes people are given a 180 Degrees transformation but for many people it is a day to day choice in little things that lead to a transformation of equal magnitude.

Sometimes we are given moments of mountain top experience which, like the disciples do not want to come down the mountain- it is wonderful for us to be here.  My recent holiday is one such experience which has been a transforming moment for my life- something very precious. 

 

So take a moment to examine your life- what is good/ what needs improving and what needs to change.  Make the decision to explore and bring God into your exploration- listen and be receptive to what God is telling you right now for your life.

 

God truly listens to us so why not give Him a listening ear this week.