Daily Reflection for Monday, August 24, 2020
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners!
We encourage you to reflect on Monday’s readings at this link:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082420.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: Revelations 21:9B-14
Responsorial: Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18
Gospel: John 1:45-51
Our reflection on Monday’s readings:
“But Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)
Doubt, questioning, concern, and need for affirmation. These are key elements of the human condition. How many of these qualities were alive and well in the time in which our Lord and Savior walked the earth? I propose that they were present in the same way that they are today.
This Gospel passage always makes me stop and take notice. To notice that I spend a lot more time in doubt and questioning than I do in simple trust. How often am I like Nathanael in this passage, where he is asking about the value of a person based on where they are from?
I also note how quickly Nathanael accepts and acknowledges the presence of his God when given some pretty irrefutable evidence of His presence right there in front of him. Clearly, Nathanael was a man of faith and prayer.
During my daily prayer time, I am often reminded of the need for the habit and practice of prayer in my life. I will never quit being human first. However, having a prayer life connects me to the divine much more quickly than I might be connected without a practice of prayer.
I have been noticing and enjoying nature in my own back yard in what appears to be an unusual way for me this year. Is it that I am taking more time to notice or is it that I am allowing myself to be more present to the world in which I am blessed to reside? Contemplation seems to happen more easily for me as we have been called to step back from the crowded, busy world a bit in avoidance of the Covid-19 virus. I guess I feel a sense of “permission” to go and sit in my back yard more often. The significance of the Gift of Nature impacts me daily now. All around me is evidence of God’s care for me and the world. Lots of evidence of His hand in our lives and His deep care for the details that often go unnoticed by us.
What are some ways that I might look beyond the “Nazareth” in my world and turn more quickly to the unique, individual, inner spirits of the people placed in my life? How might I be called to greet each experience in a given day as an opportunity to see God first and not prejudge?
In Heartfelt Joy,
Lynne Brennan