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God’s plan

16th Sunday of Year B – 2024

19 juillet 2024
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: believers, God's plan, God's will, honesty, integrity, Jeremiah 23:1-6, righteousness, transparency, uprightness

It goes without saying, as believers, we try to please God.
We strive to follow Jesus’ teaching and to fulfil God’s will in our daily life.
From day to day, we make special efforts to behave as we think he wants us to do.

At times, we wonder if we really manage to do this…
Thinking about what we said, what we did on a certain day, we may find that we did not succeed very well.
Looking back on certain situations, perhaps we find that our response to people was not what Christ’s response would have been.

We may feel discouraged… we may think that our efforts do not achieve what we would like…
We may feel that no matter how we try, our life is not really Christ-like.

A few words in today’s 1st reading may bring us some comfort (Jeremiah 23:1-6).
The prophet Jeremiah, speaking about God, tells us that God is:

“The Lord-our-integrity”.
Or, in another translation:
“The Lord-our-righteousness”.

In other words, the Lord himself is the one who will make us more and more as God wants us to be… if we only allow him to do so!
He is the one who will achieve his plan for us and through us.

Integrity is this quality of honesty, transparency, that characterizes someone truly open to God.
The righteousness we aim for is the goodness and uprightness of someone who does not ‘cut corners’ as we would say in today’s language.
Someone acting with integrity does not pretend nor show off.

This way of living may not be achieved easily – we know this from experience.
But as we remind ourselves of God’s presence with us – he who is “the Lord-our-integrity” –
we take heart, and we do our best day after day.

 

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/16e-dimanche-de-lannee-b-2024/

 

Source: Image: https://www.scripture-images.com/bible-verse

Ascension of the Lord, Year B – 2021

15 mai 2021
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 2 Peter 3:8, Acts 1:1-11, Ascension, goals, God's plan, moments, seasons, time

Time, moments in time, seasons… they rule our life.
But we need to learn how to live according to their rhythm.

The 1st reading of this Feast of the Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:1-11) shows him teaching his apostles for the last period during which he will be visibly present with them.
We are told that he is speaking to them about the kingdom of God – in other words, the way God wants to welcome people into relationship with him.

But the apostles ask Jesus:

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
 
Obviously, they are not on the same wavelength…
Jesus corrects them in no uncertain terms:

“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”
 
I wonder if we, ourselves, would not sometimes deserve the same correction…
What concerns us most, very often, is the time when our own plans are going to be fulfilled.

God’s plan may seem to us more remote, distant, not very real or concrete.
We focus on the goals we set for ourselves, the realizations we want to see achieved.
Our moments are those of the immediate, we look for instant gratification…

We find is so difficult to adjust ourselves to God’s timetable.

Peter, the apostle, was reminding the first Christians:

“Beloved, do not forget this one thing,
that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day”.    (2 Peter 3:8).    

A lesson we are in constant need to learn…
And learning together with it patience and the meaning of TIME…
 
Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/ascension-du-seigneur-annee-b-2021/

 

Source: Images: iStock   Bible Verses Pictures – Scripture Images  

29th Sunday of Year A – 2020

16 octobre 2020
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Afro-American, Cyrus the Great, first, God's plan, Iran, Isaiah 45:1, Isaiah 45:4-6, The Colour Purple

Cyrus the Great was born in the province of Persis, in southwest Iran in 590 BC and died in battle in 530 B.C.
History presents him as a great king whose rule stretched from India to the Mediterranean Sea; he possessed the largest empire in the world at that time.
His name is mentioned over 22 times in the Bible and his tomb in Iran can be visited today.

These biographical details are not the reason why Isaiah speaks of him in today’s 1st reading (Isaiah 45:4-6).
The purpose of Cyrus’ presence in this text is that he was chosen by God to play a special role in God’s plan for his people.
He was, in fact, God’s servant as the words of Isaiah make clear.

What has drawn my attention in this reading is NOT what Cyrus did, but what God did –
what God does over and over again.
The text reads:

“I (the Lord) summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me…
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
so that… people may know there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

Cyrus does not know the God of Israel – the Lord – he does not acknowledge him as the only God.
Yet, the Lord blesses him in special ways with a title of honor and with strength.

To me, this is God, OUR God!
All too often, we think that we must do things for God – offer him prayers and sacrifices.
We somehow believe that we must gain his approval and merit his blessings.

Sad to say, we have inversed this wonderful reality that God is the first to shower his gifts on us.
We must come to realize that if we can do anything for God… it is because he, himself, enables us to do so!

In the beautiful book (and movie) The Color Purple, this is what Alice Walker, the Afro-American lady, has understood when she says with amazing assurance:

“People think pleasing God is all God cares about.
But any fool in the world can see he is always trying to please us back.”

And perhaps… to please us FIRST?!

Note: Another reflection on a similar theme in French can be found at: https://image-i-nations.com/29e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2020/

 

 

Source: Image: Total loser and Proud    Pinterest

 

4th Sunday of Advent, Year B

21 décembre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: annunciation, commitment, God's plan, Lk.1:26-38, question, remark, request, response, suggestion

The gospel of this 4th Sunday of Advent (Year B) presents us with the scene of the Annunciation to Mary (Lk.1:26-38).
Of course, we know it well, we could tell the ‘story’ easily and in all its details.
We are so used to the text that nothing should surprise us anymore, and yet…

As I reflect on it, there is one aspect that strikes me: Mary said: ‘Yes’.
Or rather, no, she did not say: ‘Yes’, but she said: “Let this be done unto me…”
We cannot imagine that she could not, that she would not, have said this!
How could one refuse something to God?…

From this scene of this annunciation in the gospel, I move on to many other scenes of ‘annunciation’.
What could be described as ‘personal annunciations’.
And I recall the answer given…

Those annunciations were not brought by an angelic messenger, of course.
They were not conveyed either in a celestial language or a prophetic statement.
Yet, they were real messages from God.

  • A remark by a friend… the remark was so appropriate to the situation of the moment…
  • A question by a neighbour… so much in line with one’s reflection at the time…
  • A suggestion by a colleague… surprising at the moment, but attuned to the circumstances…
  • An interpellation by a relative… it caught us unawares but fitted our experience of the day…
  • A request from a stranger… inopportune but justified…

Yes, they were true ‘annunciations’ and the response then was…?
We may have first spoken, vocally or in a soft whisper, the words of Mary: “How can this happen?…”
 
There was the perception that this was a moment of commitment.
It was a unique occasion of acceptance to enter God’s plan.
Then, was the following response similar to Mary’s?…
“Let this be done unto me…”

This is really the only fitting response to God.
Perhaps not the easiest, or the most spontaneous.
But, can we refuse something , anything, to… God?

Source: Image: catholicos.blogspot.com

Feast of Mary, Mother, Year A

29 décembre 2016
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Christmas, Gal.4:4-7, getting used to, God's plan, God's Son, human being, Mary Mother of God, New Year, praise, wonder

There are attitudes which can be helpful and make life easier and more pleasant. Other ways are less conducive to growth and happiness. One of these is called: ‘Getting used to’… Of course, the repetition of certain tasks can make them easier to perform. Exercise and practice can make one more proficient. But this does not apply to understanding some realities.

You may wonder where this reflection is leading to. These thoughts came to me while reading the letter to the Galatians (2nd reading, Year A – Gal.4:4-7) where we are told that God’s Son was “born of a woman”. We repeat it every time we pray the Creed: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”

Do we ever stop at this point unable to go on out of sheer amazement? Has it ever happened that other people around us went on reciting the text while we remained in total wonder at this extraordinary reality: GOD IS THE CHILD OF A HUMAN MOTHER. The fact is that we have got ‘used to it’… It somehow seems that the words flow of themselves as if things could not be otherwise – we have repeated them for so long!

Only God can make such plans: to involve a human being like us for his own Son to become precisely this: a human being like us. This is what we celebrate at Christmas, and this is what we celebrate today on this Feast of Mary, Mother of God.

In fact, what we celebrate is: God who needs – God wanting to be in need: is this not astonishing? –in need of a created being to carry out His design. Mary said ‘Yes’ not only to a baby of her own, but to… a son of God’s own, and yet… a son or her own!

Is this not enough to keep us in wonder and praise for the whole of this new year?!