For the next few weeks, the Gospel passages have a parable to help us. So, it is good to remember that parables are a special kind of teaching that is not common in our culture. The method of parables is to evoke a personal response to the story and be aware of what happens when God comes into our lives and so how do we respond and identify ourselves in it.
Lord, remorse is a terrible thing, it is being in an agony of flames of fire. Seeing those we have wronged and longing to have them dip their finger in water and cool our tongue. What is going on in our world and how do we address what we can?
Lord, we pray for parents today, that they may teach right values to their children, teaching them not to set their hearts on purple clothes and fine linen nor on feasting magnificently every day, because these things die and are buried. We should reverence the poor and those in any type of need.
Pope Paul VI wrote ‘We must build a world where freedom is not an empty word and where the poor man can sit down at the same table with the rich man.’
James Baldwin writes ‘The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.’
With love and prayers Fr Michael