Collect for 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C

 

COLLECT SERIES

 

The Mass: Collect Series Icon.

COLLECT

 

The Collect for Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C reads as follows:

Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care,

that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace,

they may be defended always by your protection

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Spend some time in reflection on my life/ this last month/last week on the unfailing care of God. Acknowledge these times and spend time thanking God for them.

2. How do I rely on the hope of heavenly grace in my life?

3. What are the securities in my life I use rather than the hope of heavenly grace?

4. What areas in my life do I want and/or need protection from God?

5.  What does unfailing care mean to me in my relationship with God?

6.  When I attend Mass next Sunday, how will I have grown spiritually? (decide on an area to work on this coming week).

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

Today’s Gospel is from Lk 5:1-11.   There are a number of aspects to this gospel.

1. Jesus is teaching the crowd. This is like a collective approach- perhaps like a priest giving a homily at Mass.  There is a crowd but each person is listening and responding to their best ability.( hopefully).  Each person is filtering as well according to their circumstances. Have you ever heard a homily and thought ‘that was for me’.  I have from time to time and when that moment comes, I have so much gratitude because I know that God is providing for me with unfailing care at that moment.  Yes, He provides every day, every week but I am more receptive at that moment and the fire in my soul is recharged, relit and burns.

2. Jesus and Peter encounter:  When Peter realises the enormity of the miracle, he realises the enormity of this unworthiness.  Jesus does not want us to grovel but we do need to acknowledge with humility that God is God and we ourselves do not make things change.  It is God.  The more we acknowledge that God is the Creator, the Provider, the Lover of Me, and I am the created- whom God loves intensely, the easier it is as we are in right relationship.  When we think that we are in control, we make things happen, we do this, we set goals/dreams then our relationship with God is out of sync.  

3. Peter’s response:  Peter did not stop there stuck in his unworthiness but saw the need of other disciples and went and helped them.  We  too must look around and see the need of others and in love, help them.  We must ask Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see this need and the grace to help others in the way God wants.  In this way we can cooperate with God and be His channel of grace to others.  Remember we have countless opportunities to help others every day- it does not have to be a big action- a smile, a kind word, active listening to someone in need emotionally or spiritually, helping a colleague at work who is struggling with a task, doing the dishes, laying the table etc. The key is our own inner attitude-  think of the love that God has shown me in my life and out of gratitude and love for God, choose to help others who are in need.  Do we help others because we have to or think we ought to or do we help others because God has given me so much that I want to pass it on to others.  Think of Peter’s response here.  He knew he was unworthy but he also knew that despite his humanity he still had to help others because God truly loved him. 

4. The response of Jesus- Jesus tells Peter of his mission : from now on it is not fish that you will catch but men’.  In other words, with the skills that Peter had as a fisherman he would use those skills to ‘catch people not fish’.

What mission is Jesus giving you?  What skills do you have that Jesus will use in a different way for the building up of the kingdom?   What is Jesus asking of me this year?

 

On a personal note:  I have started reading the Gospel from Sunday night through to Saturday evening in preparation for the following Sunday.  I used to do this years ago and I found it to be a wonderful way to prepare for Mass.  Sadly I stopped doing this for ages but thankfully, I was reminded of it recently and decided to reinstate it again in my prayer life.  The benefit of it is that by reading and reflecting upon the Gospel ( and other readings too) is that certain phrases or lines, or even just words emerge for consideration each day.  My favourite line from this Gospel is’ If you say so, I will pay out the nets’.  

I have found this to be useful in ordering my day.  I tell Jesus all the things I wish to accomplish for that day in the order I think I will do them.  Then I ask Jesus is this the most efficient way to achieve these tasks?  I listen and the Holy Spirit  often suggests a different order.  I have to say that for a long time that I have either not asked God or have ignored the advice sadly. However I was drawn to this line throughout this week. So, when I presented my day list to God and when I felt the Holy Spirit give a different order, I responded with’ If you say so, I will pay out the nets’.  The results have been astonishing this week- I really should not be astonished as it is God directing me. I feel this week that I have tried my best to cooperate and be in relationship with God and it has started to build trust with Him again. I also like Peter wanted to acknowledge that I am human- the created not the creator and learning to have humility is key.  I do not achieve through my own gifts/abilities and skills since God provided them in the first place.

If you have not tried something like this before be patient with yourself.  Just commit to reading the Gospel for the following Sunday ( or if you prefer the previous Sunday) and read and reflect on it. Jot down in a journal the words, lines or overall response you have. Then ask God to help you act upon the Gospel in your day.

I am not writing this to give myself a pat on the back or be proud, but to share my experience of how living out the scripture through reflection can make a huge difference and if it is something you might to take to God in your prayer to see whether it is what God wants for you right now.  It may or may not be- Ask God.  If it is not what God is asking of you right now, then ask Him to show you the way for you.  

If it is, then even if you have doubts and fears or think you know better ( like Peter and myself too) then just say and mean with all your heart

 ‘ If you say so, I will pay out the nets’.