tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46133008886530146672024-03-12T21:57:23.941-07:00Word in the Handwords are not enough but they are all I have - and some photosMairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.comBlogger568125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-40781572296953501572020-05-03T03:57:00.003-07:002020-05-03T04:03:33.952-07:00Listen <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Jesus said:<br /> ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’<br /> Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.<br /> So Jesus spoke to them again:<br />‘I tell you most solemnly,<br />I am the gate of the sheepfold.<br />All others who have come<br />are thieves and brigands;<br />but the sheep took no notice of them.<br />I am the gate.<br />Anyone who enters through me will be safe:<br />he will go freely in and out<br />and be sure of finding pasture.<br />The thief comes<br />only to steal and kill and destroy.<br />I have come<br />so that they may have life and have it to the full.’</i><br /><br /><br />Today is known as Vocations Sunday. In church we would be praying for a calling to the priesthood and religious life. In many parishes we would also be reminded that we laity have a vocation too - mothers, fathers, husbands...And often the list goes on and on - covering every 'type' of person you might be - just to make sure that we leave no-one out. We are reassured that God has given everyone of us something to do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But we are not called 'to do'. We are called to listen. We are called into a relationship with a God whose love is so tangible that we will never feel afraid. A God who will pick us up and wrap us round their shoulders if need be. We are called to know the 'sound' of God so well that we will never be distracted by that which wishes us ill. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the observations of the present lockdown is the increase in natural sounds, birdsong often so loud it seems artificial, and a realisation that we had become used to the engineered whine of aircraft overhead or the droning hum of traffic and rattle of trains. Instead we notice the bee among the dandelions and the shapes of birds as they cross overhead.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Rainbows, always magical, have become a symbol of these times. In the song 'I can sing a rainbow' are the lyrics </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'Listen with your eyes, Listen with your ears, And sing everything you see'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Perhaps this is how to follow your vocation. 'Listening' to the Lord so as to move closer, to lean in, to become absorbed, sometimes lost, and to find joy. To find 'life and have it to the full'.</span></div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-30897567448885826892020-04-19T14:43:00.000-07:002020-04-19T14:45:20.106-07:00Thomas II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Did anyone ever ask Thomas?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No one ever asked where I had been. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When the women had brought the message of his Resurrection, I had followed after the others. Seeing Peter confused - as ever- and John struck dumb for once, I prayed with all my heart for it to be true. The women said we had to go back to the Galilee but Peter was still rooted in indecision. There was no sign of us leaving the stale darkness of the upper room. Their words felt like dream memories. Hopes of another world - we were stuck in this one. I couldn't bear it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The others swore that they had seen the Lord, but where was the light? Where was his energy, his joy, his understanding? Where was he?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If it was true then why weren't we going to Galilee?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had said that we should come to die with him. It feels as though I have. My only refuge is the place where Mary had watched. Bundled into the low branches of the olive tree, wrapped still in the acrid scent of despair, I took the night watch on the abandoned tomb. What was I hoping for? That the Lord would find me, would say my name in the shadows? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Surely he should have known by now how helpless I am without him. Worried that, even with his promise, I would not find the way to his side. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why weren't we going to Galilee?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The feeling of abandonment rocked me. How easy for the women to show their feelings, tears flowing freely, wrapped in each others arms, distracted by burial traditions. finding meaning in death. Not so easy for a man. Death and sacrifice is what we are about - daggermen, warriors and priests. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The scent of the spilt herbs and spices rises into the air with the cooling earth. Oil of rosemary and balsam stinging my eyes, catching in my throat. I blink away a tear, then two. More fall and I let them burn into my cheeks, saltiness seeping along the cracks in my lips. From the depths of my being comes a groan. It forces its way through a deep inward breath and releases into the night sky as a howl. Release. I stalk the garden, howling and groaning like a madman, threshing through the bushes, throwing myself against the stone of the tomb, tearing at my clothes. A twin to the Genneseret demoniac - except - who was here to heal me?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The demons came at the scent of torment. But my despair was too complete; they wheeled away in frustration. My heart froze, hope denied. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There was no Galilee. That's why I went back. To tell them that there was no Galilee. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And there he was. Still carrying the horrors of the world whilst I stood wrapped up in my own pain. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And in my pain, he offered me the horrors of the world to hold. And to find him in all of it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I fell to my knees he covered me with his love.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why would anyone deny the Galilee of Hope.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My Lord and my God. </span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-72445802883512946992020-04-12T02:06:00.003-07:002020-04-12T03:00:08.799-07:00A cold and broken Hallelujah<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />John 20:1-9 <br /><br /><i>It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><br /> So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.</i><br /><br />It has been a great blessing to share the 'Hallelujah, Christ is Risen' welcome to the morning, not only with my 'far-away' friends but with the people I should be with for the Easter morning service. This, after all, is the reason for Lent's guiding, teaching, testing. This is the extra scene that you have to wait for, after the lights have gone down on the theatre of Holy Week, that makes it all worthwhile. <br /><br />Knowing this, people of faith have outdone themselves this year. Services from the kitchen table, recorded on phones, emailed family liturgies, prayers podcast-ed and televised; the liturgical elements translated and transformed into our home life. So many resources, we could probably celebrate personal and familial Easters for years to come. But that is not what we want. We want our community back, we want to be together, we want 'normal'. We want to share our Hallelujah with a handshake or an embrace.<br /><br />Across the world, we are still in the pre-dawn darkness of sorrow and anxiety. In some ways, it feels wrong to celebrate when so many are weary, so many are mourning. Are there not other priorities? The wonder of the Resurrection grates against the daily statistics of lives lost. Like the disciples, we are trying to support each other in a world turned upside-down, not knowing how to feel, how to act. Do they genuinely feel any better, seeing just an empty tomb or does this just raise even more questions, more inadequacies? I want to be the disciple who simply believes but like Mary I really just want to know where Jesus is, I want it explained and sorted. But that will take time. At least, for us, there is the gift of knowing the next part of this story.<br /><br />We live in the light of the Resurrection and the gift that gives us is hope. Hope often manifests itself as perseverance. And that's the gift we need in abundance, to sustain us in these times, to bring us to the blessed tomorrow. Let's begin by celebrating today. '</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Hallelujah, Christ is Risen' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"Do not be afraid, do not yield to fear. This is the message of hope. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>It is addressed to us today. These are the words that God repeats to us this very night."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>Pope Francis 2020</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Do not abandon yourselves to despair. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>St Pope John Paul II</i></span></div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-31637257546564484612020-04-05T09:30:00.000-07:002020-04-05T09:30:26.566-07:00Sing Hosannah!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Matthew 21:1-11</b><br />When they drew near to Jerusalem<div>
and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives,<br />Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,<br />‘Go into the village facing you,<br />and immediately you will find an ass tied,<br />and a colt with her: untie them and bring them to me.<br />If anyone says anything to you, you shall say,<br />“The Lord has need of them,”<br />and he will send them immediately.’<br />This took place to fulfil<br />what was spoken by the prophet, saying,<br /><i>‘Tell the daughter of Sion,<br />Behold, your king is coming to you,<br />humble, and mounted on an ass,<br />and on a colt, the foal of an ass.’</i><br />The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;<br />they brought the ass and the colt,<br />and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.<br />Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road,<br />and others cut branches from the trees<br />and spread them on the road.<br />And the crowds that went before him<br />and that followed him shouted,<br />‘Hosanna to the Son of David!<br />Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!<br />Hosanna in the highest!’<br />And when he entered Jerusalem,<br />all the city was stirred, saying, ‘Who is this?’<br />And the crowds said,<br />‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.’<br /><br /><br />It is a Church tradition, this time of year, to cover the statues of all our saints with purple cloth and to remove the arrangements of flowers. Even in usual circumstances baptisms are not carried out in Lent and weddings would be very unusual. The Church deliberately enters an atmosphere of austerity at odds with the blossoming Spring. This sense of the dramatic often calls people back to the church to experience the theatre of Holy Week, beginning with the oh-so-slightly embarrassing celebration of Palm Sunday. Gathering in the church carpark with the hope of good weather, catching the splash of holy water, not quite hearing the reading, not quite getting the Hosanna's in sync, apart from the children, never knowing what to do with the palm leaves until someone offers to fold them into a tidy cross.</div>
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But like all good family traditions - it's the slight embarrassing ones that we miss most (who doesn't resent the year you don't get a Christmas stocking). The church is not only austere, it is locked, and only pigeons and seagulls gather in the car park. We have been denied our custom, turned away from our 'home'. This year is different. </div>
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That year was different. Zechariah had spoken five hundred years earlier. A long time to feel lost and forgotten. A long time to be keeping watch at the gates of Jerusalem. No wonder the behaviour of the crowd is extravagant. Why the crowd, used to watching their words and holding their breath, shout out in praise whilst at the very same time voicing the question 'Who is this?'</div>
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This is Jesus. This year we get to follow him in our everyday life. Linked still to the liturgy and ceremonies of faith through media and prayer. Perhaps more than any other year, our relationship with Jesus is enmeshed in our home, in the mundane. We can take the time to make a palm leaf or place a green branch in our window, we can choose to acknowledge Jesus in any way we decide. We can carry the story in all we do. </div>
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This is Jesus and today he is entering my home, my life. Not for the one hour or so of a church service, but for the duration. As disciples, turning to him for guidance and reassurance in this most difficult of times. We can put away any sense of being part of the crowd, we can all say 'Hosanna' in our own way. </div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-45669774709609236212020-03-29T05:56:00.000-07:002020-03-29T05:56:47.920-07:00Urbi et Orbi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">John 11:1-45</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’ Jesus replied:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">because he has the light of this world to see by;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">but if he walks at night he stumbles,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">because there is no light to guide him.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.’ The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’ Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘I am the resurrection and the life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do you believe this?’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you.’ Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I knew indeed that you always hear me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We are told that we are still in the infancy of our social isolating and life-limiting experience, yet it seems fitting, if not challenging, that we are also in our annual quarantine (40 days) of Lent. Lent, even in sunnier, more hopeful times is meant to bring us to the core of who we are in our relationship with God. Each Gospel moves Jesus nearer to the dreadful inevitability of the Cross, something that surely must take all his focus, yet he is still distracted by the needs of others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">John's account is virtually Shakespearean. The mis-timing. The 'will he, won't he?'. The asides to the audience. The not quite unexpected finale where one imagines the whoops of celebration continuing whilst Jesus stoically turns his face again towards Jerusalem. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Some years this account seems like a precursor of the Resurrection, the power of God to answer prayer, to reach beyond death. Some years this feels like a dreadful poke in the eye for those who have asked God's help and felt refused, 'he save others why can't he save ....?' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This year?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This year, the world is ailing, the outbreak of the coronavirus has resulted in comic memes that the world has 'sent us to our rooms', a very human response of needing to laugh at fear so that we can deal with it. Fear has become the great leveler, no-one is immune, everyone is responsible. In many ways, we have stepped up, denying ourselves freedoms and exceptions, offering ourselves to the needs of others, carrying out rituals of protection with sanitiser, soap, and stripes of gaffer tape. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In faith, it has been remarkable how quickly the Church has found the world wide web (if it's still called that anywhere?). It has certainly left the building, with online communities building every day. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We build walls of prayer in the spaces we are able to fill and we pray not to become overcome with despair, entombed without hope. What more can we do? What more?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On Friday evening Pope Francis played both Martha and Mary in the desolate emptiness of St Peter's Square. A clip is included below. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Francis spoke for everyone. We know life has changed. We can't pretend that suffering is someone else's problem. There's no point in shame or blame. We know we know we are implicit in what has gone wrong. We know life must change, and change again, until we have a new way of living. We know that there hope and that we need help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Francis brought Jesus to the door of the tomb. Light into our darkness. An ancient blessing that lets go of all that was and begins again. Urbi et Orbi from heaven to the City and the World. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And with that blessing let's rise, let's work together, in faith and love, in service, for each other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Vor08elsY">Pope Francis </a></span></div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-23286066254758905962020-03-25T09:19:00.001-07:002020-03-25T09:20:13.459-07:00All in this together <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Gospel of Luke <br />
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The angel Gabriel said to Mary, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! <br />
The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.<br />
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The Feast of the Annunciation comes on the 25th day of the strangest Lent that most of us will every encounter. I am struck, this year, by the insistent certainty of Gabriel's address, an almost feverish prophetic race to the end of time, all depending on this one woman. And then Gabriel left. <br />
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How many people today are feeling that weight of responsibility on their shoulders? Anxious that their actions are the right 'next move' in the chain that keeps their family safe, their neighbour fed, their patient well. How many are wondering why them, why now, why this?<br />
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Most of us, I imagine. I wonder how many of us, hearing Mary's 'yes' as the 'let's get on with it then' yes of a pragmatic woman of faith, have decided that their actions will prove that 'nothing is impossible to God'.<br />
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For it's true that we may feel that the angel has left us. There may be those whose anxiety is driving them to hoarding, and others, whose eye for gain is seeking out profiteering opportunities, and yet others whose sense of invincibility seems to be tempting fate. <br />
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But. <br />
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There are neighbours, who have never spoken, looking out for each other, social media acting 'socially', volunteers signing up in their thousands, people sewing face masks, children teaching their elders how to use video calling, taxi drivers delivering groceries, key workers across many disciplines working that one more day, school staff caring for children, businesses and individuals making gestures of goodwill and many, many small acts of kindness.<br />
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The world is still full of Grace.<br />
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Today, Pope Francis asked us all to pray the Lord's Prayer, the prayer Jesus teaches us, the prayer that reminds us we are family. We pray for all who are suffering and all who are caring for them. <br />
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Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. <br />
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, <br />
As it is in heaven. <br />
Give us this day our daily bread. <br />
And forgive us our trespasses, <br />
As we forgive those who trespass against us. <br />
And lead us not into temptation, <br />
But deliver us from evil.<br />
Amen <br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-86302753602694392562018-04-02T10:12:00.000-07:002018-04-02T10:17:01.146-07:00The servant’s name was Malchus. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">Easter Midrash </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">An imagined story of Good Friday </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">"The servant’s name was Malchus." John 18:10</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">The servant's name <i>is</i> Malchus. I am not dead yet, rather, far from it. I don't know how others felt when they were healed but the inside of a miracle is a place of light and clarity beyond any new dawn. The complex weaving of skin only reflecting the myriad unravelling of thoughts and memories below the surface. Paths of life's story being made straight.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">My name is Malchus. Named by my mother. Her bedtime tale that I was named after the appearance, in Jerusalem, of regal scholars from the East. Magi seeking a king who had not yet been born. A slave herself, she had stood holding a lamp as the temple priests and scribes argued amongst themselves; no-one wishing to tell Herod that the prophecy was not for his line. When I was born just a few days later, I became her little 'king'. That's what Malchus means. I didn't thank her for it. Growing up in slave quarters I learnt what my real place was. In response to the insults, I grew up silent and sly; listening for the opportunity to get my own back on my persecutors. In time, the prefect qualifications for a servant attending the inner circle of priests. Eventually, as the 'ear' of Caiaphas, I would wander the city streets and market-places, listening for whatever gossip, scandal or hint of rebellion might be worth knowing. Valuable insights brought reward. And what of those who suffered? What of them?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">It was after Jesus had caused the riot in the temple. I had heard the rumours but he seemed just another countryside rabbi out of his depth in the city. Though I had obediently carried back whatever I learnt. Caiaphas told me not to come back this time without an answer to this 'problem'. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">I found some of his followers sat outside one of those inns which appear as no more than sailcloth canopies over trestle tables whenever there's a festival. As I slowed, I noted that their discussion was fired by anger. Sensing an opportunity, I sat down nearby, there was barely a glance from the men. I recognised Peter and Judas as two of his closed friends. The younger man, John, seemed distressed by their conversation. The words 'loyalty', 'trust' and 'faith' were being thrown to and fro. Words that, spoken in anger, are music to my ears. When Peter stood up and hissed 'You were never one of us.' before dragging John away, I knew I had my man. I waited until their backs melted into the crowd then shifted my posture. From my own persecuted childhood I was able to say with enough conviction, how I understood what it was to hear 'not one of us'. It was a risk, but it was enough. Some say it's hard to get men to talk. Believe me, all it takes is an ear willing to listen, especially through anger and tears. After a while, a few solicitous words was all it took for me to bring the 'answer' to Caiaphas. Judas, disillusioned and distressed, found a legitimacy in treason.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It wasn't my usual role to accompany the guard. Judas wasn't altogether to be trusted if his wits returned and there could be more evidence to be gathered. As we entered the garden I automatically drifted towards the back of the company. Jesus spoke without fear, as though he had written the encounter himself. I moved forward to hear him interrogate the guards. Peter, less composed, jittered like a hooked fish, his hand hovering over the pommel of a short sword, desperate to act. When our eyes met, there was immediate recognition and reaction. The blow knocked me to ground, the pain exploded in my head and the taste of blood filled my mouth. The darkness was a sickening whirl until a hand touched my face and then held my head. Despite the roaring, angry voices, I was touched by a sublime peace. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">I watched the rest of the scene play out through veils of consciousness, helpless to act as my saviour was dragged away by the melee. Only the young man, John, took a moment to stop and mark my healing. He gestured that I should stay where I was. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">I couldn't bear to move. The sounds of anger gave way to the sounds of the night; the rhythm of insect calls and whispering leaves. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">I recalled the wonder of my mother's voice speaking of the true king who was foretold and for who I was named. Felt sorrow that I was part of the betrayal whilst knowing myself healed and forgiven. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">Amongst all the fury of the world, I lay like a child with my ear against the dewy earth, listening to the heartbeat of the divine. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">My evidence was not given at the high priest's house. It wasn't needed. The lies were enough. </span></span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-11329151036545445862017-05-28T01:10:00.000-07:002017-05-28T01:10:58.218-07:00Good enough<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="right"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunday Gospel - Matthew 28:16-20 </span></th></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's Matthew so it must be the (now) Eleven. It doesn't mean that only they were there, any more than only they were there at the Last Supper. But imagery is important; the infant church will begin by following in the footsteps of Jacob's sons. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And like Jacob's sons, they remain a motley crew of eager yet nervous, unsure yet faithful followers. And if there is no other reason for reading scripture it is this one; to realise that God's people have always been a doubting, meddling, anxious, cowardly, hesitant, wrangling lot. Which is why they are God's people - knowing they wouldn't get very far on their own.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that God wouldn't have it any other way.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's Matthew, so there must be a mountain - a ancient meeting place of the Divine and humanity. This time there is no bright lights, no unearthly voice, no ancestral fathers, no time to make a tent. There is - only Jesus. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And Jesus tells the disciples that that he is enough. That they can keep all their faults, their feelings and their failings because he is enough.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How subversive is that? That you are good enough to do God's work - just as you are? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can barely scroll through a few internet pages without getting '7 steps to success' or '5 ways of winning' or 'Tips to the top' - all intended to create a desire for a life, lifestyle, relationships or career that is all about the <i>better </i>us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it is a sad truth that we have churches filled -or rather not filled - with exclusions and exceptions. That we judge others and continue to judge ourselves. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that now churches are developing marketing strategies and training people to be the 'new' face of evangelism. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Surely, it's more important to be the 'true' face of evangelism? That it's only our hearts that matter. That it is our flaws, our vulnerability and our compassion that deny us the opportunity to look the other way. It is our love for others that offers others hope. It is only by our example of who we are that we can bring others to where they want to be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The actions of the Manchester heroes show the true face of discipleship. The people who lifted themselves out of the everyday, who tore down their usual safety nets to reach out and do the 'work'. Whether they were of any faith or no faith, the teaching of Jesus - to love as we love our ourselves - has embedded itself into the psyche of the world and continues to be expressed by people who only ever describe themselves as ordinary. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am often confused by people who anticipate the second coming when we are already blessed with 'now here'. This Gospel reminds us that Jesus is 'present tense'. We turn to him and he is already here. </span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-36994883404696328552017-05-07T03:25:00.000-07:002017-05-07T03:25:10.877-07:00Don't be a stranger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus said: ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’<br /><br /> Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.<br /> So Jesus spoke to them again:<br />‘I tell you most solemnly,<br />I am the gate of the sheepfold.<br />All others who have come<br />are thieves and brigands;<br />but the sheep took no notice of them.<br />I am the gate.<br />Anyone who enters through me will be safe:<br />he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.<br />The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.’</span></i><br />
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<span style="text-indent: -3em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Christianity is about discipleship; which strangely translates as being a sheep...and whilst I'm not very keen on being compared to a sheep maybe that's my lesson in humility. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus used the culture of his time to teach about discipleship. We laugh at the thought of being sheep but we all know that the devotion of animals to their masters can't be overstated. And, at the time, it was sheep that portrayed this. Sheep are devoted to their shepherd and to each other; they know each others fears and sees the flock, the community, as the most important thing in the world. The shepherd knows that keeping them close - from birth, through first steps and brave leaps; by words and whistle and songs and midnight stories under starry skies - that those sheep become his; bleating hearts and shaggy souls. <span style="text-indent: -3em;">When they are lost - it is the end of the world - the bleating of a lost sheep would drive you mad. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -3em;">After the weeks of fearful discipleship, the Church takes us back in time with a reminder of why we are not meant to be fearful. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When I was little this week was called Good Shepherd Sunday and we would pray for vocations for the Missions fearing for the souls of those who had not heard the Good News. These days we simply pray for vocations. </span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: -3em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At a recent Chrism Mass, Pope Francis made this statement;</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 22.07px; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>“The priest who seldom goes out of himself … misses out on the best of our people, on what can stir the depths of his priestly heart. … This is precisely the reason why some priests grow dissatisfied, lose heart and become in a sense collectors of antiquities or novelties — instead of being shepherds living with ‘the smell of the sheep.’ This is what I am asking you — be shepherds with the smell of sheep.”</i></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 22.07px; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="line-height: 22.07px; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> In Francis' book, 'The Church of Mercy', he directs this same idea with more fervour to those who are our 'teachers, priests and shepherds'.</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 22.07px; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So it isn't just vocation - it is the dedication and stamina to see the vocation through. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Francis talks about the need to 'stay put' with the flock, to walk with it, before and behind it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Those who have taken on the promises of Peter may have every reason to avoid the long road. Jesus knew what he was doing when he chose the shepherd for a symbol - there is very little to be envious of. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">As the seasons pass, liturgical and natural, there is a real sense of the eternal, circling, renewal - tasks of shearing, birthing, feeding and watering, healing, letting go of the sick, seeking the lost</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> - there is no 'once and for all'. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">It's not one parish family, but many, that will pass through from cradle to grave. And among the many undoubted joys; all those issues that get dealt with only to arise elsewhere; conflicts brought to reconciliation in one place and bubbling beneath the surface somewhere else; having to decide whose priority is </span><i style="line-height: 22px;">the </i><span style="line-height: 22px;">priority. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Going to bed with other people's problems doesn't allow for a quiet night. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">And it's not only the ordained priests, surely any one of us, involved in the slightest of ministries, could imagine the role of shepherd with a 'flock' of our own? And sometime, get weary of what the role asks of us.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">The strange thing is, we may think we are shepherds, but we are, at best, responsible sheep. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">There is only one Good Shepherd, Jesus, and we are all listening out for his voice and watching out for his footprints. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Within the flock, we may have better ears or eyes, a better gift for sensing danger, a nose for the best pasture, a head for heights, a natural maternal instinct, an enthusiastic gang leader. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Nevertheless, we are all sheep. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">And sheep are healthy, happy and secure when they not alone.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">This way, Francis' advice makes far more sense. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">To be satisfied with what you do - be part of who you are. </span></span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-29601855499628541072017-04-22T08:28:00.000-07:002017-04-22T08:28:09.959-07:00How happy?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</th><th align="right"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">of John 20:19-31 </span></th></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>‘As the Father sent me,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>so am I sending you.’</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>After saying this he breathed on them and said:</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>‘Receive the Holy Spirit.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>For those whose sins you forgive,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>they are forgiven;</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>for those whose sins you retain,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>they are retained.’</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>‘You believe because you can see me.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”<br />― C.S. Lewis</i></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wonder if Thomas was an identical twin and if so, had he and his brother had ever played tricks on people about which of them was which? Or maybe not tricks - just the general confusion that happens when people find twins difficult to tell apart. At least until you really get to know them. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Maybe with Thomas, it was more the fact that he was a twin than a doubter; that he knew you cannot just go by appearances. Jesus had already played the role of the gardener and the wandering teacher without being recognised. If Thomas was going to believe then he wanted to recognise Jesus' heart - he wanted to touch it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many people, myself including, have a desire to experience the Risen Christ; isn't this just what Easter is meant to be about? To experience the supernatural; the paradox of knowing that Eternity has been changed; that the gates of Heaven have been opened and the Kingdom of God is here.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Is that why many people, myself included, end up with a sense of anti-climax; wondering if it was worth it. After all that Lenten denial and journeying; after all the rituals and liturgies of Holy Week; after the candles, splashing, incensing, singing, solemnity and promises of last Saturday and Sunday - to be surrounded by the deep sighs and hrumph's of life 'getting back to normal' and wondering 'what was that all about?'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thomas must have wondered; after the judgement and the death; even after the claims of the resurrection - whilst his brothers and sisters are sitting behind closed doors and windows and he is trying to gather supplies and wangle a way to get them back to Galilee - or whatever it was he was doing - 'what was that all about?'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Poor Thomas even missed it this time; the beginning of this passage when Jesus reminds the fearful followers what it<i> is</i> all about. And it is a reminder - they have heard in in sermons and parables; they have seen in healings and accusations; Simon Peter even had a heart to heart with Jesus about it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is the Spirit of Forgiveness; forgiveness that we struggle so much with; forgiveness of the most Grace-ful, unreasonable and undeserved kind. To be able to forgive the friend and the stranger; the valued and unworthy; the confused and the guilty; those that will not say sorry and those that cannot; and especially to forgive those who cannot forgive themselves.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, if we do not forgive, then to bear all that that means on ourselves.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thomas asked for the opportunity to get inside Jesus - instead Jesus got inside him - as he gets inside each of us.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We breathe with Jesus' breath; with the Father's breath</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">; we have the same ministry that Jesus was given; to speak with his Spirit that gives people hope, dignity and joy - that's about 'not normal' and as supernatural as you are ever going to experience. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you accept it...if you say...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My Lord and my God.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.<br />If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.<br />If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.<br />If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.<br />The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.<br />Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.<br />For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818;">― Mother Teresa</span></i></span></span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-17438948190983885712017-04-16T02:18:00.000-07:002017-04-18T11:56:18.950-07:00Beyond Belief<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><b>Matthew 28:1-7</b><br /><br /><i>After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God's angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. Shafts of lightning blazed from him. His garments shimmered snow-white. <br /><br />The guards at the tomb were scared to death. They were so frightened, they couldn't move. The angel spoke to the women: "There is nothing to fear here. I know you're looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed. <br />"Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, 'He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.' That's the message." </i><br /><br /> So, if you were looking for a bit of cataclysmic action, Matthew's version of events is a little more like it. The earth reeled and a shining angel appeared; lightning blazing from him - that must have been a sight to behold. And the guards, more afraid than the women; showed how little regard Matthew had for the Romans. But the bolts are from Heaven, the angel is from the Father and Jesus is still not around.<br /><br />There seems to be very little the Gospel writers can do to make the account of the Resurrection action-packed. And, perhaps, out of all the requests for evidence, for proof - this is it. That it is beyond exaggeration, beyond story-telling, it happened, no-one is ever going to tell you how, and it is up to you to believe it, or not.<br /><br />If you believe it, even if you believe with all your heart and mind and soul, the truth is that you will never convince another - the Resurrection is not an event that translates - they will have to make their own journey through a dark night and a dawn-lit garden to the empty tomb and decide for themselves.<br /><br />wordinthehand 2017</span></div>
Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-13422585554345199232017-04-09T10:36:00.000-07:002017-04-09T10:36:09.837-07:00The price of peace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Palm Sunday </b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Matthew 21:1-11</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Matthew 26:14-27:66</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In previous years, I have speculated on the need to have the Passion readings repeated over two weeks. Why put us in the place we are going to when, all through Lent, we have been trying to avoid the deja-vu experience of hindsight?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The experience of Palm Sunday doesn't offer hindsight but peripheral vision. Next week all eyes must be on Jesus, whether they be the eyes of the crowd, the believers, the Temple or the Roman guards. This week, we get to try out what that feels like before we find ourselves standing in their place. Imagining ourselves in the melee of Matthew's Jerusalem, we are invited to observe the misdirection and misunderstandings of this tragic week. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus rarely seems to make a fuss about his travelling. We imagine him the itinerant wanderer, distracted by pleas for help and offers of hospitality. Here, Jesus is quite explicit; he enters Jerusalem as David sent Solomon, as Zechariah promises the Messiah will come to his people-</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!<br /> Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!<br />See, your king comes to you,<br /> righteous and victorious,<br />lowly and riding on a donkey,</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> on a colt, the foal of a donkey.</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Zech 9:9</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a symbolism not lost on the exploited people of Israel; on the fervent enthusiasm of the pilgrims; on the impatient desires of the zealots. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The shouts of 'Hosanna' meaning 'Save, now' and the thrown cloaks are recognition of prophecy being fulfilled. The palm branches signalling covert loyalty to a nation bowed by Roman rule. The Messiah is here.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Who could not be swept up in the excitement of 'I was there'. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But surely the Messiah would be on the side of the religious leaders - and he is not. Surely the Messiah would be speaking against the Roman occupiers - and he is not. And surely the Messiah would not be sitting with the poor, the lame and the children- yet he is. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The cloaks and palm leaves lie gathering dust, trodden into shreds of disarray - the mornings after... Perhaps this Messiah played his last trick with Lazarus; perhaps there is nothing worthwhile from Nazareth; perhaps the 'stage' is too big and Jesus has taken fright. Good for nothing except interfering with the business of the Temple then running for the hills. Another festival of disappointment.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How many of the crowd remember the continuing verse from Zechariah? </span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I will take away the chariots from Ephraim<br /> and the warhorses from Jerusalem,<br /> and the battle bow will be broken.<br />He will proclaim peace to the nations.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> His rule will extend from sea to sea</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The week will be full of confusion, sleight of hand and betrayal; so many questions. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The covenant with his Father signed with tears; the procession continues into tragedy.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Did the 30 pieces of silver compensate in any way for the anointing with nard?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is the price of peace?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the reading of the Passion, one person caught my attention who I had not thought of before. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Watching from a distance, no doubt holding on to each other in grief; the women. With the Mary's, another woman - the mother of Zebedee's sons. The mother of James and John, the favoured friends. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The mother who, in Matthew's gospel, just before the entry in Jerusalem - asks for a gift. Asks that her sons will sit at the left and right hand of Jesus in his Kingdom. The Kingdom that she had, no doubt, shouted in with 'Hosanna's' of her own. In her imagining, seeing her sons as golden, victorious princes once the battle had been won. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Does her heart sink as she looks into the faces of the two criminals; these strange thrones of suffering and the kingdom that they overshadow. What if this had been the fate of her fine boys? Would she have ever asked, knowing what she wished for?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Shockwaves of horror after horror have tormented this Lenten period, at home and globally. Surely we must be closer to realising that there is no act of retribution that will end the violence? There is no golden armoured prince who will change the world because he has a bigger sword? Jesus offers another way and it overwhelms him. He offers it anyway, he offers it still. The sword must fall, only peace will bring peace.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For those of us who have made it through Lent, one way or another, the road is not much clearer. Our involvement in the proceedings is still a choice to be made. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Methodist Covenant Prayer is one I find difficult to pray without crossing my fingers just a little. It echoes the prayer of Gethsemane.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /><br />I am no longer my own, but yours.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Put me to what you will, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>rank me with whom you will;</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>put me to doing, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>put me to suffering;</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>let me be employed for you, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>or laid aside for you,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>exalted for you, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>or brought low for you;</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>let me be full,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>let me be empty,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>let me have all things,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>let me have nothing:</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>I freely and wholeheartedly </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>And now, glorious and blessed God,Father, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Son and Holy Spirit,</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>you are mine and I am yours. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>So be it.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>And the covenant now made on earth, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>let it be ratified in heaven.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Amen.<br /><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me have the strength to be at your side, Lord. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know the price of peace.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">wordinthehand2017</span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-46546797916889020752017-04-02T03:24:00.000-07:002017-04-02T03:24:07.045-07:00A good Lament <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. – It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’</span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Jesus replied:</span></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: left; text-indent: -3em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">because he has the light of this world to see by;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">but if he walks at night he stumbles,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">because there is no light to guide him.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.’ The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’ Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘I am the resurrection.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Do you believe this?’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you.’ Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I knew indeed that you always hear me,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’</span></i><br />
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<i> Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.</i><br />
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<b>Martha's Lament</b><br />
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Lord, my brother sickens.</div>
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Abandoned by hope,</div>
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Pearls of desolation</div>
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Fall silently</div>
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Into empty hands.</div>
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In faith, I know</div>
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Your touch, Lord,</div>
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Your hand will save him.</div>
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Master, you have not come.</div>
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You have not watched</div>
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As life pours from him.</div>
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As he fades into</div>
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An obsidian maze of despair.</div>
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Raging against heaven</div>
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In torment at your absence.</div>
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One word, Lord; your Word.</div>
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Can it be, Lord?</div>
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His life, as naught to him</div>
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As it seemed to you,</div>
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Ebbed away leaving our</div>
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Hearts scalded by grief.</div>
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Were our lives no more</div>
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Than a storyteller’s plaything?</div>
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Was there a better story to tell?</div>
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How is it, Lord,</div>
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You did not come?</div>
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To a brother in love</div>
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To a friend in faith?</div>
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How is it he journeys alone</div>
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Into the Stygian depths?</div>
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Yet, speak Lord,</div>
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Your servant will still hear.</div>
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When I wrote this poem it was after the death of a friend. To be honest, it was a peaceful death of someone who knew they were going home. And the grief and suffering belonged, not to her, but to those who were left behind. Martha is often remembered as the 'too-good' housewife but I sympathised with her then as the woman who would stop at nothing to help those she loved. I admit that I put these words into her mouth - but maybe I am not as trusting as she is.</div>
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I have a great respect for Martha - she seems to be one of those women who can speak her mind and still keep her friends. Certainly the friendship with Jesus seems to have grown into a recognised relationship of affection and trust and extended to all the members of the family. I'm sure anyone would have expected Jesus to put these friends above almost anyone else - and he didn't. </div>
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Dealing with the 'why's' of suffering and grief is never easy. No matter where your faith is. No matter that you are absolutely sure that, when the time comes, Heaven's gates will open; no matter if you believe that this world is somewhere we pass through as part of our soul's eternal journey; no matter - because the suffering and grief is not about what happens next - it's about what is happening now. And Martha is wise enough to know it and brave enough to say it. </div>
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Why does Jesus wait? Is it really his intention to cause this tragedy? Or does he believe that the Father will give him the time he needs to do what he has to do and still care for his friend?</div>
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I don't believe in a God who treats us as puppets so I have to accept that Lazarus' illness and death were part of his life- not unusual in those times to sicken and die quickly and at a young age. When Jesus reaches their home, I believe that his grief is equally genuine - as human an emotion as any he has felt before. </div>
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But knowing - knowing - that nothing is impossible to God; even three days in a tomb - he can at least ask; he prays with all the faith that is within him; it is not he who brings Lazarus back but his Father who returns him to life, in the answering of a prayer. </div>
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Out of the greatest of hopelessness' Jesus has drawn hope. As a human being, Jesus has given everything he has. There are no more miracles left. Stones are being weighed in the hands of those who have judged him already. Perhaps, in its own way, the raising of Lazarus has not only been a challenge to those who do not believe but a reassurance to those who do. Perhaps, a reassurance to Jesus himself.</div>
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wordinthehand2017</div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-43322951389290325842017-03-19T07:28:00.001-07:002017-03-19T07:28:37.123-07:00Accept the gift<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xoXFRfudLbY/TXdW6Gb8tBI/AAAAAAAAARk/PatFQ7J31hMtA75KoD7DmYMADVu0mwqwwCPcB/s1600/IMG_1974.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xoXFRfudLbY/TXdW6Gb8tBI/AAAAAAAAARk/PatFQ7J31hMtA75KoD7DmYMADVu0mwqwwCPcB/s320/IMG_1974.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></i></div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, he would have given you living water.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep: how could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus replied:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘Whoever drinks this water</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">will get thirsty again;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">will never be thirsty again:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the water that I shall give</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">will turn into a spring inside him,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">welling up to eternal life.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water.’ ‘Go and call your husband’ said Jesus to her ‘and come back here.’ The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ He said to her, ‘You are right to say, “I have no husband”; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.’ ‘I see you are a prophet, sir’ said the woman. ‘Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘Believe me, woman,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the hour is coming</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">when you will worship the Father</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You worship what you do not know;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">we worship what we do know:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">for salvation comes from the Jews.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the hour will come</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">– in fact it is here already –</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God is spirit,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and those who worship</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">must worship in spirit and truth.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything.’ ‘I who am speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, ‘What do you want from her?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people. ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone been bringing him food?’ But Jesus said:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and to complete his work.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you not got a saying:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Four months and then the harvest?</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, I tell you:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look around you, look at the fields;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">already they are white, ready for harvest!</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Already the reaper is being paid his wages,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and thus sower and reaper rejoice together.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For here the proverb holds good:</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">one sows, another reaps;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I sent you to reap a harvest you had not worked for.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Others worked for it;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and you have come into the rewards of their trouble.’</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.’</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week in school we offered the Sacrament of Reconciliation as part of a Service of reflection. Through the examen and with Pope Francis' 'Fasting for Lent' list we were able to write down those things that we are carrying unwillingly. I wish I could say that the parish priest was overwhelmed with the resulting queue however it seems that their ritual action of leaving their concerns to be burned away was enough for the vast majority. And maybe it was, they are only children after all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But watching the lines of children, papers scrunched in their hands ready to be flung into the 'jar of letting go', I was saddened by their unwillingness to take that extra step. Here was our priest, in Jesus' name, offering a channel for the living water that is God's grace and forgiveness of all our regrets. Sitting, waiting for them to seek out this gift; freely given to anyone who asks. </span>Jesus is sitting, waiting too; his friends off feeding the body rather that the spirit - other priorities; other places to be. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is a pity that the Sacrament of Reconciliation has such a bad press. That it is regarded as a duty on a par with visiting dentists; yet it is pure gift; pure grace. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I had never really connected the Samaritan woman with the Sacrament (after all, if there is sin it is implied and if assumed then not 'forgiven' and Jesus always forgives) </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is this woman who comes to the well. Maybe not a sinner (though aren't we all?) but not right. There is something not right about a woman who has grieved for five husbands and whatever the circumstance of the present relationship. There is something not right about a woman coming to the well alone; without women friends; without a child on her back or running around her feet.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This woman is no outcast; she is able to return to her village not imagining that she won't be heard; she can hold her own in conversation with a stranger (too clever for her own good?). She knows herself; her longings; she wants to feel right. She is prepared to do the work; to enter into dialogue with the 'enemy'; to enter into relationship with this man who knows her in spite of the bravado and the stigma of who she is or is not. This man has what she needs and she has the confidence and humility to ask for it. Not out of shame or even guilt; but with with the optimism that God's grace is the answer; will fill her with light; will make her new. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And because it does she has the generosity of spirit to bring others to that same well, whilst Jesus' disciples are still wondering what he has been up to. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What a wonderful way this would be to approach the Sacrament and especially in this time of Lent -when we are seeking our way through desert paths - what an opportunity to find an oasis in which to sit with a friend; to rest; to be unburdened; to be made new.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Pope Francis' Fasting List for Lent </b></span><br />
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<ul style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from hurting words and say kind words.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from anger and be filled with patience.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from worries and trust in God.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from pressures and be prayerful.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from grudges and be reconciled.</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.</span></li>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-21333372435218510862017-03-12T01:12:00.000-08:002017-03-12T01:12:15.742-08:00Beloved<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gospel</span></th><th align="right"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Matthew 17:1-9 </span></th></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone. There in their presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him. Then Peter spoke to Jesus. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and from the cloud there came a voice which said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.’ When they heard this the disciples fell on their faces overcome with fear. But Jesus came up and touched them. ‘Stand up,’ he said ‘do not be afraid.’ And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but only Jesus.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> As they came down from the mountain Jesus gave them this order, ‘Tell no one about the vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.’</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With all the challenge and denial I wonder how often did Jesus ask himself - how can my Father be pleased with this? How often did Jesus return to the lonely places asking his Father for loving consolation?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Probably not an image of Jesus anyone would want to consider; yet the conversation in Gethsemene tells us that Jesus is not in control of the Mission; sometimes Jesus does seem to learn as he goes; the woman who asks for healing as scraps from the table for instance. Some would say Jesus uses the situation to teach a lesson. I wonder if Jesus himself sometimes needed the lesson - after all he believed he had come to gather Israel first - maybe the woman was his teacher this day - a lesson learned from experience - and many others along the way.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, three years later, the final pilgrimage to Jerusalem; the one that will end with his death. In the past few days he has talked with the disciples about the sacifice that is to come and they still don't get it. I imagine Jesus sitting at the fire during the morning de-camp; watching the hustle-bustle as preparations are made for the day; the talk of anticipation for the Passover. I see his eyes reaching towards heaven and in his fearful heart a simple cry - 'Father'. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And his Father says 'Come to me and bring your friends'. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The mountain is not an escape. It is a refuge. The going up will mean coming down again but surely worth it? It isn't always about moving on; moving forward; sometimes its about reaching a point where there is nowhere else to go and staying with that.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the top of the mountain the air is thin; they feel lightheaded; catching their breath at the landscape rolling out below them. For the fishermen this is as far from the sea as you could be; as far from their early life as they could imagine. Maybe as they watch Jesus pray they whisper together about the adventures they have had; the lives that have been changed because of this man, this friend, this brother.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then they see this man, this brother, as the Father sees him; shining and wonderful beyond all recognition; washed clean again from the doubts and prejudices of human perception. Resting in the company of the fathers of faith; wrapped in the light of his Father's eyes. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Why would Peter even suggest tents? Why seek to confine this experience; to enclose it within manageable 'space'? Because they could not cope with the wonder of what they were seeing? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then the voice of the Father; speaking to them - ordinary men out on a mountain - the Father witnessing to them 'This is my Son; I love him; listen to him.'</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As they come down the mountain the doubts and misunderstandings are already beginning to set in. Keep this to yourself - Jesus tells them - you don't understand now, talking about it won't help. But the experience will come back to you when it is needed. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What does Transfiguration mean to us? That we are fearfully and wondrously made. That even in our fears and mistakes we are blessed, Yet how often do we believe that? How often does life not let us believe that? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Surely there are times when we can imagine no greater gift than being on a mountaintop and letting God hold us; seeing ourselves reflected in God's eyes; letting God tell us we are Beloved; that we have a message worth listening to? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As disciples we follow Jesus. Jesus knows his need of the Father, he makes the time, he takes the journey. Jesus finds rest in his Father. Enough to face death and more than death. As disciples we have accepted the cross of desolation; we may also accept God's embrace of consolation. We are Beloved.</span></div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-57292222582227020892017-03-05T00:49:00.000-08:002017-03-05T00:52:15.466-08:00Lead us not into temptation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Gospel - Matthew 4:1-11</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.’ But he replied, ‘Scripture says:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The devil then took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. ‘If you are the Son of God’ he said ‘throw yourself down; for scripture says:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Jesus said to him, ‘Scripture also says:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>You must not put the Lord your God to the test.’</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘I will give you all these’ he said, ‘if you fall at my feet and worship me.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Be off, Satan! For scripture says:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>and serve him alone.’</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is difficult to imagine how Jesus must have felt after his baptism. There are many thoughts about how aware of his divinity Jesus was during his early life. My own thoughts are that it would have been difficult for him to be good at being human if he spent his time making clay sparrows come to life and healing his friends scuffed knees with a rub.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Certainly the Baptism must have been a pivotal point - a place of Trinity where God became present to celebrate Jesus' humanity and divinity - the Word becoming flesh. But not too much of a celebration - whilst the crowds on the riverbank chatter amongst themselves about what they have seen - the Spirit gathers him up and leads him out into the desert.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are reminded every year of these forty days in our time of Lent - you would wonder how any human could last 40 days of fasting but, no matter, the number 40 represents a journey - a movement from one place to another. From where to where?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus must enter the desert feeling pretty full of himself; an experience of God is never something to be taken lightly; ask any of the saints. To realise that you are the Beloved Son of God; after years of poverty; striving; suffering; of making the most of what you have; must have been extraordinary. Did the scales fall from his eyes? Was he overwhelmed with the possibilities that lay before him. Did it all seem so clear?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After all, being human had not been a joyride; Jesus had lived the life of an outcast, a refugee, a peasant. He had broken nails on his hands and hard skin on his feet. Being God meant it was in his power to change all that -to heal, to bring balance, to build the Kingdom with a thought and a wave of his hand. What would you do if you were God? The power to create a personal paradise is a strong desire -ask any candidate - even Miss World wants to cure all ills and end all wars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the thousands of years we had had free will - here was a God who could have taken it from us; with the best of intentions; with the benefit of human experience; with the desire to do good. It would be something his friends would ask of him; his enemies would expect. The Messiah with the flaming sword.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But that is not the Father's plan and it is the Spirit who is the symbol of tough love; sheltering him in her wings, whispering to him the need for sacrifice, for submission, for the world to make its own mind up even if it means..... Reassuring Jesus that he is full of the Father's grace and that that grace will move through him for others; for others encountered in relationship; in friendship; in need; in love. Telling him there will be people who say no; who forget to say thank-you; who will demand; who will run away; who will betray and that that is their right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is only at the end of the forty days that the devil speaks; dehydrated and starving,Jesus must have looked an easy target - his humanity failing - and now there is the the opportunity to make it all better. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The devil is daring; telling God how to be God and then challenging him to act. Not realising that in his weakness and powerlessness Jesus now understands his freedom. In admitting that you cannot do it by yourself. In needing relationships and intimacy; in needing his Father; because God is not over us but within us. God is not Power but Love. As St Paul reminds us: <i>'if I </i></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i> do</i> <i>not have love, I am nothing.' </i>And God knows, we are more than that. </span></span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-59920135984533571792017-02-26T10:42:00.003-08:002017-02-26T11:03:54.603-08:00After Doris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Sunday Gos<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">pel - Matthew 6:</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> 24-34</b></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus said to his disciples: ‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are we not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith? So do not worry; do not say, “What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?” It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All these weeks of Matthew have been a real challenge - verse after verse of Jesus telling us that things have to be different; life has to be different; we have to be different; that we may live in the world but we are not of the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And now - do not worry, life is hard enough. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unusually for my family, we had a half-term trip planned for last week. After negotiating a car drive worthy of a disaster movie, followed by a missed flight, I guess we could be feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. However, we made the journey in one piece, had a great time, and are now back with a tale to tell about the day Storm Doris visited the UK.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-indent: 1em;"> On our return we heard that, in our area, one hundred and forty trees fell the day Doris hit, not including branches and trees in gardens, brick walls fell onto rows of parked cars and trains were halted when the leaves on the line were still attached to their branches. I'm sure the emergency services took their lives in their hands many a time that day and we offer condolences to the woman who died, hit by an unknown object. The news was filled with the events of the day. 'Worry' was an active emotion for many, myself included, but who did it benefit?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Look at how the natural world reacts - the lilies lie deep in their winter cocoons, grey bark shrouds the trees that have stood, or not, this long winter. Yet, even now the snowdrops that reveal their pearly heads almost overnight and the birds forage through the ashes of autumn leaves. Tiny wrens bounce through the frozen hedgerows whilst I cower in the warmth of my central heating and the blackbird finds his voice to welcome a sun hiding behind layers of deep violet grey February clouds. And I am amazed at where they get their stamina from.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The thought that 'it's not fair', 'it's too hard' or 'I can't' doesn't occur to them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Where there is life there is - life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How else should you acknowledge God's gift but to use it? The life that you are given is not meant to be lived in despair and dissatisfaction; it is not meant to be worn away by ambition, avarice or anxiety. Jesus came so that we could live life to the full; finding purpose, joy and contentment through a life that feeds life in others and ourselves. Refusing to worry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why should we have aspirations to a life of luxury; why do we expect it to be easy? If Jesus is prepared to live as he does, suffer as he does - why should be be different for us? The example of our Servant King tell us all we need to know. We have people to meet, places to be, deeds to do. This is a place of work - this is not our home.</span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-32340484830355691882017-02-19T03:27:00.000-08:002017-02-19T03:28:02.171-08:00More than that<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gospel</span></th><th align="right"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Matthew 5:38-48</span></th></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">J</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">esus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.</span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.</span></i></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike. For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I often wonder where Jesus, and Christianity, got the 'meek and mild' reputation from.Whoever decided that the pastoral imagery, flowing robes, decorous manner and dewy eyes were an accurate depiction of the historical Jesus was either someone with a taste for romance or someone who realised how dangerous Jesus really was.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This idealised imagery proves that often we don't like the Jesus that the Gospel tells us about, because, let's be honest, Jesus is not always likeable; he does not give us the words we want to hear or the advice we want to take. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">How often when Jesus makes statements like these we prefer not to take them seriously. We think, sometimes we are encouraged to think, that it's all about metaphor; Jesus is just making a point - exaggerating for the sake of emphasis. That all he wants is for us to be good.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We know when we are being good; taking care of our own; making the best of our talents; taking part in our community. All very good attributes; but no more than we should be doing; no more than anyone else; no more than anyone who didn't know Jesus; no more than anyone who had not been awakened to God. What we call 'being good' is the desired human condition. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus doesn't want us to be good - he wants us to be better than that - his ambition for us goes beond all that - he wants us to be 'perfect' (a bad translation - more likely meaning mature or adult). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We should not need to be liked to like; we should not need to be loved to love; we should not need our own need to be fulfilled before we recognise that others have needs. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In particular it should not matter who the<em> others</em> are because we know who we are - beloved children of God. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is this confidence in God's Love that Jesus tries to instill in us - the confidence that he has in his Father, that allows him to call, with joyful expectation, on the grace and healing that is then gifted to anyone who asks - all strangers; many enemies; pagans and Jews, honest and dishonest people alike. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's much harder for us, I feel like a hypocrite even writing this being, like Paul, very aware that I spend my life doing what I shouldn't and not doing what I should. We can't do this on our own and we are not meant to. Yet Jesus has faith in us and offers us the same channel to the grace that gives him confidence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Jesus gives us his own prayer of praise and reconciliation. If you can stand up, arms open wide, calling out not to Father but to Abba, <i>Daddy</i>, then you can stand up to the world. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Whatever the world thinks it is doing to you; you </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><strong>cannot </strong>be</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> pushed; ordered about; stolen from or exploited; you cannot be made 'less' because it just doesn't matter - you are loved. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You are loved with a love that births love. Unselfish - it seeks to create peace and pardon where there is injury and hatred. In the words of St Francis - as prayed by Mother Teresa to the United Nations in 1985 - and needed, more than ever, today</span><br />
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<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Make us worthy Lord to serve our fellow men throughout the world,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">who live and die in poverty and hunger.</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and by our understanding love give peace and joy.</span></dd></dl>
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lord, make me a channel of thy peace.</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is hatred I may bring love,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is discord, I may bring harmony,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is error I may bring truth,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is doubt I may bring faith,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is despair I may bring hope,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there are shadows I may bring light,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That where there is sadness I may bring joy.</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort that to be comforted,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To understand than to be understood,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To love than to be loved.</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For it is by forgetting self that one finds.</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is by forgiving that one is forgiven,</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Amen.</span> </span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Amen indeed.</span></span></dd></dl>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-52868899222510023782017-02-12T10:28:00.000-08:002017-02-12T10:28:57.791-08:00The simple life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gospel Matthew 5:17-37</span></strong></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">‘For I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">‘You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not kill; and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and if a man calls him “Renegade” he will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">‘You have learnt how it was said: You must not commit adultery. But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">‘It has also been said: Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal. But I say this to you: everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, makes her an adulteress; and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.</span></em></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">‘Again, you have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not break your oath, but must fulfil your oaths to the Lord. But I say this to you: do not swear at all, either by heaven, since that is God’s throne; or by the earth, since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great king. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or black. All you need say is “Yes” if you mean yes, “No” if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one.’</span></em></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The word that is translated here as 'Law' – actually means something more like ‘instruction’. The Law that is the Ten Commandments, has required much consideration; much translation and much discernment by teachers and prophets over the years; wondering if God really did mean 'this' or 'that' when they were given over. All this resulting in the development of over 600 rules and guidelines – 613 instructions - about how to follow the Ten. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, it seems that, as each Commandment is broken down into its multiple characteristics; the essence becomes more and more vague.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The beauty of this is that it is so much easier to play with. And as police officers probably make the best burglars; so those that study the Law know best how to find their way around it. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Something Matthew's Jesus struggles with time and time again. Because the Law was not made to be ‘found a way around’- particularly when much of the way around involves prestige and influence or leads to exclusion.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus understands that circumstances run away with us; that we didn’t mean this or that and yet; here we are; the more choice we get the harder it gets to make a choice; the more twists and turns the easier to get lost.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite the twists and turns of the this Gospel; the truth is right in the centre. Whatever you do, however you act, you must do and act out of love.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The prophet Micah sets out the Law...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Mic-6-8" style="position: relative;">And what does the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> require of you? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">To act justly<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-22657A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup> and to love mercy </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Mic-6-8" style="position: relative;">and to walk humbly with your God.(6:8)</span></span></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Mic-6-8" style="position: relative;">...and because you walk humbly with your God so will you walk with your neighbour. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Mic-6-8" style="position: relative;">Jesus calls us back to relationship, reminding us of our place within the Kingdom of Heaven. How are we ever going to act justly or love mercy when greed and envy demand our attention? How can we be humble when our hearts are wired to worldly desires and attachments? How is it good to treat others as commodities to use up and discard?</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We won't, we can't and it isn't - and deep inside we know. We belittle ourselves in our treatment of others.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The threats that Jesus make could also be his fears. Fears that he and his Father will lose us in the mess of life; in our inability to admit we are wrong; in our unwillingness to walk with our God. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Vatican II introduced the idea of <i>ressourcement </i>to spiritual life. The retrieval and renewal of what is good - the return to the source, laying aside all that has got in the way.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus makes this invitation, this plea - to say 'no', to say 'yes' - to stay close - to live in Heaven's sight.</span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-91229274256649370322017-02-05T01:50:00.000-08:002017-02-05T01:50:08.013-08:00Spice of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="left">Gospel</th><th align="right">Matthew 5:13-16 </th></tr>
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<i>Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.</i></div>
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<i> ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.’</i></div>
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Chinese New Year this week, celebrated with firecrackers, liondog dances and the flavour filled dishes of Asian food. When we visit our Chinatown district for the New Year we end up in one of the ethnic supermarkets buying the authentic ingredients and spices that make up our favourite recipes and, for a few months or so, we fore-go the local takeaway and ready meals taking great pride and delight in creating dishes made from crushed and blended herbs and spices.</div>
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But then, time passes; life gets busy. A few more months and the contents of the boxes and canisters languish at the back of the cupboard growing dusty and stale; the colours fade; the piquant flavours. What a waste.</div>
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Trading in spices has gone on for thousands of years; they are an element of the creative and expressive side of human nature that regards life as more than just 'existing'. The Eastern trade routes crossed the Galilee forwards and back; part of the reason that the area was looked down on - too many gentiles for comfort. But, be sure, the spice trade would have been welcomed there as anywhere; and, just as today, some spices more valuable than gold - ounce for ounce. </div>
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But above all spices - salt. Even as school children ,we learn that the word 'salary' comes from the idea that the pay Roman soldiers received had a link with the value and amount of salt in the area they served. Particularly in the desert countries; salt is not just a 'spice' but is necessary for life - as necessary as water with hundreds of uses,many around purification, cleansing and prolonging life. Salt is acknowledged for being spiritually cleansing and giving protection against the 'dark', even in the casual tradition of throwing it over our shoulder. </div>
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There is something very human about salt - the saltiness of tears and sweat, our life's journey. Seems to be many examples of that kind of salt in the pressures and challenges of daily life. When Jesus calls us salt; salt of the earth- salt for the earth, he reminds us that we are that precious commodity that God has given the rest of the world. We may be individuals or small communities but Jesus believes that that is enough; enough to make a difference through the tears and the sweat.</div>
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Unlike the boxes and canisters in my store cupboard we have a choice. Whether we choose to be active; to be involved; to be who God dreams us to be; to believe that we have a vocation, a mission. Or, choice can make us doubt; decide our opportunity has passed; we are too old,too young,too busy, we become tired, listless or afraid; preferring to stay at the back, in the dark, out of sight. We fade away and become tasteless.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: 1em;"> This week our diocese saw the launch of an initiative called CARITAS - </span><i style="text-indent: 1em;">loving kindness</i><span style="text-indent: 1em;">. It's intention isn't to begin a tradition of charity but to contribute and enable the many charities that already exist, making connections, lending expertise and focus and renewing the sense of who we are meant to be. Being salt as we will all, hopefully, be salt to each other. A renewal perhaps, just as I renew the store cupboard, and promise, this time, that all will be made use of or shared - that nothing will be wasted</span><span style="text-indent: 1em;">. Our saltiness, our grace, may seem a hidden thing that is only revealed in action and compassion, but we must not hide away from opportunities to let it shine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;">“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.” </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;">― </span><a class="authorOrTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11882.Erma_Bombeck" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px;">Erma Bombeck</a></i></span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-39452111360083977642017-01-28T06:47:00.000-08:002017-01-28T06:47:57.071-08:00It's not easy being green<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gospel Matthew 5:1-12 </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Beatitudes are so important that they return more than once in the Church's calendar. They are subversive and challenging; questioning the way we live and the way that will lead to God's Kingdom. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom already exists here on earth; on our planet. But how hard is that to believe?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Beatitudes shout out for a faith in social justice that is almost too hard to fight for because it means that you (and me) become less and less important. The current economic and political climate screams 'Me first'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Exploitation and suffering is never right; but we believe there is little we can do about it. It is a global problem in more ways than one. Away in Jesus' time, the Lord was able to say that the lilies of the fields and the sparrows of the sky could live without worry because their Father was looking after them. Now the fields and the skies are empty. The humans that God gave dominion to are not taking their responsibilities very seriously. Exploitation and suffering is something that is being felt not only by humanity but by the world that God called 'very good' and we regard as 'not good enough'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pope Francis recently wrote his thoughts on the environment. <i>Laudato Si </i>describes the shared understanding from the faith and scientific communities that recognise the destructive influence of humanity and the need to forsake the 'I'm alright Jack attitude' for the sake of future generations, both human and non-human. I thought I should take up the challenge myself. Maybe these would be the Bee-atitudes?</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be one of those who knows that the world is not all about them; be someone who is humble enough to understand that their own uniqueness only serves to prove just how precious every part of Creation is; to value even the smallest, most insignificant of God's creatures.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be considerate; care for the earth as a living thing. The injuries caused by exploitation of oil, water and land cause scars that may never heal. Damage caused through pollution and waste sicken the air and water, the veins and arteries of the planet. If the earth is our heritage then it should be respected as a mother or a grandmother as the early peoples used to do. After all, we have nowhere else to go; no-one else to take us in.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be aware. No-one likes bad news, particularly bad news that hits close to home. Easier to turn up the power levels in your home so that you are warm and comfortable and sit watching celebrity tv.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fourteen more species of animal have become extinct during the 21st century; 20% of Amazon rainforest destroyed in last 40 years; this has been the shortest arctic winter in history triggering more fears of rising sea levels. What is not to mourn? Our only comfort in realising that there must be something we can do something about it.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be involved. There are organisations, Christian organisations that seek to help; A Rocha; CAFOD; Charter for Compassion; Catholic Climate Covenant; the Resurgence Trust all have the satisfaction of working towards a better world. Join them?</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Definition of mercy - </strong>Compassion for those under one's power </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Definition of Compassion</strong> - Deep awareness of suffering and the desire to relieve it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be gracious. God gives us dominion over all - this is our realm - how we treat the world is our decision. Even if we cannot relate to the natural world itself all these actions reflect on the lives of others. The neglect of the the natural world is reflected in the neglect of human life. 'As you do to the least of these....'</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be wholehearted. There is a theory that everything we do is for our own sake; that our actions will always be 'all about me'. Maybe there is an element of truth - I will feel better if I am doing the right thing; I will feel good if I am pleasing God; I will feel pure in heart if what I do does not undermine or take advantage of others. Listen to your conscience, buy Fairtrade and other ethical clothing, trading goods and foodstuffs.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be a voice for peace. War is one of the greatest threats to the planet. It uses up money; resources; people; time; energy and opportunity. The cost of building walls and strengthening borders runs high with both economic and humanitarian cost. Borders are man made - environmental issues know no such boundaries.How can you clean a river in one country when the pollution is caused in another, hostile territory? How can you come together to plan for the future when you are too busy arguing about the mistakes of the past or the greed and politics of the present?</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you</span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.’</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be yourself and don't expect it to be easy. As Christians we are called to be stewards; all people in the other great faiths have similar responsibilities. This is the world that the Lord has made; we should rejoice and glad in it; but there's a cost. To stand up for what we believe will always result in being made fun of; being the odd one out; being labelled a do-gooder or a doom and gloom merchant. Some people will not see the need for change; will live 'right here, right now'. As Kermit the Frog would say 'it's not easy being green'. but, like Kermit, it is part of who we are- as Christians, as human beings - since the Sixth Day.</span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-10913824015714893162017-01-22T02:09:00.000-08:002017-01-22T02:09:35.642-08:00At once<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunday Gospel</span></th><th align="right"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Matthew 4:12-23 </span></th></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hearing that John had been arrested, Jesus went back to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he went and settled in Capernaum, a lakeside town on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled:</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">‘Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali!</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Galilee of the nations!</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light;</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a light has dawned.’</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From that moment Jesus began his preaching with the message, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast in the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they left their nets at once and followed him. Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. At once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'At once'...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It seems impossible or, at least improbably for these men; with homes, families, livelihoods, cultural expectations to be prepared to turn away and risk everything on this wandering preacher.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: 1em;">Some theologians put forward the theory that by living in in this lakeside town, Jesus had probably been working on or near the docks; that he had sat and ate and talked with these men; that he had spent time getting to know them; that perhaps they already knew and respected him as a rabbi of sorts. There is the possibility that he had already shared his mission with them so that the call to leave was expected, planned - they were just waiting for the right moment.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Which is certainly more logical and makes much more sense but it's not what it says in the Gospel - it's not what it says in any of the Gospels.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The call did not come at the right moment; not for any of these men. Preparing a fishing boat; deciding where to cast a net; repairing, cleaning and folding the nets for the next days fishing - none of these are five minute tasks. A boat is not crewed with a few men 'spare' - every man on the deck, every man on the dock has a job to do; a crew to fit into; a tradition and a responsibility not just to himself but to his crew; his partners; his family; the community itself. Every man has his place; every man knows his place.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The very thought of bringing in a boat without a catch; of dropping a net still tangled and torn would have horrified those around them; would have horrified them, looking back on it. But they did it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why? Not because it is part of some great plan but because Jesus calls them by name.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the spiritual world, in every culture; your name, your real 'this is who you are' name is incredibly important and holds great power. Some believe your real name is gifted to you at an initiation point in your life. Many cultures say that you should not share this name recklessly with others; that knowing this name will give others power over you. God, who is only 'I Am', tells us that our names are written on his hand.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus knows the power of names; he calls demons by theirs and takes away their power to name him. He names and re-names his followers; he looks into them and sees who they really are. And calls each person into the light; onto the path that will lead them home.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The four may well have good fishermen; great family men; well liked friends and workmates, even competitors in getting the best catch. They may have believed that the life they were leading was as good as it gets. Any wonderings about the why and how of things may have been something for a walk under the stars or a sleepless night, and no more. The empty space waiting to be filled; the awareness of 'something else' given over to childish fancy or a moment in prayer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then they were called, named and transformed - fishermen - fishers of men. A small difference; but enough.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In our lives it can be just as subtle; just as extreme. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Anyone who watched the media yesterday would have witnessed a massive calling across the world as women (and men) filled cities with, mostly, peaceful protest against a feeling that something is not going right with the world. Friends that I know went to different marches, in different countries, for different reasons, some completely political, some utterly spiritual, most a mixture of the two. There has been great criticism. That they were turning up for the show, that they took advantage of their right to march, that they abandoned families, that it was a media-fuelled hysteria. Maybe for some it was a one-off, a bucket list experience. But for those who will return to lives now fuelled by the need for social justice, inclusion, equality and compassion for this planet and everyone who lives on it, maybe it was a calling. Even if they didn't recognise who called. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have many names, many roles to play; lives that rely and are relied on by others. God may be in there somewhere. A scripture meeting; an hour at Mass; a book now and again; understanding that there are tasks that God is asking of all of us, but we are really too busy; too involved in the other day to day priorities that we all encounter. We could do more, but not now; not yet.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then, in the middle of some mundane, necessary task, it will come. Jesus will hold a mirror to your eyes and show you who he sees; will call you by the name written on his Father's hand and it will be up to you.</span></div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-40751705402644765762017-01-14T11:34:00.000-08:002017-01-14T11:34:35.199-08:00In the Unknowing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="left"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gospel</span></th><th align="right"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">John 1:29-34 </span></th></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before me. I did not know him myself, and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came baptising with water.’ John also declared, ‘I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptise with the Holy Spirit.” Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Something that I come across with people both seeking faith and rejecting faith is the need to 'know'. How to achieve the sense of certainty that allows one to sit back and be sure. Well it's not going to happen. Not from anything you will ever be able to hold in our hand or in our head. And this is a good thing because we should not be seeking a sense of certainty, rather, a sense of mystery. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">John of the Gospel...meet John.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The John of Old Testament prophetic, spirit driven zeal speaks out of the Gospel of mystic revelation.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rather than the plea for reassurance from the confined darkness; John has his Baptist speak words of labyrinthine prophecy, echoing a leap of faith made in the dark comfort of the womb. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The turning of John's words; signs and wonders; befores and afters; knowings and unknowings - recognises the true mystery of who Jesus truly is. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recognition that faith truly serves mystery. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'There he is. And I don't even know who 'he' is.' </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mystery and humility.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We expect John to know. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A cousin; a visitation. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Forgetting that, by tradition, the Holy Spirit whisked John into the desert not long after he could walk. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Was part of that retreat from the world intended to embed in John the memory of that preternatural encounter? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To allow that leap of recognition within the womb to be his talisman, a lodestone that blazed so brightly that so many others were drawn to the light of anticipation?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The thousands gathered together on the banks of the Jordan. Gathered in anticipation of the Messiah, the Chosen One, </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Seeing the light so strongly in John's eyes and voice that some thought John was surely the One. That maybe he just didn't know. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">John did know that within him, he held a reflection of the Spirit's desire. A desire that was coming to fulfillment.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Humility and mystery.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not John; never John. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Always the One who was 'before'. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Before life; before birth; before time. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Known only, and ultimately, in the Unknowing. </span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-89040005481729659732017-01-08T01:49:00.000-08:002017-01-08T01:49:38.366-08:00Epiphany - All that I am<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea,’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote:</i></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah,</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for out of you will come a leader</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">who will shepherd my people Israel.’</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The story of the Three Kings is one that we are comfortable with; one that we all know. Not least because the Feast Day means we can take down the decorations and start to get back to normal. Except, that, according to the Church’s calendar we should leave our decorations up until the Baptism of the Lord which is next week (those Victorians and their 12 days of Christmas! – Bah, humbug). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is no evidence that the Kings were kings, certainly not from the gospels. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">It is far more likely that these were astrologer, proto-scientist, magician types. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">But then someone with too much interest in royal protocol decided that if Jesus was a King then only a King was good enough to visit – it’s a wonder the shepherds managed to stay in the story, given their reputation as thieves and vagabonds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />That is the way with stories. The Chinese whisper effect, the elaboration to suit the culture, the audience, the attitude of the times. And that is often a criticism of the Gospel – that it is only stories; easier to find the discrepancies, the add-ons, the need to scientifically prove or disprove that there was a ‘star’. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And the gifts...the strange gifts for a baby. But maybe the thing about the gifts is more about where they are from... than who they are for?</span></div>
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Imagine...three (more or less) wealthy, wise men; intelligent; privileged; curious. Seeking out a 'something' until they find it. And then, maybe next year, seeking something else. Sounds very contemporary to me, this spiritual wandering. Yearning for something that will satisfy what their material wealth does not. This particular portent has them intrigued; coming together to share their wonderings and then to share their wanderings. Sure that the stars are telling them something; prepared to follow an unknown path. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So they travel, with their caravan; their starmaps and their assurance. Assured enough to enter King Herod's courts as equals; as diplomats. Believing that the accepted authority will be <i>the</i> authority. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Herod does not have the answer; their faith in worldly power fails. It is a different faith which holds the power; the faith of ancients; prophecies and portents. Did they recognise this other sign, leading them further away from the world they knew? </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Did they notice the lilt of truth against the hiss of Herod's deceit?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And there the truth is revealed in poverty; in the lacking. Seeing how little the Christ had; how little he needed; how much he trusted. Seeing how his life was held in the loving hands of two human beings with nothing to offer but their best. They see and understand. What could they give?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They offer their best. It wasn't that these gifts spoke of anything except their own sense of value; that these gifts 'valued' them - as merchants; as traders; as elite. It isn't the gifts they give but what they represent. Offering what the Rich Young man, many years later, cannot. They give what had defined them; they give <i>themselves</i> into the baby's hands. Letting go of the world's control over them they ignore Herod's command; they hear the voices of angels; they return to their country by a different way - a way of humility and faith; a way of the prophet; a way of witness.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What can they give him? What Thomas gives as his witness. The witness of faith; that Jesus is 'My Lord and my God'. </span><br />
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613300888653014667.post-63559647049982766212017-01-01T08:02:00.000-08:002017-01-01T08:02:24.007-08:00Where your treasure is<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><th align="left"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gospel</span></th><th align="right"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luke 2:16-21 </span></th></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pope Francis is forever reminding us to keep close to Mary because she is a 'Mamma' and she knows the way. In Matthew we have so little clues, we have to rely on Luke's fondness for her to see the 'Mamma' beneath the title, Mother of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the start of the New Year, another Mary, Mary Oliver, is oft quoted as an inspiration for the year ahead;</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'Pay attention. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be astonished. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tell about it.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An excellent guide into mindfulness and the appreciation of all that is good in the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps Mamma Mary would have written;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'Pay attention</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be astonished</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Treasure it'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a few weeks, Mary will receive the warning, as if she hasn't worked it out for herself, that her new life will have more than its share of heartbreaks. And it is up to her treasure to show its worth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mary doesn't bring up a son who is tied to her apron strings; who afraid of his shadow, who takes the well worn road. The sword is overshadowed by the myriad graces and blessings of the everyday. Jesus has vision and courage and trust and all those qualities that makes you and I want to follow him because he follows his Mamma - and Abba - witnessing to the extraordinary in their ordinary lives. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it won't have been easy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wish you every grace and blessing for this new year and every year of your life. And for the days when you need it - I wish you the treasure of remembering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's an idea going around social media - you may have seen it - a Blessing Jar. The idea that you fill a jar with all the good things that have happened during the year - to be opened next New Year's Eve. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a variation on the theme.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can use a jar; a trinket box or journal that you got for Christmas, the techno's might want to set up a Facebook or Blog page that only they can see. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And start collecting treasure; write in it, stick things in it. Blessings, graces, noticings, images, kindnesses. Add to it regularly. Don't share it (except when you feel it's right to) and don't store it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Keep reading it; looking at it; appreciating it and letting it inspire you. In difficult times make sure you go back to it so that you are not overshadowed by the pointy finger of isolation and fear. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Treasure your friends; whether they are shepherds or Magi. Trust those whose words and gestures reach your heart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And give yourself time to ponder. Maybe then you can 'tell about it'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Mary stands at the foot of the cross, it doesn't come as a suprise. She is a Mamma; she is ready, she has made herself ready. Her courage is held in the years of grace and blessings; in all that God's promise has given. She knows where her treasure is. When we follow her we will find ourselves with her Son. </span></div>
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Mairie http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663275897097146508noreply@blogger.com0