Stations of the Cross

I have been leading Stations of the Cross in St. John Fisher each Sunday in Lent at 4pm. It's a lovely intimate church and each week our journey with Christ through his passion has been moving and wonderful. I am trying to use different reflections each week, and today I will be using a fictional letter from a Roman solider to his father. The solider witnessed many of the events of the passion and in the letter we see the stations through his eyes.

I wrote this a few years ago now and loved re-reading it when I found it on my PC. I have added a little bit to it now so I can use it to lead the meditations at church.

Please feel free to us it yourselves and if you do please let me know what you think.

Stations of the Cross - Roman Letter.pdf

Homily – Third Sunday Lent Year A

Homily – Third Sunday Lent Year A

Notes All about thirst and Living Water

Reading

Old Exodus 17:3-7

Psalm 94:1-2, 6-9, R8

New Romans 5:1-2, 5-8

Gospel John 4:5-42

What is the longest you have every gone with out drinking anything. No water, no tea, no coffee, no lemonade, no orange squash, no beer, no wine. Can you remember that thirst you would have had. Or after playing a fast paced game of football or going for a long walk on a hot day. How thirsty does that make you feel. Can you remember the feelings, your month is so dry your lips stick together, your throat is parched and feels like sandpaper, your stomach feel empty and hollow, your legs and arms get heavy and tired, your head starts to pound with a headache that wont leave you.

Can you recall your desire for water. Clear, cool, sweet water.

And can you recall again the taste of the first drink, the wetness hitting the back of your throat, the compulsion to keep drinking even when you have to stop to take a deep breath air.

Those feelings are what today's readings are all about.

Except, they are not about water. They are about thirst, desire and compulsion, but they are not about water. They are about Living Water and that's a completely different thing. Living water is God's Love being poured into our hearts by the holy spirit.

The scene of our first reading is a desert, with him Moses has 600,000 men, their families and their herds and flocks of livestock. They have left their homes in the middle of the night, been chased by an army, escaped literally through a the middle of a vast sea, they have been hungry and have just been feed on Manna and Quails and now the are complaining bitterly that they have nothing to drink. In some ways they seem ungrateful but they also seem human. Scared and in a strange place, they are striking out against their leaders. What they are after isn't just water to quench their thirst it's, it's love and care. And that's what they get, God doesn't direct them to a water hole or stream, but gives them water that can only come from him. He shows them he is with them. He gives them the cuddle they need. But like any loving parent he must have been hurt by their challenge “Is the Lord with us or Not?”

Our Psalm today is a reflection on that challenge. It's a sorrowful reflection on that doubt, that challenge, that test of a loving God. When we said together the response, we are asking that today, right now, we all listen to the Lord's voice. We have no need to challenge him, to test him. But we have great need to just listen. Which brings us nicely to our Gospel reading.

We find Jesus on a journey between Judaea and Galilee. The quickest route goes through Samaritan territory and it's here next to a well we encounter Jesus. He is joined by a women and for a few minutes they have a rather disjointed conversation about drinking water. To start with the women is surprised that Jesus talks to her at all. He is a Jew and Jew's don't talk to Samaritan's. Then Jesus reverses the conversation and talks of living water, she misunderstands and probably get insulted. Living water to her would have been a stream or river, free flowing water, which was considered much better than well water. If Jesus could find living water here he was claiming to be greater than Jacob who first dug the well. Then Jesus describes his living water and she still misses the point, maybe even laughing at him as she asks him for this magical water. It's not until he demonstrates that he really knows her that she takes him seriously. Her eyes begin to open, and she starts to listen. She realises that the water Jesus is talking of is spiritual water, God's Love. She realises Jesus is someone special, maybe even the Christ.

There is a strong lesson here for us. When Christ speaks to us through our lives, though scripture, through our prayer, we may think we know what he's talking about, but we could so easily have got it wrong and be missing something special. It's worth taking the time to really listen, and to understand that He is talking to us because He loves us.

The Samaritan woman listened and was filled with His Living Water and then she introduced others to Christ so they could listen as well. And they were all filled with His Living Water. The work He started here, or the harvest as He described it, is to bring all people to God, not just the chosen race the Jews but everyone.

And now in the middle of Lent it’s worth reflecting on how Jesus brings all people to God. He brings people to God through his sacrifice, through his death, on a cross. He looked at us, saw everything we do wrong, the wars, the hatred, the poverty, the greed, and he loves us. He loves us so much he allowed us to kill him. He offered himself as our sacrifice for all that is wrong is in us. And through that sacrifice he offers us forgiveness, offers us grace, offers us his love.

So now it is by our faith in Christ Jesus that we can be judged righteous and at peace with God. It’s our faith that lets us accept the gift of grace. And it’s by that Grace that we can hope to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And as Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “This hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the holy spirit which has been given to us.”

Are you thirsty?

Do you need the love of God poured into your heart?

Christ is sat next to a well waiting for you, to talk with you and to give you a drink of his Living Water.

Ideas for Lent – 2. Time with God

I am blatantly stealing this from a brilliant homily I heard a few weeks ago so thanks Steve for the idea and most of the words.

We all lead busy lives and taking time out to spend it with God is difficult. So here an idea for just ten minutes of your day. Find a quiet space and light a candle then sit comfortably in front of it. One of two things will happen, firstly you may start to fall asleep and if you do that's fine, Gods telling you to deal with a physical need, or secondly you may find that you head fills with all the thoughts of your busy day. Stick with it at this point and listen, try and put those thoughts aside just watch the flame and listen for Gods voice. So often prayer is a one way thing, we are talking all the time. We seldom give God a chance to speak. If we are always asking God for help shouldn't we once in a while listen for his answer.

Ideas for Lent – 1. Kiva

A couple of Christmas’s ago my sister and brother in law gave Gail and I a Kiva voucher. At the time I had never heard of them, and I am guessing you might not have heard of them either. They are a charity that gives loans to people around the world who are trying to improve their lives and businesses. The loans I have made were for things like seed for crops, to buy stock for a shop, or parts for a taxi man who’s taxi was off the road.

You don’t give your money to Kiva as you do to many charities, but your buy credit on the site and then use that credit to make loans to the people they have pre-vetted for you. Once the loan is repaid you can loan the money again to someone else. Finally if you fall upon hard times yourself you can get the credit back once the loan is repaid.

It’s a really clever idea that practically helps people get out of poverty. Why don’t you buy yourself or someone you love some Kiva credit this Lent.

http://www.kiva.org/

Pancake Day

Today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. So I figured it's a great time to talk a little about Shrove, Delia Smith and of course Pancakes.

Shrove is an old word and I believe it means to be absolved. Shrove Tuesday is associated with Christian going to Confession prior to Lent to obtain absolution. It's a good time to turn your mind towards the season of lent and to think about how you are going to prepare for Easter. Lent is a time of 40 days, this mirrors the 40 years the Jewish nation walked in the wilderness, it is also the same as the forty days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted by the devil.

On Shrove Tuesday we eat up the nice things in the house like pancakes before the season of Lent starts. For us Christian's Lent is a penitent time, a time to give up some luxuries, a time to start to do something positive, a time of charity and prayer. It's is often useful to reflect on some Christian reading over Lent, and there are many good books to choose from. For me I am going to turn to Delia Smith, and her book A Feast for Lent. With a reading, a reflection and a prayer for every day it's wonderful material, and she has a fantastic way for making you think.

Finally let moving to pancakes, and of course I am going to stay with Delia. Her Recipe for the perfect pancake can be found on the BBC website here BBC Food Website - Delia's Pancake Recipe.

Back to Basics-Books

For The Diaconate Formation Training and also ongoing, I was thinking about a basic book list ones that I should have on my book shelf.

The criteria being those that I would be constantly using .

My Initial list is as follows:-

Divine Office

Bible My version is The CTS new catholic Bible.

Bible Commentary The New Jerome Biblical Commentary

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Documents of Vatican II

Christian Theology An Introduction Alister E McGrath

If anyone can advise of what others should be on the list can you let me know

Ash & Ash Wednesday

The start of Lent is almost upon us and I am looking forward now to Ash Wednesday. With fasting Ash Wednesday is always a long and difficult day but it is also the day when I can talk about my faith at work more than any other day. The reason for this is that most of my conversation on Ash Wednesday start like this. “You have a black smudge on your forehead.” Then I reply, “Yes I know it’s Ash Wednesday.” Then they either look confused or ask why, either way I get to talk to them about my faith, lent, giving things up, starting things, fasting, repentance, charity, palm leaves, oils, etc…  Most people are really interested, and the questions keep coming.

I normally hate getting out of bed, but on Ash Wednesday I am a little excited. I head off to an early Mass and hope that I’ll get a good clear thumb full of ash. This year however I have been a little frustrated, my church isn’t having an early Mass. The other churches in the parish are but it’s at 9:30 way to late as I have to be at work by 9am. The Church close to work has a lunchtime Mass, but I have a meeting from 10-2 at work so that doesn’t work well either. Luckily Clifton Cathedral has a 7:30 Mass so that’s where I’ll be.

In previous years I have been working in different towns and have always managed to find an early Mass. When I was working a tradeshow in London I got up particularly early to get to a 6am Mass at Westminster Cathedral. That was a long day, 10 hours on my feet with no food but about a 500 people went away knowing both about my software and about my faith. In fact most were more interested in the ash than the software.

Lent is a great time for us Christians to witness to our faith. To make that extra effort to give up sin, to do some good for the people around us. To show Gods love and work in our actions. What will you be doing this Lent? Will you be wearing your ashes all day? What conversation will they start?

Anticipation

Here's my thought from yesterdays session at Wesley. I got some excellent feedback from my fellow students making me question the appropriateness of a thought like this. I am in a very privileged position, I have a good job and steady income. Many people are really struggling in this country right now and talk about new cars could seem insensitive. I am think now about how I might re-write the start of this thought as a result. All of my thoughts start with something that happens in my life, something that gets me thinking, and here what I wanted to show and tell was the juxtaposition between my excitement about worldly things and therefore almost missing the point on the really important things. However it's published here in it's original form.

If you feel like commenting I would be interested in your views.

Thanks,

J.

Anticipation

I have recently had to replaced my company car. The process is quite simple and great fun, first you ask for the list of available cars. Then you spend lots of time looking at brochures and websites asking yourself lots of questions like, What colour should it be? Do I want a Volkswagen or BMW? An estate or saloon? Petrol or diesel? I have to be honest, I was like a kid in a toy shop.

Then once you have made up your mind, you fill in a form, get your boss to sign it, then you have to wait. And strangely the waiting is just as much fun. It's the anticipation. I know the car is coming, I am really excited about it, I imagine all the nice features it has, and I often take just another quick look through the brochure. I even have the Volkswagen iPhone app on my phone.

But when I haven't been thinking of my new car, I have been thinking about, Anticipation. The excitement before a holiday, or Christmas. Anticipation can be wonderful and exciting. Anticipation gives us a chance to prepare for the important things, and I am no longer thinking about a new car when I say that, I am thinking about Easter, Confirmation, Marriage, or the birth of a child.

But my thoughts drifted on, don't we live our whole lives, in anticipation of heaven. We don't often get excited about that and maybe we should. Our death will be a gateway to eternal life with Christ. I should be getting excited about that. Maybe I should be grabbing that brochure called a bible more often, or quickly stealing a few moments of anticipation with my iPhone prayer app.

Anticipation about a holiday or new car is fun.

Anticipation about an eternal life spent with Christ is life changing, and that is the whole point, isn't it.