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The Alphabet of Lent – Letter M

4 mars 2024
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: afraid, alone, believe, desperate, hope, Jairus, Mark 5:22-43, messages

M for Message

Messages, we receive plenty of them!
Those which used to come to us through the mail still reach us.
But the many platforms of the social media are now a more importance source.

Permanent connection, continuous information, repeated messages in loop – each second downloads them!
Each message brings its contents and… the emotions it awakens…
All comes our way: Information, invitations, questions, challenges…

Ask yourself the question: What was the latest message you received?
What was your reaction when you learnt what it said?

In the gospel of Mark, there is an interesting scene about this subject.
We meet Jairus, the leader of the synagogue asking Jesus to come and heal his daughter seriously ill (Mark 5:22-43).
Already on the way, Jesus stops to heal a woman who has been sick for a long time.

At that moment, some people arrive from Jairus’ home bringing a message to him:

 “Your daughter is dead,” they said.
“Why bother the teacher anymore?”
Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, 
‘Don’t be afraid; just believe’.”

The young girl is already dead, what hope is there still?
Jesus tells Jairus not to be afraid… to believe…

I stop and I ask myself how I would have received these words?…

To believe that God is with us even when we seem unable to overcome what cannot be overcome?
To believe that we are never alone?…
To believe that God does not leave us on our own to face the desperate situations we have to deal with?…
To believe that, from death… God can draw… some good… life itself?…

It seems to me that, from deep within myself, I hear ‘a small voice’ whispering:
‘A real feat it is!’

Yes… to believe as He alone can enable us to do…

 

Source: Images: pexels.com (Cottonbro Studio)

 

The Alphabet of Lent – Introduction

13 février 2024
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: afraid, give God time, impatient, Lent, non-essentials, take time

 

                                  LENT – Introduction                                       

 

 

                                    LENT is a special time…

 

 

 

                                                                                                       L eaving aside the non-essentials

                                                                                                       E ntering the depths of ourselves

                                                                                                       N either afraid nor impatient

                                                                                                       T o allow God to reach us where we are . . .

 

Let us take time…

Let us give God time…

And let us marvel at the outcome!…

 

During this period of Lent, a daily reflection will appear from Monday to Friday in the series entitled The Alphabet of Lent. The texts will focus on themes taken from the gospel, every day according to a letter of the alphabet.

The texts will be published in French and in English on the website www.image-i-nations.com

In the following sections: À bien y penser (French text) et Anglophones, anglophiles (English text).

The reflections on the readings of the Sunday celebrations will be available on Saturday.

The Facebook page of the site will also offer the presentations.

 

Note: The first reflection will appear on February 15.

 

Source: Images: pexels.com    (Elisabeth Baltadjieva,   Miniperde)

 

All Souls’ Day – 2nd November

1 novembre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: achievement, afraid, death, eventuality, faithful, happy, Italian painter Raphael, Jesus' words, masterpiece, Mt.24:46, new life, painting, shore, transfiguration

November 2nd returns every year, of course.
And every year, too, it brings back to our minds the recollection that, one day,… we will leave this abode of ours.
We will cross to… the other shore and start, yes, a new life.

Some are much afraid of this happening.
Some say they don’t care.
Others do their best not to think of the eventuality.

Yet… the eventuality, nay the reality of this happening, will not go away.
How will we live this experience of… passage, of transformation?

It is said that the Italian artist Raphael’s last word was simply: “Happy”.
The very word of yesterday’s gospel message as we celebrated the Feast of all Saints.

It is reported that, as he was dying of fever (malaria) and exhaustion, Raphael kept working at the face of Christ in his painting of The Transfiguration.
A fitting way of being faithful to Jesus words:
“Blessed is that servant whose master returns and finds him doing his work” (Mt.24:46).

Will we deserve this blessing ourselves?
Our occupation need not be a work of art or an exceptional achievement.
The only ‘masterpiece’ that the Lord expects from each one of us is faithfulness in using to the full the talents he has given to us – only this but… all of this!

Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/commemoration-fideles-defunts-2-novembre-annee-a/

 Source: Images: Pinterest   Wikipedia
 

 

 

 

Pentecost, Year A

1 juin 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: afraid, anxieties, ask for the Spirit, Easter, fear, God's Spirit, Jn.20:22, joy, security, transformation, worries

“The doors were closed (‘locked’, says another translation) in the room where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.”      

Have you ever been really afraid?
If so, you surely remember the experience!
In a threatening situation, it seems we can’t think straight!
We try to figure out the best course of action but it eludes us.
We may sweat profusely while debating whether fight or flight is the best option.

Fear can be a very powerful inhibiting element.
It can paralyze us in a strange way.
It can prevent us from doing or saying what we would want to do or say.

While the disciples were hiding behind closed doors, Jesus comes to them and we are told:
“The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord.”
The situation is completely transformed: fear has given place to joy – the joy of feeling secure.
This security is given by the presence of the Lord now with them.

Then, Jesus breathing over them says: “Receive the Holy Spirit…” (Jn.20:22).

On today’s feast of Pentecost we, too, are meant to welcome God’s own Spirit. 
He is the one who will enable us to overcome our fears of all kinds.
He is the one who will free us from paralyzing anxieties and crippling worries.

The security and peace we long for, he is the one who can give them to us.
We need only ask, as Jesus has told us repeatedly in the texts of the Easter season.
Indeed, we need only ask… it is that simple!

Source: Image: Discerning Hearts

4th Sunday of Lent, Year A

23 mars 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: advice, afraid, attitude, drive away, escape, incompetent, information, insight, Jesus, Jn.9:1-41, man born-blind, memory, Pharisees, pray, reaction, remark, see, truth, waarning

Strange things happen among us, people.
Something good can be done for someone and the person who benefits from the good deed is penalized for it!
 
It should not surprise us – this is what happened already in the time of Jesus.
We see it in today’s gospel on this 4th Sunday of Lent, Year A (Jn.9:1-41).

Jesus has cured a man who had been born blind and the religious leaders give this fortunate man – (or, unfortunate?) –
a hard time indeed.
Questions upon questions to him, to his parents, back to him again – evidently trying to find Jesus somehow guilty.
Unable to have the man say anything that would enable them to reach such a verdict, “They drove him away…”

They cannot SEE the good.
They cannot accept the evidence.
They push aside what is plain and clear.
They cannot face the truth.
They blind themselves in the most obvious way.

Why? Why such an attitude? What this kind of reaction?
But the next question is… Can this not be found in… us?
 
We may ‘drive away’ a memory… too painful to face.
We may ‘drive away’ a remark… unpleasant to acknowledge.
We may ‘drive away’ a warning… that would call for a decision.
We may ‘drive away’ a piece of advice… that would ask for a change of attitude.
We may ‘drive away’ some information… that invites me to do something.
So, we do as if the truth were not the truth!

We may fell afraid, ashamed, incompetent, powerful, not equal to a situation.
So, we hide, we pretend, we escape.
We literally ‘drive away’ what is plain to SEE but which threatens us.

LENT may be precisely that: the time to make special efforts to SEE.
And to pray for, yes, vision AND insight!

See also:  http://image-i-nations.com/the-man-born-blind/
Source: Image: request.org.uk