Walking in the Footsteps of Christ – Day 24 Tuesday after 4th Sunday of Lent A Lenten Journey with the Rule of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis These Reflections which take the Rule of the Third Order as their springboard, were originally published in Lent 2012 are being republished during Easter… Continue reading Walking in the Footsteps of Christ – Day 24
If we limit the voice of God to the words of the Bible we become deaf to God’s action in the world around us and cannot see God’s hand at work in the Scientist’s laboratory, the Doctor’s surgery, or the Politicians manifesto.
If we set out on a journey to hear the Voice of God one of the first steps must be to pick up the words God has spoken down the years to faithful people all over the world.
If God knows everything what is the point of making our confession? Surely the public act of confession in our worship and the private telling our sins to a priest is redundant?
A time of ‘fessing up’, whichever way we are called to do it, is a time of self-discovery and an opportunity to know again how much God loves us.
It is never the amount of prayer that is important, though if you have more time to pray use it, it is ensuring that time for prayer however short, is set aside.
If we do not pray we have no food for the journey, no strength for the service and no courage to help endure the sacrifice.
In a time when, for a season, we can’t enter our churches, the call to ‘pray without ceasing’ reminds us that prayer is not only about holy words in holy places but a yielding of our whole life to the One Who Loves us Best
There are so many calls on our life and finding a good balance is difficult. As our pilgrimage continues we will need to emphasise some activities over others, but in so doing we must careful to not neglect any of the good things which help our journey homeward.
Thos of use who are not called to literal poverty can sometimes feel as if we have been lumbered with our possessions and the only way to work with them is to deny them. But if we learn to ‘sit lightly’ to them we can begin to see the goods we have as gifts for the furthering of the Gospel.
Those who have more than enough of this world’s goods face the challenge of how much they should give away and how much they should keep for their own well-being. Tithing and other formulae for giving are unequal and still leave us in thrall to our possessions. What is needed is a generous heart alongside an open pocketbook.
Suffolk Vicar 