Prayers and Sighs

Lectio Divina

For faith-sharing this evening, the Sunday Gospel:

Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!”

Mark 7:34 (New Living Translation)

Library

Continuing with the aforementioned readings, though not all concurrently.

Log

Ministry at Catholic Charities in Santa Maria. Faith sharing this evening. I will be reflecting on the Gospel in light of today's experiences at the food pantry and thrift store, where a couple of times I was summoned to lead a prayer. When the people ask me to deliver a word from God, will I be ready and willing to give it? Will I want for the people what they want from God through my petition? Does it matter if our wills and intentions are not the same? Do I detect a reluctance within me to pray as people believe that I ought? A resistance, even? If so, what are these feelings of resistance? What is there underneath my resistance? Is it true humility, the conviction that all men and women have access to God through prayer, and that all prayers are worthy, not only those that come from the mouth of a so-called "religious"? Or is it a subtle and sinister kind of superiority arising, the feeling that my words should not dignify the somewhat simplistic or superstitious motives that I think may in some prayer requests? I feel an examination of conscience and consciousness coming on....

Weather

Much heat, and surely that means there is a lot of light somewhere.