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Psalms

20th Sunday of Year B

17 août 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: commands, Eph.5:15-20, evil, good, peace, perception, Pr.9:1-6, Ps.34:10-15, Psalms, the Spirit, will of the Lord

Going through the readings of this Sunday (20th Sunday of Year B),
I am surprised at the number of… recommendations… injunctions… commands…
we are given to take into consideration!
I note but a few and I find them… quite demanding…

“Leave your folly and you will live,
walk in the ways of perception.”     (1st reading: Proverbs 9:1-6)

“Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord…
Listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord…
Never yield to evil, practise good,
Seek peace, pursue it.”     (Response: Ps.34:23,10-15)

“Be careful about the sort of lives you lead…
Recognise what is the will of the Lord.
Be filled with the Spirit…
Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns…”   (2nd reading: Eph.5:15-20)

I make a summary for myself and it comes to this simple formula:
“Recognise what is the will of the Lord.
Be filled with the Spirit…

Enough there for… a lifetime!

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/20e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/

Source: Images: seton.com

23rd Sunday of Year A

7 septembre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: blessings, expérience, Father in heaven, gospel texts, inventory, Mt.18:15-20, needs, prayer, Prophets, Psalms, wishes

We know and we believe that the word of God in Scripture tells us about him and his will for our lives.
His message comes to us, ‘clothed’ if I may say, in all kinds of ways reaching us as light and guidance, strength and comfort.

The prophets and the Psalms, the gospels texts and the epistles – all of them are meant for our instruction, says Paul (Rom.15:4).
But, personally, I must confess that I am rather partial to texts which offer us promises, yes, promises from God himself.

The last verses of today’s gospel (23rd Sunday, Year A – Mt.18:15-20) give us exactly that: a two-fold promise from Jesus himself.
Words that are powerful and, yes, really promising!
This is what he says:

« I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all,
it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.”

Some will say: “Wonderful!”
Others will think: “It did not work out for me!” meaning that they asked, and asked, with relatives and friends, and they simply did not get what they were asking for…
And many would endorse this statement and the experience it describes.

Perhaps most of us have made this experience – that of praying with our whole heart, convinced that God hears our prayers but, in the end, what we were hoping for did not materialize.
Did our praying bring about anything? We wonder.
We think to ourselves: If it did, it was surely not what we had asked for.

Perhaps this is because we have yet to identify our real needs… which can be quite different from our wishes and…yes, our whims…
God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, knows also what is best for us, even if we find it very difficult to admit to that.

Today may be a good occasion to make some kind of inventory – the inventory of all that we have received from God recently and see if some of those blessings were not – in disguise – what we were most in need of at the time…

Source: Image: justice-and-peace.org.uk

14th Sunday of the Year, C

30 juin 2016
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: God as Father, God as Mother, God's compassion, God's kindness, God's mercy, God's tendernessmercy, Is.49:15. Is.66:10-14, Lk.15:11-24, Psalms

nursing motherWe could easily have missed it! Yes, I mean the text for our reflection this Sunday (14th Sunday, Year C). The 1st reading is that of Isaiah 66:10-14. The book of the prophet Isaiah has exactly 66 chapters and the last one has 24 verses in all. So our reference for this Sunday comes… very late in the book and someone who has gone through all the previous contents could be forgiven to ‘forget’ the very last section. But then, that person would miss… a jewel!

In these days when we are very often reminded of God’s mercy, some preachers like to stress that, God being a Spirit, is not only a male figure – a father – but includes within Itself feminine attributes as well. They assure us that the Bible uses the metaphor of a mother and, at this point, they quote the well known text of Isaiah 49:15: “Does a woman forget her baby at the breast?… Yet, even if these forget I will never forget you.”

This Sunday presents us with the same image and perhaps even stronger. Here, we see God somehow playing with her child! We read: “Her nurslings will be carried and fondled in her lap”. And the text adds: “Like a son comforted by his mother will I comfort you.”

How encouraging, how comforting indeed, and what a forceful correction to our abstract presentations of an almighty distant God. Yes, God is mighty and all-powerful , but the Psalms keep repeating how kind and merciful, tender and compassionate he is (Ps.103; Ps.145).

Jesus best known parable (Lk.15:11-24) says it in a most vivid and convincing way: God is a father who cannot bear seeing his children far from him – yet, he will never force us, oblige us, or impose on us to return to him when we have gone away. God’s way is not that of coercion or threat, he knows only the way of gentle invitation and tender fascination. He knows us too well to attempt anything else!

Source: Image: www.desipainters.com