Verbum Dei UK

Monday: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

This week we are deepening into the reality of the feast of Corpus Christi, the body and blood of Christ. We celebrated this amazing reality of Jesus Christ being really present in the bread and wine.
This reading of Corpus Christi celebrates the moment when Jesus took the bread and wine and blessed them at the Last Supper.
We are a visual society and we are used to TV adverts, billboards and other advertising. I think Jesus enters our reality of needing something visual, and also something physical that we can touch.
It represents something much deeper. Jesus acknowledging our hunger and thirst for him, gives himself up freely during that first Eucharist. He repeats this in each and every Eucharist.

Lord, help us to realise that when we are empty inside, we hunger and we thirst that you become the real food, that sustains us, to enable us to give of ourselves to others. Help us to recognise and believe in your real presence in the Eucharist.

Tuesday: Luke 9:11-17

The disciples’ reactions are so human. At the end of a long day of healing and ministering to the people, they told Jesus: “Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round and about to find lodging and food.”

So often we can end up feeling completely inadequate to deal with the needs of those around us and we can end up with that same attitude of hoping someone else will be there to solve the many problems of other people.
Jesus shows us a different way “give them something to eat yourselves.” Again the disciples give such a human response, to go out and buy more!!
Jesus’ response is so different “Make them sit down in parties of fifty.” He then proceeded to bless the little food the disciples had and multiplied it.
Our response to a problem or a need can be to let somebody else deal with it, but we can reach out to the needs of others ourselves if we trust in God’s strength and mercy.

Lord, help us to trust in your strength and mercy to enable us to reach out to the needs of others, which so often we feel inadequate to deal with. Help us to recognise and be sensitive to their needs.

Wednesday: Matthew 5:1-12

Today’s reading is from the Sermon on the Mount. It is such a beautiful expression of how God accepts us, our spiritual poverty, our gentleness, those who mourn, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted.

Meditating this reading looking at the Eucharist, we can listen to Christ being our compassionate God who wants to hold us in all the different moments of our lives, when we show gentleness towards others, when we accept to come to God just as we are, when we come to God in mourning, not just for the loss of a loved one but also in mourning for the state of this world.
God welcomes those who are merciful to others who hurt them, those who have purity of heart, who live unpolluted by what the secular world has to offer, those who work for peace, where their actions brings a peaceful response between people where there has been tension. God welcomes those who are persecuted.
God is not a distant figure but someone who knows our human need, and who comes to meet us in that need and who encourages us to reach out to the needs of others,

Lord, you know all our needs and our longings; you desire to fill us with your presence, and long for us to share this experience with others. Help us to experience your grace, mercy and love, to empower us to reach out to others.

Thursday: Psalm 23

This psalm is taken from the readings for tomorrow’s Feast Day, The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

It is well known to most of us. It is well worth reading again prayerfully. The nature of Jesus’ heart is as a place of rest and a place of peace, it is a place where we are filled with his Holy Spirit.
All of us face moments in our lives when we are overwhelmed by our responsibilities, and can often want to pray but find it difficult to find space and time. Our well intentioned plans to pray can become a struggle, and are drowned out by our worries and concerns.
It is in these very moments of struggle that Jesus wishes to meet us and as the reading says “Near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit.”

God really does want to walk alongside each one of us, reaching out to us with a personal tender love that no one else can give.
It’s the attitude in which we come into prayer which is really important, and it is one introduced to me on one of the retreats, a spirit of expectancy. We have to come empty, to be filled by God, not with our own agenda of how we think things should be but God’s agenda. It is really like a heart transplant, we all have spiritual heart disease, (hopefully not physically!!). God has to take our heart which is wounded by so much and transplant into us his heart of love, and of giving to others.
It’s a constant process of healing and renewal. I know that I have been affected by so many moments of love and grace of God reflected by others. My life of faith has been inspired and nurtured by people in my own life.

Lord, help me to be changed and transformed by your presence. Help me to be grateful to those who have reflected your presence in my life. Help me to reflect your life of love, mercy and grace to others

Friday: Ezekiel 34 : 11-16; Luke 15 : 3-7

Today’s readings are the First reading and Gospel for today - The Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, and both reflect on Jesus the Good Shepherd.

When I was really young (one to five years old) my parents used to sing me a song last thing at night entitled ‘Jesus tender shepherd’ and it went like this:

‘Jesus tender shepherd hear me, bless thy little lamb tonight, be thou near him keep him safe till morning light.’

This early memory of prayer has really affected the way that I see God as a loving parent figure, one who really cares and who is not a distant figure.
I feel God has loved and enjoyed me as a child and now as a grown man wants me to share this love with others.
I think we have to approach God as his little lambs or we don’t enter into God’s love. We all face challenges, but we can face them surrounded by the love of God, not with a spirit of timidity but with a spirit of strength, courage and confidence.

Lord, help us to be changed and transformed in your tender but strengthening and transforming love. Help us to share this faith with others in a spirit of confidence.

© Verbum Dei * 2010

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