Week beginning Sunday 19 July
seeing your life through the lens of the gospels
Mark 6:30-34
1 The apostles reported to Jesus all that they had done and taught. Perhaps you have had the experience of being able to check in with somebody and share an experience. What was that like for you? 2 Jesus saw that the apostles needed to rest and eat. What has been your experience of finding a restful place after a busy day? What kind of nourishment have you found necessary in order to live with energy and enthusiasm? What have these insights taught you about life? 3 When Jesus saw the crowd, he recognised their need and reached out to them. Who has been a Jesus person for you, someone who recognised your need and reached out to you? For whom have you been a Jesus person in that way? 4 It sometimes can be difficult to strike a balance between responding to the needs of others and meeting our need for rest and nourishment. What has helped you to keep the balance right?
John Byrne OSA
Email john@orlagh.ie
Questions people ask
Q. Why must we have so many interruptions at Mass like standing, kneeling, shaking hands etc.? I would much prefer a quiet, uninterrupted Mass.
A. Silent worship is wonderful in its own place but the celebration of the Eucharist is a community prayer which recognises the presence of the Lord not only in the consecrated host but also in the gathered community, in the word and in the mission to go out in love and service. ‘Though there are many of us we form a single body, because we all have a share in the one loaf’ (1 Cor. 10:17). Sharing responses, gestures and movements with others is a recognition of Christ in the body that is the community.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com
The Deep End
Silence
In The World of Silence, Max Picard writes, ‘And yet sometimes all the noise of the world today seems like the mere buzzing of insects on the broad back of silence.’ There’s something substantial about silence. Often people describe it as ‘heavy’. Silence is formidable, even intimidating, if you’re not friendly with it. But to be friendly with it, first you have to be friendly with you. One way of finding out if you are, is to go off to a lonely spot and see how long you can stay there before unease sets in.
How many people follow Jesus’ advice to his disciples in today’s Gospel (Mark 6:30-34) to go to a deserted place for peace and quiet? Are they not more inclined to go to a noisy holiday resort where’s there’s lots of action, lots of people, lots of things to do to fill the gap, lots of ways to forget oneself? Is there not something desperate about having to have a good time, and worse yet to feel obliged to say you had, even though you may not have had?
Getting used to silent, solitary periods to relax, to refresh our spirit and take stock of our life is worthwhile. It helps us to think about important things that in the normal course of a day we rarely think of. Things like: life and its purpose, values we live by, people we hold precious, ambitions that drive us, the place we give to God in our life.
Silence is necessary not for finding answers but for finding questions.
Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@svdireland.com
