COLLECT SERIES
The Mass: Collect Series Icon.
COLLECT
The Collect for the 18th
Sunday of Year reads as follows:
Draw near to Your servants, O
Lord
And answer their prayers with
unceasing kindness,
That, for those who glory in
You as their Creator and guide,
You may restore what You have
created,
And keep safe what You have
restored.
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:
- What is my attitude towards God?
- Do I accept fully that I am created by God and not the Creator?
- Do I believer that God always answers my prayers with unceasing kindness?
- Consider a prayer/desire/longing that I prayed for with great need and seemingly did not receive. Can I look back and realise how God answered my prayer in another far better way and/or saved me from a lot of pain.
- Do I truly desire God my Creator to restore me?
- What are the areas in my life that I need God to restore?
- How does God keep safe what He has restored in me?
GOSPEL
REFLECTION
Today’s Gospel from St. Matthew 14:13-21 is the miracle of
the five loaves and 2 fish when over 5000 people were fed and there were 12
baskets full left over. It also shows
Christ’s loving kindness and thoughtfulness since He saw the people's need - it
was late for them to return to their homes and they had had nothing to eat all
day - and He worked a miracle to provide for this need. It was interesting to note the contrast
between the loving kindness of Christ and the reaction of the disciples. They were
wanting to send the people to the villages to buy for themselves or for them to
go home. They did not see a way forward with the little that they had for such
a number. We might ask ourselves how
might we respond with the little we have? Are we willing to share it with other
people in need?
The Galileans were grateful to Him for providing so kindly and so
thoughtfully for their needs. The miracle also helped to convince the people of
Galilee - the news spread around quickly - that He was the expected Messiah,
but especially it prepared the way for the announcement of the greatest miracle
of all - the miracle of the Eucharist.
As St. John tells us Jesus referred to this miracle the next day
in order to introduce His promise of the heavenly bread which He would give
them and which was to be His own body and blood, under the form of bread and
wine. The bread He miraculously multiplied that day to supply the bodily needs
of the Galilean multitude was but a foreshadowing of that heavenly food which
He was about to give as spiritual nourishment to the millions who would become
His followers down through the centuries until the end of time.
We might ask ourselves
How much more grateful should we not be for the miracle by means of which He
has left us Himself to be our daily spiritual food? Do we receive Jesus fully
present in the Eucharist at Mass without any real desire, without any
preparation or without any thanksgiving?
We can also pray for countries in the world where attending Mass is impossible or where governments have forced Catholics to listen to a gospel that they have written and taken out parts of the Gospel which do not fit with their ideology, where they have banned children/young people under 18 from attending and where they are persecuting priests and lay people who do not obey their regime and a whole lot worse. Let us think of them when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion. Pray for our Catholic brothers and sisters deprived of their faith and let us cherish our ability to freely attend Mas whilst we still have it.
Has the closing of the churches during covid 19 and attending Mass
online increased our hunger for the Eucharist?
Has it made us reflect on how we have received Christ truly present in
the Eucharist at Mass in the past and made us resolve to be truly thankful,
long for Him and allow Christ to reflect Him in our world?
Though invisible to mortal eyes, He is as truly present on our
altars as He was that day in Galilee, when He miraculously fed the multitude.
He is present under the form of bread and wine — so that we can partake of Him
as spiritual nourishment during our earthly life. Could love go any further? He
Himself said: "A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life
for his friends" (Jn. 15 :13). Yes, once a man has given his life, he has
given his all; there is nothing more he can give. But Christ was more than man.
He was God as well, and, therefore, He was able not only to lay down His human
life for us, but was able and willing to remain with us after death under the
Eucharistic species: to be our strength and nourishment until we join Him in
the promised land of heaven.
When we compare
our own unworthiness with this, almost incredible, love and thoughtfulness of
Christ for us, we may wish to think and pray more fervently and with grate
desire:
"Lord, you know I am
not worthy for you to enter under my roof
and to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed..
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