The Catholic Calendar for Monday, May 16, 2005
Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Sirach 1:1-10
Psalm 93:1-2,5
Mark 9:14-29
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
Today's First Reading is from the Book of Sirach. In it we hear how the seat of wisdom is God and that He "lavishes" wisdom upon those who are His friends.
Reflection on the Sacred Word leads us to ask, who are God's friends and how did they get that way. The answer lies first in the fact that God invites all to be and remain His friends through a dialogue of love that we call prayer.
Teresa of Jesus, a Doctor of the Church and teacher par excellence on prayer tells us that prayer is nothing more than a conversation with "One who we know loves us." She tells us that we are not to be concerned about "saying much in prayer, but in loving much." She tells us to begin simply by "looking at Him."
What would happen to us if we lovingly and attentively looked at Jesus, alone in the Garden or in any number of other familiar Gospel scenes? Would our hearts perhaps be moved with love to utter spontaneous words of adoration and praise? We will only know if we take the time to enter into a conversation with Him, or as it is sometimes with lovers, we just look at one another.
- Donna Raye Nelson, OCDS
(drn3rd at hotmail dot com)
20050516