Dear All,
We hope you have had a good week & that the reflections on blessings helped you to feel blessed in some way during the week.
Today we are looking at ‘Calling’. The church has special Days of Prayer for Vocations & usually focusses on callings to the priesthood – and sometimes includes Religious Life too – but it is surely much wider than that. I have come across so many other people who sense a real calling in life – whether it is towards a particular occupation – a doctor, teacher etc – but you can also experience a calling from God towards being a certain type of person, living out certain values. In order to have this experience we have to listen. We hope one or other of the reflections will resonate with you. It is this broad interpretation that we are looking at.
We have chosen a blessing from Margaret Rizza’s CD, Fire of Love, simply called ‘A Blessing’. I shall pray it for all who receive these Saturday Reflections & all those who you are close to.
Our love & prayer
A Focussed Life
Henri Nouwen
There is something of the wanderer and something of the person who just sits there in all of us. If you look at this world you might think, “I am so tired. There is so much fatigue, so much experience of heaviness in this world, that I find myself sometimes as a wanderer and sometimes as a sitter.” It is into this deeply tired world of ours that God sends Jesus to speak the voice of love. Jesus says, “Follow me. Don’t keep running around. Follow me. Don’t just sit there. Follow me.” The voice of love is the voice that can completely reshape our life from a wandering or just-sitting-there life to one that is focused and has a point to go to.
A Hard, Deep Call to Obedience
a prayer by Walter Brueggemann
You are the God who makes extravagant promises.
We relish your great promises
of fidelity
and presence
and solidarity,
and we exude in them.
Only to find out, always too late,
that your promise always comes
in the midst of a hard, deep call to obedience.
You are the God who calls people like us,
and the long list of mothers and fathers before us,
who trusted the promise enough to keep the call.
So we give thanks that you are a calling God,
who calls always to dangerous new places.
We pray enough of your grace and mercy among us
that we may be among those
who believe your promise enough
to respond to your call.
We pray in the one who embodied your promise
and enacted your call, even Jesus. Amen.
Call me back to you
Henri Nouwen
I trust in you, Lord, but keep helping me in my many moments of distrust and doubt. They are there and will be every time I turn my eyes, ears, or hands away from you. Please, Lord, keep calling me back to you, by day and by night, in joy and in sadness, during moments of success and moments of failure. Never let me leave you. I know you walk with me. Help me walk with you today, tomorrow and always.
‘New Ways to touch the hearts of all’
Iona
God, you are always calling us, your people,
to follow you into the future,
inviting us to new ventures, new challenges,
new ways to care,
new ways to touch the hearts of all.
When we become fearful of the unknown, give us courage.
When we worry that we are not up to the task,
remind us that you would not call us
if you did not believe in us.
When we get tired,
or feel disappointed with the way things are going,
remind us that you can bring change and hope
out of the most difficult situations.