WEDNESDAY REFLECTION
Wednesday of the 5th Week in Easter-tide.
I know that many of you have got into the habit of watching a live-streamed Mass each day. I have too! That is, after having had the privilege of celebrating Holy Mass earlier by myself. We can watch Mass all over the world, in great Cathedrals, parish Churches and even sometimes in the spare room of the parish house. We probably return to priests we know, or whom we consider good preachers or to those who show great reverence, knowledge and passion. Maybe your favourite priest fulfils all three categories!
One of my friends said to me, “Don’t just tell me that God is with me in all this. I want to know in what way. I want to know how to respond in my isolation.” I cannot tell each individual the ways God is in their lives. You have to discover that for yourself. But I can tell you of my own experience. Perhaps your experiences might be similar.
In God’s providence these days with times of quietness and inactivity, I can gain insights which will be directed to what is good for me….and what is to be avoided. I need a structure to my day. I need to rise at a particular time. Shower, shave, dress, make my bed and tidy the room. Why? Nobody is going to see me. Nobody is going to see my room. Nobody cares whether my bed is made or unmade. These things, however, teach me to be disciplined. My sense of the rightness of things brings me a joyful experience of order and purpose. I discover how much it matters that my appearance, my studies, my reading, my phones calls and emails, my zoom meetings, my preparation for various meditations that the Lord has entrusted to me, are at the service of the Lord and His Church. To try to answer the questions my friend posed to me, I suggest that you try, in the extraordinary circumstances and events of these days, that you build similar practices, according to your state in life, into your lock down and isolation. After all, a serenity that is earned always trumps the laziness of inertia.
Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus Christ,
our Way, our Truth and our Life, enfold our world in your tender embrace and give us the grace to be tender to one another, for you live and reign, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Monsignor Monaghan
