Month: October 2012

Christian Prayer

Section One: Prayer in the Christian Life – What is Prayer?

Prayer as God’s Gift (2560): “If you knew the gift of God!” (John 4:10) The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him (Cf. Saint Augustine).

Year of Faith 2012-2013

The Year of Faith was inaugurated on Thursday with a fine mass and lecture in Saint David’s Cathedral. Now we are called to work to deepen our faith, and share it out to others. As well as the ideas and resources you can find on the Year of Faith link on the Bishops’ website, in the porch we have a few copies of a 25p CTS fold on ‘The Year of Faith‘, and more copies of “Doorway to Faith” (£1.50, but £1 to parishioners) which gives a day-by-day year-long journey through the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Get your copy today, and start the exploration.

The Word This Week

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (14th October)

In today’s story of the rich man, who comes to Jesus full of good intentions, there are some simple words that speak so clearly to our own age: when Jesus tells him to sell everything and give it to the poor, “his face fell at these words, and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.” “How sad it is that such a keen (he runs up to Jesus), and by all accounts good-looking young man (whom Jesus loves) could not free himself from the word thing that was holding him back – his dependence on riches. Jesus’ words “How hard it is …” perhaps indicate his own sadness that the man could not free himself from this. Jesus’ teaching was new – as the disciples’ reaction shows. In Israel at the time, riches were thought to be a blessing from God. But as Jesus knew and taught, holding on to anything that passes away can distract us from holding on to things that are eternal.

Today’s Readings
Wisdom 7: 7-1
Hebrews 4: 12-13
Mark 1: 17-30