Collect for 17th Sunday of Year

COLLECT SERIES.

 

THE MASS  COLLECT SERIES ICON.

COLLECT

The Collect for the 17^TH Sunday of the Year C reads as follows:

O God, protector of those who hope in You,

Without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy,

Bestow in abundance Your mercy upon us and grant that with You as our ruler and guide,

We may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those than every endure.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,

Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

One God, for ever and ever.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS.

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

1.    Why do I hope in God and why will I hope in Him this coming week?

2.    How has/ is God my protector?

3.    What are the things in my life that have firm foundation and how are they connected to God?

4.    Why do we need to ask for mercy?

5.    How is God my ruler and guide and how will He be this coming week?

GOSPEL REFLECTION.

The Gospel is from St. Luke, 11:1-13 in which we hear Luke's rendition of the "Our Father" and Jesus' teaching on prayer.

The Our Father is certainly the most sublime formula possible and contains the whole essence of the most elevated mental prayer. However, Jesus gave it as a formula for vocal prayer: " When you pray, say. . . "

This is enough to make us understand the value and importance of vocal prayer, which is within the reach of everyone even children, the uneducated, the sick, the weary.... But we must realize that vocal prayer does not consist only in the repetition of a certain formula. If this were true, we should have a recitation but not a prayer, for prayer always requires a movement, an elevation of the soul toward God. In this sense,

Jesus instructed His disciples: "When thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret.... And when you are praying, speak not much as the heathens" (Mt 6:6-7). It is interesting to note that in St. Matthew these prescriptions concerning the exterior and interior dispositions necessary for well-made prayer immediately precede the teaching of the Our Father.

Therefore, in order that our vocal prayer be real prayer, we must first recollect ourselves in the presence of God, approach Him, and make contact with Him. Only when we have such dispositions will the words we pronounce with our lips express our interior devotion and be able to sustain and nourish it.

 Unfortunately, inclined as we are to grasp the material part of things instead of the spiritual, it is only too easy in our vocal prayer to content ourselves with a mechanical recitation, without taking care to direct our heart to God; hence we should always be vigilant and alert. Vocal prayer made only by the lips dissipates and wearies the soul instead of recollecting it in God; it cannot be said that this is a means of uniting us more closely to Him.

.

Today marks the middle of Ordinary Time (33 weeks total). There are 5 months until Christmas and 4 months until the new Church year beginning in Advent.

This week therefore is an ideal time to make a stock take of our life- but particularly our spiritual life.  A few questions to get us thinking about it might be:

1.    Where do I want my spiritual life to be by end of the liturgical year?

2.    What areas of my spiritual life are working and which ones are not?

3.    Why are these areas working or not working?

4.    What areas do I need to change/grow/ nurture in my spiritual life.

5.    What steps can I realistically put into place to make the necessary changes.

The big question in my mind is Do I want to wake up on First Sunday of Advent and think – another liturgical year thank heavens because I wish I had not wasted this one.( current year).

We have 4 months to the start of the liturgical year. Do something worthwhile with these 4 months in our spiritual lives.  For example I know I tend to go through phases and when I watch too much TV, my spiritual prayer life suffers.  So for me, one simple and yet sometimes hard thing to do is pick up the remote and turn the TV off and spend that time in prayer instead and establish a better prayer schedule.

I encourage you to identiy the areas in our spiritual lives that need attention- need a make over or need extra care. Work out a plan and do something worthwhile with these areas. Then we will wake up on First Sunday of Advent knowing that we have been good stewards of our time this year and we will not regret the time we have wasted or ignored in pursuit of holiness.

Start your plan today.