Link to today’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092021.cfm

For the next two weeks I will be teaching a course to Chaplains new to Australian Defence Force Chaplaincy, and given that focussing on what to have for breakfast whilst also watching the morning news is generally too complex a task for me, what chance have I of remembering to write reflections for the coming fortnight!

My cunning plan then is to select a verse or couple of verses from the readings of the day, or from one of the prayers of the Mass of the Day, and pair them with a song / hymn. I hope you find it useful.

The Entrance Antiphon for Masses this week:

I am the salvation of the people, says the Lord.

Should they cry to me in any distress,

I will hear them, and I will be their Lord for ever.

Good and Gracious King (City Alight)

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

 Link to today’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/0915-memorial-our-lady-sorrows.cfm

Today the Church brings to mind the image of Mary – Our Lady of Sorrows, and today’s Gospel Reading (Jn 19:25-27) is the telling of perhaps the most sorrowful and poignant moments of Mary’s life; the death of her son (Jesus) on the Cross.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

At times in our life, perhaps many times, when confronted with the mystery of suffering or injustice, or being with someone as they waver of the doorstep between this life and the next, our only response can be that of Mary at the foot of Cross: A faithful, silent, certain presence in the face of all else.

Today we ask Our Lady of Sorrows to journey with those in such circumstance, and to present them with a mother’s love to her Son.

Memorial of St John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

 Link to today’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091321.cfm

In today’s First Reading from the 1^st Letter of Timothy (Tm 2:1-8) we find these wonderful verses:

                        For there is one God.
                        There is also one mediator between God and men,
                        the man Christ Jesus,
                        who gave himself as ransom for all.

The all-powerful, ever-living God, offers to all the possibility of redemption in the life, death,  and resurrection of Jesus. It is this Christ then our certainty and safety rests.

Rather than me banging-on about this, please find following a YouTube link to a really lovely version of the song In Christ Alone: 

 I think a prayerful listening to this will yield more than anything I could write.

Have a great week.

Today the Church celebrates the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It celebrates, liturgically, only two other birthdays during the liturgical year: St John the Baptist, and (of course) Jesus.

What is it that we do when celebrate a birthday, when we greet them with the words: Happy Birthday! We celebrate not the achieving of another year of vintage, though for some this is an achievement, nor a step closer to some age-related milestone. What we celebrate is that this person came into being, that by God’s gracious gift, this person stands with us. We rejoice with that person simply because they are.

Today we celebrate the ‘coming into being’ of the one through whom God brings into being in the world (incarnates) Jesus – Emmanuel: God with us! Mary’s humble words of “let it be with me according to you word” (Lk 1:38) begins the unleashing of God’s decisive and full intervention and revelation in the person of Jesus; nothing would be the same.

When we hear the words of the first line of today’s First Reading  - We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28) – from the vantage point of history, and apply them to the life of Mary, we can only wonder at how they came to fruition in her life. How could the young woman who so radically said “yes” to the Angel have known what would lay before her. That she would ask why three wise travellers from afar might visit her and her new-born (Mt 1:10-11), and be amazed at the insight and understanding Jesus would show when chatting to teachers in the Temple (Lk 2:47), that she would be present at his first miracle in Cana (Jn 2:1-11), and sadly and cruelly that she would see her beloved only child beaten and then crucified. And, joyfully, she would stand among others in his presence, and with a mother’s tears exclaim: He lives!

We claim for Mary many titles: Queen of Heaven, Queen of Angels, Mother of the Church, Star of the Sea, but perhaps the one dearest to her heart might be simply be Mother of Jesus (Theotokos). It is perhaps in this title (role) we find her most approachable, either as the sons or daughters of mothers, or as mothers ourselves. And so today we celebrate the birthday of this mother, who by virtue of our baptism mothers us too. We ask that we might have courage similar to her in our own “lowly state” so that we might “rejoice” in “God our saviour” and “enjoy his favour” (Lk 1:48).

Ave Maria!

(Image downloaded from the virgin at prayer - Bing images on 06 September, 2021)

Link to today’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090621.cfm

Today’s Responsorial Psalm is a short section from Psalm 62. The psalm has 13 verses, and today in our readings we read vv. 6-7, & 9, with v. 8 (In God is my safety and glory) serving as the response.^[1]

Psalm 62, like Ps 61, expresses our confidence in God’s divine protection, and it is from this vantage point that we bring our prayer reflection to the psalm.

^[1] Other translations use ‘salvation’ rather than safety.

Here, as forecast earlier on the week, we have these wonderful words from St Paul to the people of Colossae concerning the cosmic and timeless Christ:

Brothers and sisters:

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the Body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent.

For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the Blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.

I could write some thoughts about this reading, but I think the following song by He Is by Mark Schultz much more aptly leads us in some reflection on these stirring words from St Paul: He Is - Mark Schultz - YouTube

(image downloaded from CosmicChrist.jpg (662×900) (christthesavioroca.org) on 02 September, 2021)

Link to today’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090121.cfm

Today in our First Reading we start reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, and we will continue to do so up to and including Thursday 09 September (Thursday of the 23 Week in Ordinary Time). Colossians is a short letter of only four chapters and was written by St Paul around 60-61c.e., when Paul was first imprisoned in Rome. Though it might be short in length, the Letter to the Colossians is rich in theology, especially that branch of theology we call Christology – the theology of / thinking about Jesus the Christ.

The city of Colossae was on the trade route between Ephesus and the East, in that part of the world we would now refer to as modern Turkey. The people of the Church of Colossae had been influenced by false teaching the challenged the divinity of Jesus, and so Paul writes to challenge this false teaching and correct their belief. In this letter then we find quite a developed Christology (Col 1:15-20) that sees Jesus the Christ as the ‘image of the unseen God’, who ‘existed before all things, and in him all things hold together’, who is ‘the first-born from the dead’, and through whom “all things…everything in heaven and everything on earth” have been reconciled to the Father”. It is in this letter that we find this wonderful promise: “You have been buried with him in baptism, by which also you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12).

This letter provides a rich foundation for us to understand ourselves as living in Christ: “As the chosen of God, then, holy and beloved. Clothe yourselves in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12).

Today’s First Reading, and tomorrow’s (Thursday) form part of Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer for the people of Colossae, and set the scene for Paul’s wonderful description of Christ as the head of all creation. To simply ‘sit in’ the verses of Col 1:15-20 and let our minds (and souls) conjure up images in response will help, if only fleetingly, to grasp cosmic and timeless nature of the Christ.

For today though let us rest in Paul’s words as they apply to us:

We give thank for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually on our prayers, since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God’s saint, because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven.