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Jesus : During this week’s prayer you will have plenty of material to use for your dialogue with Me coming form the services of Holy Week and Easter. Nevertheless, begin with the usual time of silence and stillness as this ensures that your prayer moves in the right direction.  After you have quieted your mind and heart, you could give Me a brief resume of the last week’s prayer effort, recalling that it is always more important to live what you pray, else your prayer itself would tend to become ineffectual.

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus: Re-read the Gospel passage of the day, ensuring that you do it in the first person, as if I Myself were reporting the incident to you.  I would expect you to pick up a word or phrase that you then use as the basis of your dialogue with Me. The Gospel passage deals largely with the apparition to Mary Magdalene in which she discovers the true meaning of My resurrection. It could be spelt out like this:

Resurrection is not a resuscitation. This latter means simply that the person who had died is now revived and begins to live again on the same level as before.  There is no difference at all between the two levels of life – before resurrection and after.  It simply means that there was a gap of greater or lesser duration but that now everything is back to normal.  Now, it is important to note that although all the examples that are given in the Scriptures, both the Old Testament and New, as examples of Resurrection (and sometimes they are even called resurrection) are in fact examples of a resuscitation. The reason for this is that resuscitation is about the closest one could get to understanding the Resurrection, as far as human examples go.  Yet, the two are poles apart.

For resuscitation to happen, the corpse or dead body must be available, else no resuscitation is possible.  Besides, there is no difference in the level of life before and after death. Thus, the ‘raised’ person continues to enjoy another lease of life, an extension which is more or less extended, but possesses the very same level of life, with nothing different.  Further all artistic depictions of Resurrection are in fact only a depiction of resuscitation.  And the reason for this is pretty obvious.  The truly resurrected person shares in the ‘spirit’ nature of God and hence cannot be depicted as a person extended in time and space!  He no longer has a corporeal ‘body’ like all other living people have, but nevertheless s/he continues to live as the same ‘person’ that s/he was before death, though on a totally different plane or level.

Most people would find this difficult to grasp, what with all the pictures, paintings and carving depicting the Risen Lord, more or less the same as what he might have looked like while walking this earth.  In fact, it is almost a fashion now in many places to have a depiction of the Risen Lord on the Cross on the back wall of the Church.  The figure of Christ is the same as the crucified, nails and all, except that it is now not fixed to the Cross, but ‘alive’.  This is actually a disservice to the Christian community, since the people are led to believe that the Risen Lord looks exactly like what he did before his Resurrection (but even this, who really knows what he looked like when he lived and walked the earth?)

You:  Lord Jesus, I am beginning to wonder whether all this would really make a difference to my faith and practice of the spiritual life?  Aren’t these mere theological niceties, something that great thinkers sit and discuss for hours on end, but with little or no practical consequence for simple Christians like me!?

Jesus:  That’s what most people would think.  But then, when I affirm that I am with you always as the Risen Lord, how do you conceive of this?  Am I, kind of, physically present to you, or isn’t My presence something far more spiritual and all-pervasive?  And it is this spiritual presence (which is nonetheless, ‘real’ and effective) that you need to attend to and collaborate with as you seek to extend My kingdom in the world today.  You will need to further remember that the only Jesus you encounter today is the Risen Lord, and so I need to emphasize with you today as I did with Mary Magdalene, that one should not cling to My feet, or My physical presence, but learn to relate to Me on the realm on faith – and this is something far more difficult and requires painstaking and persevering practice.  This faith encounter is as real and powerful (at times even more powerful) as a physical presence, but does not suffer from the limitations of physical presence – which is available only in one place at a time and at most to a few persons at a time! 

Do spend as much time as you can reflecting on this aspect; you could dialogue with Me about how you would want to develop or deepen this level of relationship with Me.  Unfortunately, most Christians have not really faced the challenge of developing a deep spiritual relationship with Me and that could be one of the reasons why their faith is so shallow, needing constant signs and miracles to keep it alive.  Spend as much time as you need in this dialogue – but at some point of time, you would need to slip into perfect silence and stillness, allowing the Spirit to move and act in your life.  It is he who will bring about the transformation in you.  During this silence, ensure that you remain perfectly silent and still; even though this might at times seem like a waste of precious time, you must realize that this is the most important part of your prayer session each week.

When you decide to conclude your prayer, first spend a few minutes interceding for the needs of people around you.  This week you could pray particularly that many more may make the effort to understand the meaning of the Resurrection a little more deeply, so that they can live the mystery that they celebrate … And finally end your prayer with a vocal prayer or antiphon which you could repeat frequently during the rest of the week.

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Jesus: We enter into this prayer in the usual manner, keeping a few minutes of deep interior silence and stillness, allowing your mind and heart to settle down, as it were.  We need to be particularly watchful of nagging thoughts and feelings against others, persons perhaps who have hurt you in some way.  Resolutely put such distracting thoughts aside and focus on My presence to you.  After settling down, speak for a while about your spiritual effort of the last week, so that I can guide you on an aspect or two… There is always something you can learn from each session of prayer and your ambition should be to keep improving yourself from one week to the next.

[Time for personal prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  Begin by reading the Gospel passage in the first person as: ‘It was evening on the day I rose from the dead, the first day of the week…’  Having gone through the entire passage slowly and prayerfully, pick out any one phrase or sentence for your dialogue with Me.  Hear Me saying to My disciples, ‘Peace be with you…’  You could reflect on the meaning of peace, the kind of peace that I shared with My disciples.  This peace is not merely the absence of strife, struggle and enmity, (this sometimes is called the ‘peace of the grave!’) but rather the fullness of My victorious presence in your midst. You have no reason to fear sin and death anymore; these are now things of the past.  All you need do now is focus on My victory and allow Me to share it fully with you in your conquest of sin in your day-to-day life.  And this victory again is something tangible and real!

One way to do this is to first pick out an area in which you used to succumb to temptation fairly easily in the past.  By way of example, let us say that you were fairly deeply into telling lies to escape embarrassment or trouble.  As you re-visit one of the scenes in which this happened, you will recognize the telltale signs that accompanied the actual telling of the lie: sweaty palms, an inner thudding of the heart, perhaps even a mental confusion…   While at prayer itself, recall any such scenario, and holding on to My victorious right hand, go through the scene again, but this time picturing yourself calm, serene and determined to tell the truth, no matter what the consequences.  Concentrate on keeping this picture of truth and serenity in your mind – and remain with it for as long as you can. You will probably notice that the calm you experience is very real and almost tangible.

Again, together with Me close to you, accompanying you at every step, visualize some of the consequences of telling the truth – what is the worst that could happen to you?  Would you lose some of your friends?  Would they think less of you, or rather admire you humility and courage to face the truth of your failing?  Go through all the possible consequences and place the more difficult ones in My hands for the Spirit to work out for you.  Also review each of these in as much detail as you possibly can, so that no aspect eludes you at the crucial moment.  Having done all this visualizing, place all your reflections in My hands and remain in silence for as long as you can. Don’t say or do anything except to be calm and confident in My presence.  You will undoubtedly experience yourself enjoying a far deeper and more lasting peace than ever before.

You:  Lord, this approach seems fairly simply, yet I guess it is effective. I remember reading and also hearing from others how powerful and effective a clear and concentrated visualizing can be. Great athletes and those who face highly stressful situations, use this technique regularly to great advantage.  I would like to try it out right now in Your presence so that I can see how it works and also so that You can correct me if I go wrong!

Jesus:  Yes, that is a good idea… go ahead.  [Take as much time as you need for this visualizing. But to make sure that you are still steeped in prayer, keep Me close to you and be aware that you work in My presence!]

If you still have time at your disposal, review another such troublesome area that you would like to see eliminated from your life.  You can be sure that if you have sincerely reviewed your past failings in the context of My victory over sin and allowed Me to take charge of them, you will find them disappearing one by one. However, be careful not to give all the credit only to your efforts – it is the power of My resurrection which is real and effective already now in your life that is responsible for these victories!  Yet, you will still be beset by faults and foibles, but far from discouraging you these should make you all the more hopeful and determined to overcome them. If you can leave the victory to Me, you will have nothing to worry about.  When you have sufficiently experienced the truth of My resurrection, you could become an ardent apostle of Mine as you share you experiences with others, enabling them also to benefit from My victory in their lives.  It is a pity that so few Christians proactively work to overcome their failings, not by their own power, but by applying the power of My victory to their lives.

Remain now in deep silence and stillness for a fairly long period… just be still in My powerful presence, allowing the Spirit to be fully free and active in your prayer. Be attentive to whatever he may inspire in your mind and heart, for you will need to work on these with his help during the rest of the week.

After you have allowed the Spirit sufficient time and freedom in your prayer, turn to the needs of others around you, praying that they too may experience this deep peace that I brought to all people through My resurrection.  Just before leaving, take up a short antiphon or hymn which sums up all that you have prayed over during this hour! The very effort to find one will ensure that you have summarized the fruit of your prayer in a very practical sort of way! Try to remember it and repeat it throughout the week that follows, so that the effect of this prayer becomes somewhat lasting.  Also return to the point of ‘peace’ often during the coming week and consciously cultivate it, talk about it, share it with others and you will see that the peace you prayed about is very real and present right here and now.

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Jesus: Once more we enter into our prayer time with a few minutes of deep personal silence and stillness in which you consciously seek to quieten the flow of thoughts and feelings within yourself.  If not resolutely attended to, these thoughts could ruin the hour of prayer with constant distractions. You might use the help of a more rhythmic breathing as this enables one to get a hold on the mind and feelings in a fairly effective way.  Once sufficiently quiet, you would need to recall briefly the way you lived out the message obtained in last week’s prayer and also see if there is something that needs correction in your approach to prayer and life.

[Time for quiet prayer and reflection]

Jesus: Begin as you have been accustomed to, with a slow peaceful reading of the day’s Gospel recounting My appearance to the seven disciples on the shores of Lake Tiberias.  Having gone through the passage, return to some salient thoughts and insights as the basis of dialogue with Me. You could, e.g. reflect on the huge distance that sin introduces in the relationship between disciple and Master. Totally disillusioned, several disciples returned to their former way of life – fishing. But though they toiled hard the whole night, they caught nothing. Yet, in obedience to My suggestion they cast their nets to the right and netted a huge catch, which was such a startling occurrence that they immediately recognized that there was some super-human power at work in this event.

On returning to the shore they found breakfast awaiting them and it wasn’t difficult for them to recognize Me in the stranger providing that breakfast for them.  Notice how their confidence is restored bit by bit as they partook of the meal, till finally they were almost ready to resume their commitment to kingdom work.  Yet, there was one big obstacle – Peter’s almost scandalous denial of Me during the Passion.  Taking up the issue, I was able to put it in proper perspective and he too rose to the occasion and humbly acknowledged his failing, professing his genuine love and commitment and readiness to start again.  It was not long before all were once again enthusiastic to take up the mission and this time, to enflesh God’s love especially for the weak and faltering among the rest of the disciples.

You: Lord, I marvel at the kind and understanding manner in which You worked to bring back these straying disciples.  I would have expected a shout or some kind of recriminatory statements.  Rather, you focused on how they could do better from then on.  And that brought back their confidence and desire to start again!

Jesus:  You could spend some time on this aspect if you need to – viz. the ways in which you get discouraged over your frequent failings.  It would help if further, you could ponder over the difference you now notice in the group: there is a deep inner confidence and sense of not being alone, even though they no longer encounter Me present in the same old way as before. In fact, they seem to relish My new mode of presence to them. It is not only constant and reassuring, but also allows them to take the initiative and exercise their creativity at every step of the way.  Completely rid of the sense of being alone and bereft of God’s help they set out with a light step, each to his allotted task and with each new venture, their inner confidence seems to increase.  They also notice a tremendous change in their own attitudes – from being frequently self-seeking to now consciously placing themselves in the background with the focus squarely on the good of the other.  In fact, they now are able to rejoice even to suffer for the sake of My name and for the spread of the kingdom of God. Those who knew them well before would certainly notice this drastic change in their approach. The phenomenal spread of the Church revolves round only the principal apostles, Peter and maybe John and James – though each of them was engaged in sterling work and made remarkable progress from day to day.

When they gathered together with all other believers for the breaking of the bread, that was when their sense of My presence was particularly powerful, particularly as they shared each their own experience of Me as Risen Lord.  Strengthened as they seemed to be, they still needed an inner confirmation of their grasp of the basic truths that I taught, but that was the domain of the Holy Spirit, who was no less active in their midst.  What was most noticeable was their ability to accept their own weakness and ignorance, and yet not lag behind for fear of mistakes – for their collaboration and openness to the Spirit kept deepening. Further, as they shared their experiences with one another, they also strengthened and reinforced the initiatives of the group and thus they grew from strength to strength.

You:  Lord Jesus, it never struck me that effecting the needed transformation in Your disciples would be such a difficult task, taking so much time and effort.  But I can well understand the difficulty, especially when I reflect on my own backslidings in spite of all the extra helps we have in our day!

Jesus:  While this is true, wrong turnings and ineffective initiatives were inevitable but not too much of a threat, as their simplicity and humility kept them always open to the guidance of God’s Spirit.  Soon they were ready and in fact impatient to launch out into the deep.  Another phenomenon worth mentioning is the fact that several of them took great pride in reaching out to people of a gentile background.  This was even more difficult terrain, as they were not all that familiar with the thought patterns of the Gentiles; nevertheless here too their openness to the Spirit came to their aid, leading them step by painful step, enabling them to present the same message of salvation in a new way, such that even simple people of a different background were able to follow and commit themselves.

You could take any of these aspects and reflect on one in silence allowing the Spirit to show you its relevance for today and also teaching you how to work for the kingdom in a similar manner. What a powerful movement would we not have today if every baptized Christian were able to listen to God’s Spirit and follow his lead as he orchestrates the spread of the kingdom.  There would be persecution and suffering today as in those days too but with what encouraging results.  Strangely, somehow the Church today has become rather inward-looking, each Christian seeking only his/her own personal growth in intimacy with the Father, but not terribly interested in reaching out to others.  Also the accent today seems to be largely on evading suffering – most Christians seem to have lost the sense of the importance of suffering for the sake of the kingdom.

You:  Lord, isn’t this strange?  In any case we all have to go through a certain amount of suffering at different levels.  How wonderful it would be if we could make the best spiritual use of what comes our way.  Yet I do understand that this takes a fair bit of faith and love, which perhaps many of us do not have!

Jesus:  Yes, it would be great if some like you would learn this lesson well and share it with others freely and convincingly.  Listen attentively to the Spirit as he enlightens you on some of the important issues.  In silence allow him to build up deep convictions in your heart so that when you step out you will have the courage to be different and innovative.  After spending a fairly long time in such fruitful silence, sum up the message you received from God’s Spirit into a catchy phrase or mantra so that you could repeat if often during the coming week.  Reach out to others in need, thinking particularly of missionaries in different parts of the country facing countless difficulties in their efforts to spread the message of the Gospel.  Finally end with a short prayer, antiphon or hymn, linked somewhat with your chosen mantra and conclude your prayer for the week.

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Jesus:  We begin yet another session of quiet prayer and for this, as usual, it is important to still your mind, heart and senses so that you can be totally attentive to all I say.  Note particularly the thoughts and feelings that seem to disturb you – these tell you a lot about what happens within you: of your frustrated desires and plans, of the hurts you have suffered and the rest.  These can so grip your attention that they do not allow you to listen deeply to My message.  After you are reasonably quiet, tell Me in short how you spent the last week and what was the effect of your prayer on your practical living.

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus: Again, re-read the Gospel passage of the day in the first person – short though it is. Stop at any phrase or line that grabs your attention and begin your dialogue for today. The key phrase seems to be: ‘the sheep that belong to me…’  The question of belonging in general is a two-way process. I may say that this person belongs to Me, but it is up to that person also to corroborate that statement, not just in words but in actual practice.  And this is perhaps where the difficulty lies.  When in the Old Testament Yahweh made the Sinaitic Covenant with Israel, he stated categorically:  ‘I shall be your God, and you shall be my people.’  On his part, Yahweh was always faithful to his word and he never rejected his people in spite of their repeated failures and sins.  But through their wayward behaviour they showed clearly that they did not really consider themselves as belonging to Yahweh, but rather they almost always saw themselves as independent.  That is the reason they acted as they pleased without much reference to Yahweh.

You:  Lord, wasn’t that rather ungrateful of them?   After all if they were anything in the world of their times, it was because of all that Yahweh had done for them.  What could they do with his presence and help? Yet, whenever they were in trouble they ran to him for help.  And the gracious God that he is, he always forgave his people and welcomed them back – only to begin the cycle all over again.

Jesus:  Now as long as this was the stand they took, no one, not even I could effectively offer them ‘eternal life’.  Rather, they showed that they were quite satisfied with this earthly life with all its uncertainties, disappointments and the rest. The scriptural expression for this state of affairs found repeatedly in the Bible is: “I left them to the stubbornness of their hearts!”  But then, every time they experienced severe difficulties, they would come back running to Me, pleading their sinfulness and promising to do better in the future.  But it always turned out to be a never ending circle, following the same pattern!  That is the reason why the Father sent Me personally to give them a first-hand experience of his love and concern, hoping that at least this approach would draw them close to him.

Yet, whatever was the pattern the people of Israel followed, now you have a fresh chance to make a better choice for yourself and those around you. Could you remain in silence and pick out the signs you imagine that show that you definitely ‘belong’ to Me? Perhaps the most important of these is that you obey My voice in all things, that you allow Me to lead and guide you at every turn.  Now, you will be able to obey in this way only when you have a deep experience of My love and concern for you; and are convinced from deep within that I am ready even to lay down My life for your good.  I have given you innumerable proofs of this, almost each day of your life, and yet somehow your allegiance is still wobbly!  This is not to blame you in any way, but simply to point out that as much as I am prepared to do for you, I would need to feel and know that you too are interested in maintaining this deep and personal level of relationship.

So, remain in silence and reflect on this point.  Actually, you have already given Me your answer at the time of your Baptism, when in three different symbols you professed your readiness to die to Self and Satan and live only for Me.  Yet those baptismal promises need to be constantly renewed and kept alive. It is in this context that I ask you now to reflect on your stance and come to some kind of a definite decision – express your decision in your own words, but let it be something that you mean from the heart and will remember always.  You will recall My saying that no one can belong to or serve two masters at the same time.  It is as simple as that – and trying to actually be on both sides at one and the same time is disastrous for then one finally belongs to neither!

You:  Lord Jesus, what You say is absolutely true of me at least. I always seem to waver between God and Self. I genuinely want to belong wholly to You, but seem to baulk at the price that needs to be paid for this.  Lord help me work this out once and for all.  I am sure I will experience a much deeper peace and serenity once I do this!

Jesus:  In silence, work out this decision with the help of the Spirit – and then continue to be in silence and stillness till the end of the hour of prayer.  You could keep repeating your earnest desire to belong totally to Me. Then, move into a few intercessions for persons who perhaps still continue to waver and are trying to ‘have their cake and eat it too’ – as happens in so many cases of Christian commitment.  Seek to feel deeply the absolutely faithful commitment of God to your welfare.  Through the prophet Jeremiah, God says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope’ (Jer 29:11).  And God never goes back on his word…

As you end the hour of prayer, say a short vocal prayer or sing a short verse of a hymn – something that can be easily remembered during the days to come.  Entrust all your good desires and resolves into the hands of the Spirit and seek to follow his inspirations faithfully this week.

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Jesus: We begin once again with the short period of total silence and stillness so that you are open and receptive to all that I share with you today.  Focus for a while on your breathing and make it as slow and rhythmic as you can – this will give you much more inner freedom and peace, just what you need to make your prayer fruitfully.  Don’t omit the brief review of the way you lived out your prayer of last week – are there any lessons you can learn from this review?

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  We enter into the prayer with the usual re-reading of the text in the first person, as if I Myself were recounting the event to you. For this week we return to the scene of the Last Supper and My preparation for My final and total surrender into the Father’s hands.  It is the hour of suffering and death, and yet from another angle, it is the hour of My glory and the glory of the Father.  For in this death, the Father’s unbelievable love will be demonstrated beyond a doubt.  Hence, it is in this context that I give you, My disciples, the one and only commandment needed of those who follow Me: ‘Love one another as I have loved you!’

Notice that all through My earthly life I focused on getting back to the essentials, the fundamentals, because Israel seemed to have lost their roots in a multiplicity of minor points of very little importance.  And because they were engaged the whole day in fulfilling these tiny little details, they felt they were doing a big work for God and hence were pleasing to him.  My advice to them was: ‘This you should have done, but at the same time, you should not have neglected the weightier aspects of the Law!’  Once these central aspects were in place, then all the rest would also derive greater meaning and value.  But the human mind does often get lost in trivial details.  And hence My concern to highlight the essentials – in this case, Love!  St. Augustine brought this out so forcefully when he wrote:  ‘Love and do whatever you wish!’

You:  Lord Jesus, You seem to have hit the nail on the head. As I reflect on my own experience, I see that I too often get lost in a host of needless detail, while all the time, much more important aspects go unattended. It is like when a person celebrating Eucharist is all upset because the candles have gone off. He is restless until they are lit again – but in the meantime he has not been able to attend to the inner surrender of himself together with Yours, Jesus – which is the more important aspect of the Eucharist!

Jesus :  This does not, of course, mean that as long as you have love you are free to do whatever you choose.  Rather, once a person is rooted in love, s/he will choose nothing but the appropriate action and that too in the right measure.  If we ask why this is so, perhaps the reason is that genuine unconditional love is the only one thing that fulfills a person’s deepest aspirations.  Give a person that kind of love and s/he will want nothing more.  So, once the person is full-filled from within, there is no other craving to distract him and take his mind and heart will not go in another direction. He sees everything very clearly and fulfills it without that sense of missing something important in life.  Hence, once s/he has love, the person will be on the right track fairly steadily.

Remain in silence and imagine what your world (home) would be like if everyone in it operated on this principle of selfless love for others.  Wouldn’t that kind of an existence really be a heaven on earth where each person is respected for what s/he truly is, a child of God, loved and cherished by the Father.  Freed from the evil influence of jealousy, competition, rivalry, back-biting and the rest, each person then would be free enough to give of his/her best and that too not for selfish gain, but because he genuinely seeks the good of the others around them.  Collaboration, appreciation, genuinely seeking what is good for all, forgiveness of inevitable mistakes, omissions, forgetfulness and the like – this would be the order of the day.  And who would not flourish in such an atmosphere?

The question that then comes to mind is:  ‘Why don’t people live in this manner, when this is the only way every single person benefits?’  To come to this kind of a level, there is need of a total overhauling of the personality of people, which is what I did through My dying-rising.  Did you notice that in My entire life and especially in the Passion I overthrew all the established principles of human conduct.  I operated on only one principle, ‘No one has a greater love than this that one lays down one’s life for one’s friends.’  And so, knowing that this is the only way the world can actually become a better place to live in, I offered this to My loyal followers as the one commandment befitting the new people of God.

You:  Lord Jesus, thank you ever so much for simplifying matters for us.  If we really listened to You our lives could be so easy. I guess the most important thing in my life is for me to be deeply touched by Your infinite love. Don’t we see that in married life?  When a married couple genuinely love each other, they don’t fall for the attractions of third parties no matter how much the outsider pursues them.  They are content with each other’s love and need nothing more from the outside!  Wouldn’t this be true of our relationship with You, too, Lord?

Jesus:  Notice again that the commandment is not just ‘love one another’ but that the love is qualified by ‘as I have loved you!’  My self-giving love becomes the model and measure of true loving.  And is there anyone who actually measures up to this standard of My love for all people?  It requires a superhuman power and so I also offered to My disciples My own Spirit, the Spirit of Love to abide within them and inspire and empower them from within.  And that is why, in spite of there being so much of evil around, one still sees so many outstanding examples of selfless giving.  In fact, today, realizing that evil is spreading rapidly and in newer and more heinous forms, so many genuine people make it almost a profession to go around spreading selfless love in the form of little selfless acts of kindness to those in need.  And what is more heartening is that they encourage others also to follow in their steps.  So the world today is truly like the field in which there is wheat and also cockle growing at the same time.

The question of course, is: ‘on which side do you choose to place yourself’?  Would you be content to be merely a passive recipient of the good that others do, or would you rather be an active doer of good, one who goes around sowing seeds to kindness and love which will one day overrun the entire world, perhaps even reach the stage of being able to swamp and crowd out the evil that seeks to overpower it?!? That is My vision for the new world that I brought about through My dying-rising.  

Remain in silence and allow God’s Spirit to inspire in you great desires of living out this one commandment of love in your concrete surroundings … spend quite some time visualizing how exactly you are going to do this during the coming week.  In fact, it would be a wonderful practice if each morning on waking you could spend a few minutes visualizing your strategy for the day.  And then, at the end of each day, recollect how much you were actually able to do.  The idea is not to look for rewards or kudos, but to ensure that your contribution keeps growing with each passing day and that you become ‘professional’ as it were in spreading love all over the world.

After spending quite some time in this quiet reflection and visualization, remain in total silence for a while before ending your prayer with the usual intercessions and vocal prayer or hymn.

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Jesus: Shall we begin our prayer with the customary period of deep inner silence and stillness?  I’m sure you appreciate this little exercise at the start of each hour of prayer and experience its benefits in a very tangible manner.  Even though this silence may not appear to you as being constituent of prayer, yet it is a very important element and so give it your best! Don’t forget the brief review of last week’s spiritual effort.  Remember My words, ‘From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force’ (Mt 11:12).  To grow in the spiritual life one needs to make constant and conscious effort!

[Time for personal prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  Begin once more with re-reading the passage in the first person, as if I Myself were addressing it to you… You could start your dialogue with the very first injunction in which I link love with obedience, or rather show how obedience is the concrete expression of love.  Love is not just a matter of words, or of responding when it is convenient or possible.  In fact, the greater the love one has, the greater the self-sacrifice involved in reaching out to the loved one.  Further, when the beloved sees how much the lover gives of him/herself that fact itself draws the two much closer than ever before and makes their relationship absolutely firm.  The text brings this out with the expression: ‘the Father and I will come and make our home with him!’  Imagine what closeness there would be when God is ‘at home’ with us, feels totally free to go wherever he wants, do whatever he wants, to ask of us anything he desires – that would really be something.

You:  Lord, what a wonderful ideal.  I would love to allow the Father that kind of full freedom with regard to my life.  I am sure he will never demand of me something that I am truly unable to give.  Besides, each time he asks something of me, he is there with his powerful presence making it possible and easy for me to surrender!

Jesus:  But of course, such closeness and intimacy come at a price, and that is that we accept God totally respecting even his slightest wish for ourselves or for the world.  See what a difference it would make when God can rely on you one hundred percent, when he is totally confident that whatever he asks of you is as good as done, and that too done perfectly. Recall the confidence God has that his servant Job will never turn against him, no matter what Satan does to him! On your part, it would mean that God is really the centre of your life and that your entire life is at his disposal.  Of course, to reach to this level you need to be assured that the Father will never ask you for anything that is beyond your capacity, or even if it is, without supplying you with the wherewithal to accomplish it.  What freedom, what closeness would you not experience when you reach to that level of intimacy and understanding between God and you?

Notice that the Holy Spirit is not left out of this relationship but that all three Persons make their dwelling in you.  His role is to keep nudging you, encouraging you to grow by stretching well beyond your comfort zones.  When you respond to him with this total abandon, then you can be sure that your experience of God’s indwelling will be truly a heaven on earth.  No amount of pain or suffering can dampen this experience of God’s indwelling.  In fact, as long you keep up your side of the contract, offering your loving obedience, this relationship is destined to grow by leaps and bounds.  What more could a person want after God offers to share his very life with him/her – ‘all that I have is yours?!?’

Further, My reason for sharing this with you now is that you begin this process already now, while here on earth, because much of the success of the relationship later in heaven will depend on how you respond now.  Of course, it is much more difficult to relate with God in obedience now, because we see only ‘dimly as in a mirror’; besides there is the example and lure of others who beckon us in the opposite direction; there is further, your sinful nature which gets tired and weary very quickly and seeks constant reassurances.  When you can love and obey in spite of all these difficulties, you can be sure that that obedience will be worth something!

Remain now in total silence and savour these few reflections as deeply as you can. You need only seek to remain still while the Spirit does all the work for and in you.  Make sure you do not fall asleep while you remain passive and receptive, since these are very crucial moments and can have life-changing consequences for you and others.  After you have had your fill of this enriching silence, turn towards others as you make a few petitions on their behalf.  Recall particularly anyone in your circle who is currently agitated or disturbed over something and again silently place the person in the loving embrace of God’s Spirit.  Here too don’t be in a hurry. It is far better to pray deeply for a few persons rather than superficially for a number of them.

When you feel you have given this enough time, conclude with a brief vocal prayer or hymn.  If you can find something that summarizes your experience of today that would be great, because then you could repeat it often during the week and thus keep its effect going for quite some time.

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Jesus:  We enter into this hour of prayer also with the usual time spent in making yourself quiet and receptive.  With the help of a slower and more deliberate breathing in and out, restrain the flow of thoughts as they ceaselessly flit from one topic to another.  Picture yourself in My presence as in some holy place which naturally enables you to slow down…  When sufficiently relaxed, turn your mind to the past week reviewing how you lived out what you prayed over.  Did the prayer influence the way you handled some difficult situations?  Or did it help in being creative in your obedience, especially in difficult moments?

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  Read the Gospel passage of the day slowly and prayerfully, pausing wherever a word or phrase strikes you as important; after a brief pause continue till the end.  Then begin your dialogue with Me.

I start off by reminding you that suffering is a necessary part of God’s plan for everyone, even for ‘the Christ.’  As the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, ‘Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins’ (Hebr 9:22).  So, once the great sacrifice has been offered, redemption is freely available for all people, and that is why I began sending out My disciples so that they can spread this message all through the world.  Besides, with the feast of the Ascension, the earthly aspect of My life was ended – from now on it is the disciples who would have to continue the work of redemption in union with the Holy Spirit.  “You are witnesses to this!”

What I began was not so much an institutional Church, all set up with a host of rules and regulations and various grades of offices and office-bearers, but rather a gathering of enthusiastic people who themselves have experienced the power of God’s love and forgiveness.  Seeing what a difference a proper understanding of this love brings to people, these blessed ones would then share their blessings with as many others as they could.  These recipients in turn would reach out to others, and thus the message would move along.  Ideally speaking such groups would only need encouragement and a push from time to time to keep them going. The limit, of course, would be the ‘ends of the earth!’  But unfortunately human nature being what it is, very few people really surrender their ‘selves’ totally to the Father, even though that is what they promise.  So, inevitably with the passage of time My project, the Church, took the form of another earthly kingdom running parallel to the great Empires of the past.

However, it is not as if I did not allow this to continue because while this could not be completely avoided, I was sure that there would always be a sufficient number of My followers who would still keep the dynamic missionary aspect alive and active in the world.  And so even if the majority did not feel the same dynamic missionary urge deep in their very bones, the Church would still continue to grow sufficiently to keep it alive and be a force to reckon with.  On a feast like today, it would be good if we could recruit a few more enthusiastic and active members who will keep mission foremost in their Christian living!  These do not necessarily have to go out to foreign lands to spread the good news. All I ask of them is to live out their Baptismal promises, not to focus entirely on themselves and their own needs, but rather to be as much ‘other-centred’ as possible, so that in every situation their burning desire is to share the good news with others both in word and more in deed!

Could you picture yourself among those whom I lead out today upto the outskirts of Bethany and whom I bless by placing hands on them before departing from their midst?  Rather than see themselves as orphans from this point on, this group of people see themselves as empowered to go out in My name now, trusting that I would not only point out to them their allotted work, but also assist them in fulfilling it. All they need to do or be is become pliable instruments in My hands and together we would make the message of My love reach the very ends of the earth!  If you see yourself as ready for this, place yourself in My hands in deep silence and stillness for as long as you can, allowing the Spirit to work on your mind and heart.  From now on, all you need do is to keep in close touch with the Spirit and remain obedient to him in all that he suggests to you.

Strangely enough when you work in close collaboration with the Spirit you will notice that you yourself are the first to benefit; you grow in the Spirit beyond human reckoning.  And what is more you find yourself enjoying deep joy and peace.  Remain in silence savouring these great blessings for as long as you can.

Towards the end gracefully and gratefully move into a few intercessions sharing your blessings with others as much as you can.  And finally end with a short vocal prayer or hymn as you usually do.

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Jesus:  We enter into this hour of prayer once again with the short period of silence and stillness in which you consciously try to push aside all that would possibly be a distraction preventing you from listening to My voice more attentively.  In today’s feast we recall the sending out of the Church on its world-wide mission, which evidently includes you and everyone around you. And so this prayer of yours today is very important.  After you have quieted your mind sufficiently, quickly review your past week to see if you were able to live out the message you received and prayed over.  Is there something you need to learn from this effort so that you can grow in all ways into Christ?

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  As you read the passage in the first person you will notice that in the passage I once again come back to the idea of obedience – because as the Church launches out on its mission to all peoples, it would need to keep close to Me if it is to achieve the plans that the Father has worked out for all peoples of all times.  Unfortunately, as you travel down the centuries, you will notice that not always did the Church remain within God’s plan for mankind.  While this does not destroy God’s designs who like the potter refashions the pots that do not turn out according to the design he had mind (Jer. 18:6-11), it certainly slows down the entire process and does involve a lot of waste of time and effort!

It would help if we could review together briefly some of the key projects the Spirit has in mind, as expressed several times in the Scriptures.  First of all, his great project is to unite the entire world into one big family in which all live and work together as real brothers and sisters, all for the glory of God, their common Father.  As one can well imagine, this is a mighty big project and a difficult one too, what with the innumerable elements that divide and separate people one from another – all of them man-made no doubt: colour, religion, language, area of origin, our own petty ideas of which races are naturally higher or better and so on.  The entire history of the human race has been one of division and strife – would it really be possible for God to unite all these people into one harmonious whole?  Of course, we believe that with God nothing is impossible – but this also takes into account the wholehearted cooperation of all human beings, and this is where the catch lies.

Difficult as this may seem, it would certainly come about when all those who profess to be God’s loyal followers pray and work together to achieve this end.  Spend some time in deep silence allowing the Spirit to pray through you for this great intention.  Listen carefully also to what the Spirit tells you about what is your allotted share of work in this direction.  You could possibly begin by bringing about a better unity and harmony in the groups you are involved with – family, neighbourhood, parish, place of work, among the people you rub shoulders with on a daily basis.

You:  Lord, you are right!  There is a fair amount of division in our own family with each one wanting to go his/her own way, and as long as the parents are around things aren’t that bad!  But one can well visualize the day they will not be present to smoothen out all difficulties and then what would be our situation?  Yes, I would like to offer myself as Your instrument to bring about a better understanding and harmony in our own family.

Jesus:  There are several other projects the Spirit has in mind for which he needs your collaboration. There is, e.g. the harmony between human beings and Nature at all levels.  Today people have become more conscious of their responsibility towards Ecology and the Universe, and yet there are several almost insurmountable hurdles before we arrive at a better harmony than what we see at present. At present, even the little that is attempted to bring about a better harmony among humans and Nature seems to be based on a selfish motive – so that the present generation/s of human beings may be able to enjoy the benefits of Nature for a longer period.  Hardly do people think in terms of respecting Nature in its own right.  Here too you have a formidable task ahead of you, but with the generous cooperation at least of the loyal followers of Mine, some progress can be made.  Spend some more time in silence allowing God’s Spirit to lead and guide you to whatever he has in mind for you.

There could be several other projects the Spirit might want to point out to you – listen as deeply as you can and cooperate to the best of your ability.  At times, all he might ask of you is to speak to others about some of these areas. Besides, he would not necessarily draw your attention to these aspects only during prayer but he could speak to you at any time, even perhaps while on a picnic – the circumstances you are in could dictate his message to you. What you would need to do is to be alert and attentive all the time – and so that is what you could pray for as you come to the end of your prayer hour.

End with the customary intercessions for people in need and the concluding vocal prayer or hymn.

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Jesus : Once again we begin with the usual time spent in quietening your mind and heart allowing it to focus better on the matter at hand.  The time you spend with Me in prayer is very precious – somewhat like the forty days Moses spent up on the mountain communing with Yahweh. When he returned his face was shining so much so that he had to wear a veil when dealing with his people – so much had he been transformed by that encounter! Why could something like that not happen to you too – if you focus on what you are here for?  So, put your heart and soul into this effort to ‘be still and know that I am God’ the God of your life!  After you have done with putting your soul at rest, you could give Me a brief account of how your prayer of the last week helped you face the different situations of life.  Is there something you need to improve in the way you pray?

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus: After reading the passage once again slowly and prayerfully, focus on the words or phrases that struck you as meriting deeper reflection.  The passage refers to all three Persons of the Trinity and what seems to be common to the Three is their one desire to share all they are and have with human beings.  The Spirit will lead people to the complete truth but what he reveals will not be things that come from himself, but rather what he has learnt from what is Mine.  And what is Mine is what the Father has entrusted to Me.  Thus all Three Persons share in the Truth, the reality of being which is what They wish to share with humans.

I often said to My disciples that I had come that they may have life and have it to the full – it is this fullness of life that is the core of the being of the Trinity.  So in everything that happens to you which is part of God’s designs for you to have the fullness of life, all Three Persons are intimately involved.  For your better understanding learned people have divided these life-giving actions as Creation coming from the Father, Redemption through the Son and sanctification as the work of the Spirit.  Especially with regard to the indwelling we must insist that it is all Three Persons who inhabit the person who welcomes Them with faith and love.

The Old Testament prefiguring of this is seen in the visit that the three ‘men’ make to the tent of Abraham.  Sensing them to be special guests, Abraham treats them with great deference, serving them a royal meal.  And as They leave, They impart a blessing on Abraham and his family granting them the one thing they desired and lacked: a child (Gen. 18:1-10).  Similarly all Three divine Persons come into our lives as guests – and when we entertain them with love and self-giving, we will surely not lack an important blessing.  However, more likely than not, the Lord comes into our lives today in the form of the person we would least like to entertain – that neighbourly gossip who takes hours of our time ruining the reputation of everyone in the neighbourhood, or that other neighbour who you know has come to ask for some financial help, or another come to pick up a quarrel.  The list in endless but you have to be careful and receive each without prejudice.

That of course doesn’t mean that you heartily share in the gossip or slander, but that even while you skillfully deflect the conversation into more fruitful and charitable avenues, you respect the dignity of the person you tend to judge harshly.  Notice that the story of Abraham’s visit is followed by God revealing to him the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah – on hearing which Abraham pleads on behalf of those sinful people that God may spare them.  And God showed himself ready to accede to Abraham’s prayer.  Your dealings with your less virtuous neighbours should be the same so that all end up being blessed by the graciousness of God who loves even the sinner.

You:  Lord, this is a big challenge for me, as I usually tend to remain silent and somewhat passive in such situations. But I know I can rely on Your help and inspiration and so beginning with this hour of prayer, I shall bring about a change in my behaviour towards my neighbours.

Jesus:  Remain in silence now and reflect on how you treat people around you, who in some way or other do not rise to the level they could be expected to.  Pray for a compassionate heart like Mine when I prayed to the Father from the Cross, ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do!’  Remember that you are a reflection of the inner love and life of the Blessed Trinity and through you the Father seeks to gain access to those whom he otherwise might not be able to meet and transform.  Another way of saying the same is, ‘Leave a blessing wherever you go!’  This is not easy unless you train yourself constantly to live the kind of life the Trinity experiences in the depths of its being – a constant sharing of the fullness of love!  A good way of checking whether your life is really a reflection of Theirs is to check it out against the list that St. Paul gives: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end (1 Cor 13:4-8).

Or again, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another (Gal 5:22-26).

Remain in silence and allow the Spirit to point out to you how much Trinitarian your life currently is.  Let him also infuse his spirit into your life so that it can become more radiantly loving and more self-giving!  Remain in this silence for as long as you can and towards the end of your hour of prayer spend a few minutes in sincere and selfless petitions for others.  Conclude with the short vocal prayer or hymn that you generally end with.

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Jesus:  As usual we begin with a few intense moments of silence and stillness in which you consciously seek to relax and focus more on God than on Self.  This Self will generally manifest itself in the form of distracting thoughts, feelings and memories all of which would tend to take you away from the important work at hand, viz. listening to My voice directing you towards the fullness of life which I came to offer you.  Work at this inner peace and stillness as effectively as you can and when you have achieved at least a sufficient amount of inner stillness, turn towards reporting on the last week’s spiritual effort you have made.  Make it as personal and honest as you can, for it is important that you keep progressing from week to week, else one can question the value of your prayer.

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  As you have been doing, re-read the Gospel passage slowly and prayerfully focusing on any phrase or word that grips your imagination – use this as the basis of your dialogue with Me.  You might notice that before feeding the multitude I spoke to them about the kingdom of God and as a sign that the kingdom was already in their midst, I healed a number of sick people.  By the time I finished with the long line that awaited healing, it was clear that the people were pretty much convinced that God was at work in their midst.  It was important then to capitalize on this grace-filled moment and drive home the message and the best approach would be a meal provided by God’s power.

Of course, the apostles were not on the same wavelength as Myself and saw things from the pragmatic angle only – the problem that taxed their earthy minds was, ‘how shall we get enough food to feed all this people when we have practically nothing for ourselves?’  Against this background one can well imagine their consternation when I suggested to them, ‘You yourselves give them something to eat!’ – the very thing they sought to avoid!  That suggestion would certainly have challenged their faith.  Realizing their hesitation and reluctance, I took matters in hand and ordered them to make the people to sit down.  Visualize them hurriedly and almost rudely forcing the people to sit down – the people were by now tired and hungry and perhaps also eager to get back home. But seeing that something interesting was forthcoming they willingly complied.

At least a few of them would have noticed the gesture of taking the five loaves, blessing God for his goodness and the breaking followed by the distribution.  Filled with wonder and gratitude they accepted what was given them and gladly consumed it, some perhaps making the vital connection between this event and the feeding of their ancestors with manna in the desert by God through Moses.  Could this Jesus then be a new Moses, the promised One who would definitively usher them into God’s true kingdom?

You:    Lord Jesus, I marvel at the way You always have the interests of the Father at heart in every thing You do. To make the best use of all kinds of circumstances and give the people a tangible experience of the Father’s love.  Give me too an attitude like that so that in my own circumstances, I too may lead people to the Father!

Jesus:  Of course, this is exactly what I wanted them to realize that God wants to be the king of their hearts and lives if only they would dare to entrust their lives totally into his loving hands!  As you reconstruct this scene the message before you is obvious – each time you participate in the Eucharist, you have the same scene repeated: God feeds his people, assuring them of his faithful love, inviting them to entrust themselves into his hands and follow his designs for their welfare.  Most Christians today look on the Eucharist only as spiritual nourishment for themselves individually and nothing more.  But you need to remember that this bread is Me, God’s personal, flesh-and-blood invitation to enter into a deep and total relationship with him!  Where this deeper aspect is lost, the main point of the Eucharist is side-tracked.

Why is it that people miss the point of the Eucharist?  Perhaps the answer lies in their faulty understanding of the Christian life itself!  For most Christians, they have accepted Baptism primarily and solely to ‘save their souls’ and eventually make their way to heaven.  While that is certainly one aspect of Baptism, the more important one is that in this initial sacrament, the Christian commits himself to not only be a member of the Kingdom but also to work to bring others into that same kingdom.  He does not become a Christian merely to secure his future happiness – that would be too selfish a motive, wouldn’t it?  Maintenance not mission is what most Christians see in the Eucharistic banquet!

Yet, as Luke presents the Last Supper, we see that it is clearly a commitment for his Christian community not to let even a week pass without doing something to extend God’s kingdom in their midst.  They are also reminded in that same narrative that even though Christians make this commitment in words, they actually work against God’s kingdom when they act selfishly like Judas (who was determined to betray Me no matter what!) or when they pull back out of fear (like Peter who denied even knowing Me, afraid that he might be roped into My suffering and death when he was recognized as a disciple of Mine!)

Remain in deep silence and visualize what your life would be like if you took mission as the primary reason for your being a Christian today.  What difference would it make in the way you pray?  How would it affect your relationships in the home, parish, place of work and with your other contacts? Would it have anything to do with the way you live your Christian life – actively, dynamically, every moment of the day, each day of the week,  or apathetically, only on a Sunday?  Recall the tremendous dedication and enthusiasm one sees in persons who have committed themselves to a ‘Cause’ even when we know that the cause is destructive of human lives and community, as well as property all around (like Communism as we witnessed it a decade or two earlier, or Fundamentalist Terrorism as we see it in our day)? Do you see that kind of commitment to the Kingdom among Christians in general?

Spend a fair amount of time in this kind of quiet reflection and allow the Spirit to lead you in whichever direction he pleases. Be prepared to respond to his call, no matter how difficult it may appear, because he assures you of his presence and assistance.

When you near the end of the hour, move into heartfelt petitions for the needs of others and then finally conclude with some vocal prayer or a thanksgiving hymn.

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Jesus:  Once more at the start we recommend that you spend a few minutes in deep conscious silence and stillness so as to be fully attentive to all that I share with you today in this prayer session.  Deliberately slow down your breathing, making it as deep and prolonged as you can.  This by itself will eliminate or lessen the jerky, jarring thinking process which accompanies us all through the day, but can be a disturbance when we need to concentrate as in prayer.  Once you are sufficiently quiet within, give Me a brief account of last week’s spiritual account so that you correct whatever needs attention.

[Time for silent prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  Read the passage prayerfully even though you have heard it at the Eucharist, this time focusing on anything that the Spirit needs you to attend to.  You could notice, for example, that I was invited to a formal meal which means that the guests would not sit at table as you do today; they would recline on couches, extending the body over the length of the couch with the feet protruding at one end.  This makes more sense when later we will read that the woman positioned herself at the feet of Jesus and her tears fell over his feet. Had Jesus been sitting at table the way you do, the woman would have had to be under the table – which certainly was not feasible.

What is more important to note, however, is that the guests, all prominent people, are filled with consternation at seeing this woman enter the dining hall and remain at My feet.  At such formal meals, no woman was ever allowed to participate as a guest and hence would not be invited. At most she could come in after the meal for entertainment, like singing, dancing or whatever. Now this person was not only a woman, but worse, a woman with a bad reputation in the whole town!  So, she would have been watched very closely, while the host, Simon, was afraid to tackle her lest he offend Jesus who was his invited guest.

We cannot help noticing, though, the courage of the woman to enter into a house uninvited; it was her faith in and love for Me that made her do it.  As I pointed out later, she had been forgiven much and so she loved much – she had to show her gratitude for the gift of forgiveness she had received, and what better place to do this than at the Eucharist, of which the meal at Simon’s house is a symbol. You could already here make a very important reflection: how actively involved are you at Eucharist? Does your degree of involvement indicate how much you have been blessed during the week and how much you love in return? Do you consciously put love into all you do at Eucharist?  Or is your Eucharist a mere routine job, impersonally attended to and hurriedly completed?

You:  Lord, I must confess that my participation at Eucharist leaves a lot to be desired.  I shall attend to the way I celebrate this great Sacrament of Your love from now on.  I also like the idea of picking out before coming to Church, the place where I have been blessed by God; then I could celebrate Eucharist as thanksgiving for this blessing in particular!

Jesus:  The Eucharist is the source and centre of Christian living and when celebrated well it engages the entire person not just for those few minutes but influences the whole day as well.  When Eucharist is celebrated in this fashion, people’s spiritual lives are active and dynamic – they focus not just on obtaining graces for themselves, but listen to the Lord pointing out mission tasks for the entire week.  What a difference would there not be if each Christian were to celebrate Eucharist in this fashion?  The routine, often boring atmosphere of the ceremony would be an unknown, with very few persons remaining outside the Church, like Peter during the Passion - at a safe distance from the site of the proceedings.

While it is true that for this kind of Eucharist, the Celebrant must be at least moderately familiar with the group he celebrates with,  it would certainly help if the people too made an effort to be somewhat acquainted with the Priest, especially in large parishes and in the hurried atmosphere of today’s hectic urban life.  The key point in Luke’s presentation of this event is the power of sharing one’s resources with others – as a result everyone is satisfied and there is a lot left over!  This truth can apply on the world level, national level, state and parish level as also on the family level.  And it needs to be extended not only to food and other material commodities – one is also called to share one’s time, skills at listening, mechanics or whatever, love, forgiveness, readiness to help others in the need and so on.

It is when each Christian becomes the ‘bread’ that is broken at Eucharist and shared that we will find the parish becoming a truly Eucharistic community.  This is actually the goal aimed at in the Small Christian Community approach. But in most parishes this outlook hardly prevails because we still approach the Eucharist with a consumerist attitude: ‘what’s in this for me’?  And so the internal focus at least subconsciously remains on the ‘Self’.  We need to remember that no person is blessed by God with gifts meant only for his/her personal benefit or consumption – they are also meant to be shared with as many others as possible.  And further, the more we share, the more we find that we have for ourselves, especially in a moment of crisis or want.  The twelve baskets mentioned as remaining after all had eaten enough is not just a beautiful appendix to give the story a happy ending. It is a reality that we see when we approach our whole lives in faith and trust in God.

You:  Lord, I can well imagine what a happy and peaceful life all of us would have if we could only follow Your suggestions of Eucharistic sharing!  The few times I have dared to share my resources with others, I know how deeply happy I felt, even when the recipients did not thank me for the sharing!  Keep me always reminded of this angle of celebrating Eucharist, Lord, I want to grow in generosity!

Jesus:  Actually it is not difficult to pick up this message from the Eucharist if we but attend to the prayers articulated by the Celebrant all through the Eucharistic Prayer.  At the Institution Narrative, he tells us the story of what Jesus himself did: ‘He took bread and after he gave thanks,’ … he said that that bread was not just bread but himself. Then breaking himself he gave the broken pieces to the disciples to eat.  Thus what he gives them is himself broken, torn apart as it were, for their nourishment saying symbolically:  ‘I am here for you, for your happiness and welfare!’  Consoling and encouraging as this message is, the most important words come a little later:  ‘Now, you my disciples, do this as a remembrance of Me.’  When we attend to this sentence and live it out in faith and love that is when we begin to see real miracles take place in our homes and communities!

Most people are struck when they hear of Eucharistic miracles, like the Eucharistic bread turning into real human flesh!  But why don’t we see many more Eucharistic miracles as when human flesh (with all its self-centred tendencies) is turned into bread shared with the hungry. We hear nowadays in our country that in spite of the huge reserves of foodgrains, 83 young babies die of hunger each day.  How can we relish the Eucharistic banquet when we know this happens at our very doorstep – and that too because of our own apathy and lack of social concern?  If each person could break bread for his hungry neighbour, this wave of altruism would certainly reach the hearts of our self-absorbed politicians too, who care for no one but themselves!

Remain in deep silence and allow some of these reflections to sink deep within your heart and mind so that it really stirs you to action.  But, don’t you decide what you are going to do – allow God’s Spirit to point out to you what, to whom, how much and how you are to give!  He knows the needs of people much better than we do and so listen intently and treasure what he says to you, as part of your Christian living.  Then, do whatever he tells you with simplicity and humility, not worrying about the returns – that will come at its own time and in its own way.

After you have spent sufficient time in such reflection and openness to the Spirit, turn your heart to petitioning for those in need – recall all kinds of need, not just the obvious material needs of people around you and open wide your heart in generosity.  Conclude your prayer in the usual way – with a vocal prayer or hymn.

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Jesus:  We begin our prayer once again with the usual time of silence and stillness.  By now, I am sure you are convinced of its importance and value and so will do it conscientiously.  After you have settled down mentally and emotionally, turn your mind to a brief re-cap of the last week’s spiritual effort so that you can learn something that will help you today and during this week.

[Time for silence prayer and reflection]

Jesus:  As you read the Gospel passage in the first person, could I ask you to read it from your Bible and begin with Lk 9:7-9 in which you will see Herod asking identically the same question that I asked My disciples in today’s passage.  And what is more interesting is that the answers too are identical!  This is Luke’s way of ‘framing’ a very important message.  Since the same questions are found in the passage before (v. 7-9) and after the feeding story (v. 18-24) it is obvious that the correct answer to the question is found in the central passage of the feeding (v.10-17) in which event I revealed Myself as the Son of God.  Yet notice, that even the disciples still did not comprehend this aspect.  The reason is that they have not yet grasped the role and importance of suffering in My life as the Messiah.

And so, no sooner is their response given than I proceed to enlighten them on this score – that it is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer and die and rise again on the third day.  But, although I will tell them this three times (as presented by the Evangelists), they nevertheless fail to register its importance.  The result is that they will not participate in My sufferings and hence, if they continue this stance, then they will not share in the Resurrection either!  Notice that in Luke’s community this must have been a serious lacuna or deficiency in their spiritual training, because he shows us the two disciples on the road to Emmaus grappling with the very same question: ‘why should the Messiah have to suffer and die?!?’  And so I had to repeat the lesson going through the entire Scriptures and pointing out the passages that were about Me, and having a reference to suffering.

You:    Lord, I did notice this strange inability in the disciples to comprehend the necessity of suffering.  I guess it happened because somehow they had blanked out this possibility in their minds from the start!  Hadn’t they seen You working such great miracles that it was natural for them to feel that with You present, everything would run smoothly in their lives!

Jesus:  But in the Emmaus story, even that failed to convince them and alert them to this pattern that God had chosen.  They would need to see the concrete sign of the breaking of the bread in their home to recognize the link between their discipleship and their readiness to break of themselves for the sake of the kingdom.  But one thing is for sure, that where there is no inner readiness to accept suffering with total trust in the love of the Father, there cannot be a real and deep understanding of My person and mission.

This link is in fact brought out in the 3rd Suffering Servant song (Is. 50:4-9) where we notice that soon after he says that the Lord has given him a disciple’s ear he adds, ‘And I, for my part, did not turn away from insult and injury …’  It is this pro-active readiness on the part of the servant to accept whatever suffering the Lord sends him that enables him to understand God’s Word.  And when he relays that word to the weary, they would surely be consoled because through suffering the prophet’s word becomes richly meaningful. It speaks to them of a lived-experience.  The mystery underlying this is precisely that the prophet trusts God in all his sufferings even when he does not understand their purpose or consequences (See Is. 50:10).

How wonderful would it not be if all Christians could understand something of this mystery and embrace it wholeheartedly in their daily living!  Their grasp of Sacred Scripture and God’s designs would be phenomenal while their witnessing would be that much more powerful and effective. Isn’t this what most people want to hear, God’s word in all its pristine power and glory, a voice that shatters the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 29) and annihilates all kinds of foes?  The principle we need to grasp then is that we cannot do any worthwhile ministry for the Lord until we are genuinely prepared to pay the full price for it.  And this price generally comes in the form of something that I would rather not have or do.  When one can sincerely surrender one’s will to God’s designs, then great things begin to happen all around.

You:  Lord Jesus, help me through Your Spirit to believe this truth from the depths of my heart and may I practice it in every situation.  Give me too, like the Suffering Servant of Isaiah a disciple’s ear and tongue making we eager to accept all suffering that comes my way for the sake of the Kingdom.

Jesus:  Remain in deep silence and stillness allowing God’s Spirit to engrave these truths on your heart and soul so that you will remember them always and be ready to practice them when the Lord calls you to.  Remember that this depth of knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom is not attained lightly or cheaply.  Hence do spend a fair amount of time in profound silence and listen deeply to whatever the Spirit days.

When you need to conclude your prayer, spend a few minutes in heartfelt intercessions for others especially those perhaps whom the Lord calls to share in the Passion and dying so that their lives may be more fruitful and productive.  Come out of this hour of prayer as you make a vocal prayer or sing a couple of verses of a familiar hymn.

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Jesus:  Once again we enter into this hour of prayer with the brief period of silence and stillness in which you consciously seek to quieten your mind and heart, dispelling all extraneous thoughts and feelings.  The idea is to be totally at My disposal so that you listen attentively to all that I have to say today.  Before you plunge into  the topic of the prayer, review the effort you made last week to live out what you prayed over – pick out an area or two in which you could improve your prayer and living too.

Jesus:  After reading the passage of today’s Gospel prayerfully, listen to the Spirit as regards which point he would like you to dialogue over with Me.  Perhaps the first thing that would strike anyone reading this passage carefully is that both brothers, James and John, in spite of being close to Me over the past two years or so, had failed to understand the role of suffering in the life of My followers.  Recall what we said the last week as regards the reason why this happens.  Like the rest, James and John too inadvertently or subconsciously sought to dodge the cross in their lives; they wanted only the glory of obtaining the places at My right and left.  And that is the main reason why they could not plumb the depth of God’s Word.  And also perhaps it is this same dodging which made their preaching unappealing and ineffectual to their hearers.  Thus before being hearers of the Word you would need to be ready unconditionally to be doers of the Word – only then will you gain important insights into the mysteries of the kingdom and further become effective apostles spreading the word to others.

Further, the more you practice or live the Word the more readily you will understand it when it is addressed to you.  And again, readiness to pay the price also makes your proclamation of the Word meaningful and appealing to others. So, if others do not listen to your proclamation, the fault is not so much theirs as yours.  Notice how James and John put the blame on the Samaritans little realizing that it was their own lack of readiness to obey the Word that made that Word unappealing to their hearers.  The reason for their rejection that Luke mentions in this passage is, ‘because his face was set towards Jerusalem!’ (Lk 9:53).  You will have further noticed that when I heard of this episode I rebuked them sternly because they were culpable; it was because of their negligence that the Samaritans were deprived of the efficacy of their preaching.  How often do Christians look at the rejection of others as really being their own fault?

You:  Lord Jesus, I thank You profusely for pointing this angle of understanding to me. I would not want my little ‘missionary’ work to be rejected because of my failings.  Enable me to attend to this aspect very consciously each time I approach someone with Your message of love and forgiveness!

Jesus:  In fact, in general the majority of Christians in India appear to be enemies of My cross.  They seem to use any and every means to dodge the Cross when they are faced with it. No sooner does the Cross come into their lives than they run from pillar to post, from one novena to another to get the heavenly Father to take away that suffering.  And their prayer rarely is: ‘Father, let your will be done!’  Rather it is almost always, ‘Lord, take away this cross by any means, I cannot bear it!  I will do anything You say, but not the Cross!’  Little do they realize how much they lose by adopting this stance. 

Remain in silence and allow the Spirit to draw you into the mystery of the Cross in your day-to-day life.  It is not as if you have to seek out the cross at every turn, like sadists or masochists; rather learn to accept the crosses the Father has ordained for you – because these are for your growth and for the benefit of others.  Once My disciples understood the basics of this mystery they even rejoiced and thanked the Father for being counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name.  You too could arrive at that level if only you allow God’s Spirit to lead and guide you.  But remember this is not easy especially for human nature to accept without God’s special help and hence there is need of letting the Spirit work on you.  Remain for as long as you can in silence repeating as a mantra, ‘Father lead me through your Spirit into an effective sharing in the mystery of the Cross!’

When you have prayed long enough in silence, emerge from the depths and engage in a few minutes of intercessory prayer, praying especially for those burdened with heavy crosses they find difficult to accept.  As you conclude use a hymn or mantra to wind off the session, preferably a line or phrase that you could repeat often during the week to help recall the key moments of this prayer.

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