As we begin to think of ourselves sharing the mission of Jesus, we often begin by looking outwards.

We see the people who hunger and we want to feed them. We hear the cry of the poor and feel the urge to give them shelter and warmth.

We hear the grief of the rich, who realise that their wealth has not delivered the security it promised. We run to meet the needs of others. Might we need to look more deeply into our own minds and hearts first?

The Mass is the moment when God gathers ALL into one. How do you experience this? We see the people who hunger and we want to feed them. We hear the cry of the poor and feel the urge to give them shelter and warmth.

We hear the grief of the rich, who realise that their wealth has not delivered the security it promised. We run to meet the needs of others.

Might we need to look more deeply into our own minds and hearts first?
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Mission is the fruit of our encounter with Jesus in the Mass. We go from this experience to share what we have celebrated.
We need to realise, however, that the mission of Jesus in the Church can only be carried out when each disciple is living in intimate relationship with Him.
Jesus is the Master Missionary. He seeks to touch us first, so that we might reach others.
The divine mission is our irrepressible response to the visit of Jesus to our own hearts. Before we can share what we have received, we need to know that in every moment, in every word and encounter Jesus is reaching out to us.

The starting-point for the Church’s missionary activity is the encounter between Jesus and the individual human heart.

In this space where human frailty and need meet divine love, we know love. We are visited by the love which forgives sin. We know the touch of the love that heals hearts and transforms all life. In this ... Read More »

Then they said to each other,
‘Were not our hearts burning within us
while he was talking to us on the road,
while he was opening the scriptures to us?’
That same hour they got up and returned to
Jerusalem; and they found the eleven
and their companions gathered together.
They were saying, ‘The Lord is risen indeed,
and he has appeared to Simon!
Then they told what had happened on the road
and how he had been made known to them
in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24: 32-35

Spend some time with this Scripture passage.
How does this story
stir your heart today?

Does the liturgical calendar suit the seasons of the northern hemisphere better than the south, as some have suggested? Pope Benedict XVI invites us to consider both autumn and spring as ‘seed-time’:

In the spring the farmer sows seed for autumn the coming year. Sowing seed always points to the future, for the waning year also points to a new future.

In both seasons the mystery of hope is at work and reaches its proper depth in the waning year, which leads beyond decline to a new beginning. It would be a great work of inculturation to develop this approach and to bring it into the common consciousness of Christians in the two hemispheres, southern and northern. The south could help the north to discover a new breadth and depth in the mystery, thus enabling us all to draw afresh on its richness.

In the ancient morning, noon and evening prayer, the Angelus, we celebrate the moment of Incarnation. Mid-conversation and mid-task, the bell brought people to their knees. As this tolling interrupted the work-day routine, so too the Incarnation interrupts our busy apathy with the offer of new life and hope.

Today, let the Incarnation be a sacred ‘interruption’ to your day.
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary…

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Be it done unto me according to thy Word. Hail Mary…

And the Word was made Flesh. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary…

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray...
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