Daily Reflection for Friday January 08,2021
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners!
We encourage you to reflect on Friday’s readings at this link:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010821.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: 1 John 5:5-13
Responsorial: Psalm 147:12-13,14-15,19-20
Gospel: Luke 5:12-16
Our reflection on Friday’s readings:
Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean (Luke 5:12)
About this gospel passage, St. John Chrysostom wrote, “Prayer is perfect when it is joined to faith and confession; the leper showed his faith and confessed his need out loud.”
During this pandemic, I admit that I have often been spiritually distracted. Distracted from commitments to daily prayer, reflection and meditation. Distracted by worries and fears and problems which are constantly swirling in my brain. And at Mass, whether in person or watching online, I am also more distracted than usual. Many of the same worries and fears and problems are churning and taking my attention away from where it should be.
And yet, at one point in the Mass, I seem to snap to attention. The last prayer we say together before we receive Holy Communion is, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” It is like God puts up a giant stop sign for all those distractions in my brain, they disperse, and for that one moment I am focused entirely on the words I am saying. And every time I say them, I really mean them. I never feel completely worthy to receive the body of Christ. But those words, said aloud, just as the leper did, proclaim my confession and my faith at the same time.
God knows that I long to be cleansed from all that afflicts my soul. Like the leper, I just need to lay that longing at God’s feet and ask Him to heal me. So today, since I won’t be at Mass to pray that focusing prayer, when I experience the inevitable distractions I’m going to try to stop the swirling, admit to God that I know I’m not perfect, that I make mistakes, that I am broken and wounded. And in that moment of stillness, I will ask Him, if he wishes, to heal my soul. Maybe this is a prayer that will resonate with you today as well.
Blessings to all,
Andra Liepa