Wednesday of the 5th week of Eastertide
or Blessed Edmund Rice, Religious
May 5th, 2010
‘ I am the and true vine and my father is the vinedresser.
John 15. 1
Jesus has given us many images of his heavenly Father. We find comfort in the picture of the Prodigal Father welcoming home his wayward son. At the Last Supper, however, our Lord gives us a new image of God. He is a vinegrower with a sharp knife who prunes the vine to make it grow more fruit.
A good vinedresser knows the right time to prune and he knows where to cut the branches. He always prunes with great care and his work bears fruit. Now Jesus said that we are the branches who need pruning. How does our Heavenly father prune us? We can be sure that he prunes us with gentleness. So let us trust him even when it hurts.
I’m reminded of a saintly old priest whom people used to visit in time of trouble. His advice was always the same, ‘leave yourself in God’s hands. He knows what is best for you right now and he will treat you with tenderness and care’
Prayer
God Our loving Father, you are the vine-dresser who prunes each of us with great care so that we may bear more fruit. We leave ourselves in your strong and gentle hands for you know what is best for us. Help us to trust you when we feel your sharp touch. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
