Thursday of the 7th week of Eastertide
or Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest
May 20th, 2010
"For you are my rock, my fortress; For the sake of your name, guide me, lead me"
Ps. 31 : 3
God’’s voice is not a voice coming to us from outer space. No, God speaks to us primarily in and through the world in which we live. God is mystery. He is everywhere, he is infinitely real. We need to be attuned to His sacred presence in all life on our planet.
When we humans first appeared about seven million years ago in the grasslands of Africa we were very close to nature. We learned from it and worked with it and shared in its growth. To-day, however, our consumer society is destroying the beauty and harmony of our world.
There is an urgent need to establish a new relationship with the earth. All life on the planet is sacred whether human or otherwise. All are interconnected and inter dependant. All are welcome at our common “table.”
The Gospel parable tells of the great feast to which the King (Lk. 14 : 21) invited the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Everyone and everything on earth owes its existence to God, solar systems, rocks, plants, fish, animals and human beings. “God has arranged everything in the universe in consideration of everything else.” St. Hildegard of Bingen.
Prayer
Prayer : Lord, our God, your Church is like a ship on a stormy sea. Raise up prophets to guide her and lead her forward, so that we, your people may continue to follow the parth you have chosen for us. In you O Lord we put our trust. Do not abandon us in our time of need. This we ask 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.”
