Archive for July, 2010
Prayer
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Prayer No. 184
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010Today we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas whose name is associated not with having great faith but with having great doubt! Very little is known about him apart from the Gospel account, but tradition holds that he preached the Gospel in India. Faith is a gift, and Jesus led Thomas to faith by allowing him to see and touch his wounds. Thomas, on putting his hands into these wounds, comes to faith and declares “My Lord and my God.”
Pope Gregory the Great, reflecting on the life of St. Thomas, wrote: “The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other Disciples.”
Jesus led Thomas from unbelief to a sure and firm faith. God will do the same for us if we turn to the Holy Spirit and ask for the gift of faith. We were healed by Jesus’ wounds and we grow as Christians as we learn to gaze on the Risen Lord.
Prayer
Friday, July 2nd, 2010As usual Jesus poses problems for the religious experts as they cannot understand his ways. His ways are so different from theirs. They question his Disciples but Jesus knows their thoughts. Jesus answers instead of his Disciples. He tells them it is not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick.
Prayer No. 183
Friday, July 2nd, 2010In our reading today we once again meet the two words – faith and forgiveness. Both are linked together. Paralysis means restriction of movement and the loss of the power of feeling. At the words “Your sins are forgiven” Jesus knew immediately what his critics were thinking. This man from Nazareth is merely a man, and God alone can forgive sins. We can understand from today”’’s reading that the forgiveness of sins is a greater miracle than the physical healing Jesus brought to the disabled man.
A very common source of paralysis is fear, guilt, thinking oneself unworthy of love. The wisdom of the Church does not ask us to forget past hurts, but encourages us to talk them over in the sacrament of Reconciliation. In this sacrament we hear the words the paralysed man heard : “Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.”
The Holy Spirit is always working in us to convince us of this wonderful truth because it is through forgiveness that we experience God”’’s love.
Prayer
Thursday, July 1st, 2010The difference a few good friends can make is very evident here. The man who had spent his life horizontal would have one moment of vertical fame. The crowd whose very presence had barred his way in had two rude shocks. They hear Jesus forgiving sin and to prove he can forgive sin he cures the paralytic. The religious experts are scandalised but ignore the paralysed man.
Prayer No. 182
Thursday, July 1st, 2010This Psalm challenges us to put first the Kingdom of God and to give thanks for all we have received. It is addressed to all peoples making clear that we cannot serve both God and wealth. In this Psalm, God finds no fault in sacrifices as such. He does not need any kind of sacrifice, the need is on our side. Voluntary sacrifice is a means of expressing our appreciation of God’’s gifts in thanksgiving; of acknowledging the majority of God in adoration and in showing the sincerity of our sorrow for sin. “I find no fault with your sacrifices, your offerings are always before me.”
As we read in todays Gospel – Matthew 8 : 28 – 34 – it takes courage to be a true witness and to say “yes” to Christ so that we can extend his Kingdom of compassion and caring. Spiritual battle involves resisting the devil with the tools of faith. We pray the name of Jesus for protection.