Reflection from Friar Nicholas

WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 3:1-10,19-20; Ps 40:2,5,7-10; Mk 1:29-39 Speak Lord for Your Servant is Listening To work with divine authority or power, we need to harmonise our will with the divine will in all things. To achieve this requires the development of a sixth sense or spiritual ear for listening to the voice of God or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us. The necessary conditions for the development of the spiritual ear include the following. First, the moderation of the use of the physical senses, which are doors leading to our minds and hearts from outside. If these portals are not guarded by strong gates and locks, allowing us to admit only what we judge beneficial to our souls and the tender spiritual works of grace taking place within us, we can never develop the spiritual ear to hear, discern, and follow the voice of the Lord within. Second, we must nurture a love for silence. This comes as a result of the first, for we must be at home ...

TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 1 :9-20; 1 Sam 1:1,4-8; Mk 1:21-28 Sharing in the Divine Authority In the Gospel of John 5:17, where Jesus healed the paralysed man at the pool, the Jews wanted to know why he worked a miracle on a Sabbath day. Jesus answered them that he is working because his Father never ceased working. The Lord’s answer gives us a glimpse into the mindset of the Son of Man regarding our daily work, occupations, and professions. Our vocation is to be coworkers of God in the renewal of all things in accordance with his divine will. God made man the steward of his creation at the beginning. As stewards, we are never to oversee God’s creation without reference to the Creator. Though God handed his material creation to man, he never ceased working on creation to uphold and make it achieve the purpose for which he made it. Our vocation as stewards requires us to discern the will of God through communion with him and work alongside him to bring about h...

MONDAY, FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  1 Sam 1:1-8; Ps 116:12-19; Mk 1:14-20 Knowing and Doing the Will of God We commence the Ordinary Time of the Church with the celebration of the baptism of the Lord. Leaving the air and joy of festivities to the ordinary things and activities of everyday living is like leaving the mountain of Jerusalem and the Temple to Galilee of nations. It is easy to think of God and the religious demands of our faith while in Jerusalem, with its religious landmarks and style of living. It is not the same when we come down to Galilee of all nations with its characteristic commercial and mundane activities. We feel the same way when the festive periods end, and we return to ordinary time, with no decorations, songs, and things to keep our minds preoccupied with things of God. What engages us in the ordinary time or non-festive period of the Church’s year is our various needs we must fulfil and duties we must carry out, which we suspend in order to celebra...

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD   Isa 42:1-4,6-7; Ps 29:1-4,9-10; Acts 10:34-38; Mt 3:13-17 The Testimony of the Father We celebrate the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. The celebration marks the end of the Christmas season. The celebration is situated within the Christmas season and is considered its endpoint, as it is part of the Epiphany of the Lord. It is a continuation of the revelation of the Son of God now present to us in our human nature. We have read different scriptural accounts of various testimonies concerning the infant born for us by the Blessed Virgin Mary. We have heard the angels, the Magi from the east, the old Simeon as the representative of the priestly caste, the old prophetess, Anna, as a representative of the prophets, John the Baptist sent to reveal him to Israel, and finally, God the Father, who spoke at his baptism to testify that truly the Son of Man is the beloved Son of God. The Church collects all these testimonies before us as we celebrate Christ...

SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 5:14-21; Ps 149:1-6,9; Jn 3:22-30 Faith in the One who comes with Water, Blood, and Spirit The Incarnation of the Son of God demonstrates God’s complete encompassment of our human nature. It shows us that we belong to God and he knows and cares for us holistically. He took on our human nature so that all the witnesses: blood, water, and Spirit, may witness for him. He adopted and owned our weakness and mortal frailty and made it a seat of divine power and authority to make us understand that there is nothing coming from our bodies, frail and weak as they are, that is not known and sanctioned by him. As the author of everything visible and invisible, the Eternal Word is always present in the material universe, governing everything he made through and according to their respective natures. He appeared visibly to our senses in our nature and lived among us. By this, he owned the testimonies of the physical universe which enters like an ever-runnin...

FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY 1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Lk 5:12-16 The Witnesses in our Minds The statement that God made us for himself is incontestable. But to the one who does not believe, whom the scriptures describe as a fool, it may not be evident. We are not surprised by this, because colours are not evident to the blind, and sound is not evident to the deaf. But even to the blind, the sun makes its presence felt by its heating effect on his skin. No one is so deprived of his senses and reason to the extent that he does not see the loving providence of God in his life and events thereof. The human mind is like a dam into which three rivers pour their contents: the biological river of the unconscious working of our biological machine, the sensible river of our sensible perceptions, and the spiritual river of our mental and spiritual interactions. These three rivers come together in the mind; they are commingled and used to process knowledge of our realities. God instr...