A parishioner writes:
Following the Mass and Fr. Clement's homily on Sunday 16th October 2016, I was prompted to recall a reflection on the same Gospel Reading. This was from a chapel service some years ago at a non-Catholic establishment, but one where all pupils had to attend chapel once a week. There were two Chaplains, but chapels were frequently taken by “non-professionals” as well. This is the text of the address given by one of the teachers.
Fr. Clement would like me to share this with the rest of the parish.
Following the Mass and Fr. Clement's homily on Sunday 16th October 2016, I was prompted to recall a reflection on the same Gospel Reading. This was from a chapel service some years ago at a non-Catholic establishment, but one where all pupils had to attend chapel once a week. There were two Chaplains, but chapels were frequently taken by “non-professionals” as well. This is the text of the address given by one of the teachers.
Fr. Clement would like me to share this with the rest of the parish.
Why pray?
Every company, every school has a mission statement, a declaration of their aims. We have probably got different ideas about what a school’s mission statement should be, but we could probably agree that acquiring academic qualifications was important as well as moral and ethical values of which we can be proud. We would also like to think that we will achieve a sense of independence, self-reliance, self-sufficiency and the ability to stand on our own feet.
Despite all of this, there are times when we need the help of others: while we are young we need the financial help of our parents, the emotional help of our friends and the academic help of our teachers or our friend in a higher set when we have a hard piece of homework!
However, there are situations when none of these helpers are adequate and that is when people turn to God and they pray. When we work, we work. When we pray, God works. His supernatural strength is available to those who are convinced to the core of their beings that he can make a difference. Sceptics would maintain that answered prayers are only coincidences, but it’s amazing how many coincidences occur when you begin to pray. God’s power may come in the form of wisdom - an idea you couldn’t come up with yourself; greater courage than you could ever muster by yourself; confidence or perseverance; a changed attitude; even miracles. But if you don’t ask for God’s help, if you are convinced that you can handle everything by yourself, you can’t expect God’s power to flow through you.
In Luke’s gospel, we read the story of the widow who wanted justice and who pestered a reluctant judge until he eventually listened to her plea. The message of the parable was to pray incessantly and not to give up.
We all like to receive presents at Christmas and on our birthdays, but giving presents is part of the joy of both occasions, seeing the pleasure on the faces of the recipients, knowing that they have received exactly what they wanted or needed. So it is with God - he wants to give us things, but we have to be there to receive them. We are God’s children and he gives us what we need. St. Matthew tells us: Which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)
God is never too busy running the universe to listen to us. He has given us his personal mobile number which is never switched off and never engaged when we call.
When I’m on school duty I get a few requests for help with prep. However, I’ve never been asked by the Bursar to help him with his five year financial plan for the school, nor have I been asked by government ministers to help solve the problems of unemployment, homelessness, waiting lists in the NHS, Iraq, the Middle East, Dafur or global warming. Why don’t people come knocking on my door? The answer is pretty obvious: despite my immense intelligence and wisdom far beyond my youth, I have to admit that I haven’t got a clue. But I know a man who does!
The Bible is full of examples of God’s omnipotence (nice word - from the Latin Omni Potens meaning all powerful): the parting of the seas (Exodus), the food from heaven (Exodus), the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (John), the calming of the waves (Mark), Peter walking free from prison as the chains fell from his hands and feet (Acts), uneducated fishermen speaking to a crowd made up of people from different nations and all being understood.
I love cold, clear nights with star spangled skies. I have difficulty in conceiving the distances involved. Man with all his 21st century sophistication and technological know-how has managed to reach only the moon which is, astronomically speaking, on our doorstep. I look up and think: “God made that!” People sit and watch the sea crashing on to the shore, trying to forecast which wave will reach furthest up the beach. Then the sea recedes and leaves wet sand and dry - and God knows exactly how many grains are wet and how many are dry. We tend to think of what God can do in human terms and that is our mistake - we put human limitations on God’s power.
We all like to receive letters from those dear to us. There is great pleasure to be had from receiving news from loved ones. God is always waiting for our call and it’s a free phone number.
From our Biology lessons, PE lessons, the plethora of magazines and articles published on the theme of healthy living, we all know that regular exercise and a balanced diet are essential for physical well-being, we know the importance of adopting good habits, not just to avoid high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and other physical ailments associated with middle age, but to increase our quality of life here and now.
Our spirits, like our bodies, have requirements for health and growth. Good spiritual habits should not, however, be a straitjacket, but some structure is, nevertheless, necessary. Any half-decent training programme is structured, but, in addition, to make real progress you need commitment. Your spiritual life cannot grow without commitment any more than you can lower your body fat, develop good muscle tone, improve aerobic capacity, bowl a good length, play an overhead backhand volley, negotiate hurdles on the track by just sitting back and waiting for things to happen. You have to make a decision and that decision is non-negotiable.
If you want to improve get a coach. Some people pay a fortune to have a personal trainer. If you want to get spiritually fit, there’s a coach who’s been there, done it and his T-shirt bears his name: Jesus Christ.
In Luke we read of how the disciples, seeing Christ praying, and struck by his earnestness and his intensity, asked him to teach them how to pray. Like any teacher being asked about his speciality, Jesus was more than happy to respond.
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men ... When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep babbling on like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words, Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Nowhere else in the Scriptures tells us so clearly how to pray and the advice offered 2000 years ago is just as valid today.
Just as progress will not be made, no excellence achieved in sporting, musical or academic pursuits without daily practice, so we must find time to pray daily or else no good habits are formed.
Prayer is not a spectator sport - privacy is needed, a time and a place where we are free from distraction. We should try to establish a prayer place - this can be anywhere - and choose the best time for us. If we are larks, it might be first thing in the morning; if we are owls, then perhaps last thing at night would be better.
When we pray we must mean what we say, we must not babble, we must avoid clichés, we must pray from the heart and not rely on stock phrases. We must not pray on automatic pilot.
The Lord’s Prayer is not some form of incantation to attract God’s attention, but rather is a pattern to suggest the various elements that should be included when we pray.
OUR FATHER: we are God’s children, praying to a father who could not love us more than he does.
WHO ART IN HEAVEN: this is a reminder that God is sovereign, majestic, omnipotent. Nothing is too difficult for him. He is bigger than any problem we could bring and we must concentrate on his ability and not on our lack of worth.
HALLOWED BE THY NAME: we must not let our prayers become wish lists for Santa Claus. When we pray we must praise God for who and what he is .
THY KINGDOM COME THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN: we must submit our will to God’s, put his will first in our lives
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD: we should lay out all our concerns - if God was in the Yellow Pages, he would carry the slogan “No job too big, no job too small”.
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US: we must be sure that we are not an obstacle to God’s power flowing through us. We must confess our sins, acknowledge our shortcomings and live with a forgiving attitude towards others.
LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION: we pray for protection from evil and the strength to resist temptation
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER AND THE GLORY: we end with more worship. We acknowledge that everything in heaven and on earth is God’s.
Before you begin a fitness programme down in the Sports Centre, have a word with a member of staff with knowledge and experience in such matters. In some gyms you will see grotesquely over-developed biceps, bulging deltoids, rippling triceps on creatures incapable of running two laps around the track. On the track you may well catch sight of a runner effortlessly gliding around, but when he gets home, it’s his wife who has to open the sauce bottle.
To be effective pray-ers, we need a programme, we need balance, we need structure. The acronym, ACTS, might help us to go about prayer in a structured way.
A - We begin with adoration or worship. This sets the tone for the whole prayer. It reminds us of who we are talking to.
C - Confession. We acknowledge our shortcomings. We must not treat our sins like so much dirty washing to be thrown in a pile and then ask God to forgive the whole smelly lot! It’s not too difficult to lump all my sins together, to confess them en masse, it’s not too embarrassing. It’s a bit more difficult to name them one by one. No pain, no gain!
T - Thanksgiving. Remember that feeling grateful is not the same as giving thanks. In Luke’s gospel we read the story of the ten lepers whom Christ cured. They all felt grateful, but only one came back and thanked Jesus. We have so much to be thankful for: blessings in our spiritual life, in our material life and in our relational life.
S - Supplication, in other words “Asking”. We can categorise our requests. For example, family, other people, personal requests.
It can be rather embarrassing to be asked what you would like as a present when you are not too sure whether what you really want is within the budget of the person making the offer. There is no such problem when we make requests of our heavenly Father. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells us: “I tell you the truth , if you have faith and do not doubt .... you can say to these mountains, “Go, throw yourself in the sea” and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer”.
Everyone has a mountain. It may be a Ben Nevis, it may be an Everest, but no matter how great our problem, we should focus on the mountain mover and not the mountain.
But then there's the mystery, the agony of unanswered prayer. Sometimes our prayers are not answered, or so it seems.
It may be that the request is wrong and that God says NO. Does our request fit in with God’s wishes? Just before he died, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemine. His human nature was terrified by what lay in store for him, but he prayed: “Father, not my will, but thy will be done.”
In the gospels there are examples where Jesus rejected requests made by his disciples when he considered them inappropriate. Some of our requests may be self-serving, materialistic, short-sighted, immature. If the disciples were capable of this, so are you and I!
When apparently valid requests are not answered, we must trust God and not treat him as some sort of vending machine to be kicked and shaken when no jackpot is forthcoming.
When prayers are not answered, there may be a problem which we can address. We must beware of the attitude “When all else fails, pray”. We should pray regularly, earnestly, persistently. We must remember that unconfessed sins cut off communication with God. Unresolved relational conflicts can prevent prayers being answered.
We must slow down and make time for God in our lives. We must work at our relationship with him. We must allocate time for meditation and reflection. Unhurried, uninterrupted time. Like any married couple who wish their marriage to succeed, we must spend quality time with God.
If you want to see your headmaster, you have to see his secretary to make sure that he is free: he’s a busy man; he has to meet with the Bursar, the Deputy Head the Director of Studies, the Academic Registrar, Year Heads, Heads of Department, Heads of School, all essential for the smooth running of this little world of ours that we know as school. And yet the God of the Universe is available to us without an appointment, at any time. But when you speak to him, don’t forget to listen. Prayer is a two way process. God will lead you, nudge you in the direction he wishes you to go.
When school leavers take a Gap Year, go to India, Nepal or Kenya, they often do so with the ideology so admirable in youth and so often deficient in those with grey hair. They intend helping underprivileged youngsters, making a difference to their lives. Most often they come back with the realisation that the lives of those they encountered will be much the same after their return as it was before they left. However, they themselves have experienced something they will never forget, something that will mark them for the rest of their lives. Close encounters of the spiritual kind have much in common with this. We may hope to persuade God to change his plans for us, but the product of sincere prayer will be an acceptance of God’s will for us. We will be changed. God remains ever constant.
Awareness of God’s presence comes as a result of taking time to speak and listen to him through prayer and the powerful effect of prayer is unleashed in the lives of those who have spent time in God’s presence. No matter what, God will always be there for us.
Every company, every school has a mission statement, a declaration of their aims. We have probably got different ideas about what a school’s mission statement should be, but we could probably agree that acquiring academic qualifications was important as well as moral and ethical values of which we can be proud. We would also like to think that we will achieve a sense of independence, self-reliance, self-sufficiency and the ability to stand on our own feet.
Despite all of this, there are times when we need the help of others: while we are young we need the financial help of our parents, the emotional help of our friends and the academic help of our teachers or our friend in a higher set when we have a hard piece of homework!
However, there are situations when none of these helpers are adequate and that is when people turn to God and they pray. When we work, we work. When we pray, God works. His supernatural strength is available to those who are convinced to the core of their beings that he can make a difference. Sceptics would maintain that answered prayers are only coincidences, but it’s amazing how many coincidences occur when you begin to pray. God’s power may come in the form of wisdom - an idea you couldn’t come up with yourself; greater courage than you could ever muster by yourself; confidence or perseverance; a changed attitude; even miracles. But if you don’t ask for God’s help, if you are convinced that you can handle everything by yourself, you can’t expect God’s power to flow through you.
In Luke’s gospel, we read the story of the widow who wanted justice and who pestered a reluctant judge until he eventually listened to her plea. The message of the parable was to pray incessantly and not to give up.
We all like to receive presents at Christmas and on our birthdays, but giving presents is part of the joy of both occasions, seeing the pleasure on the faces of the recipients, knowing that they have received exactly what they wanted or needed. So it is with God - he wants to give us things, but we have to be there to receive them. We are God’s children and he gives us what we need. St. Matthew tells us: Which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)
God is never too busy running the universe to listen to us. He has given us his personal mobile number which is never switched off and never engaged when we call.
When I’m on school duty I get a few requests for help with prep. However, I’ve never been asked by the Bursar to help him with his five year financial plan for the school, nor have I been asked by government ministers to help solve the problems of unemployment, homelessness, waiting lists in the NHS, Iraq, the Middle East, Dafur or global warming. Why don’t people come knocking on my door? The answer is pretty obvious: despite my immense intelligence and wisdom far beyond my youth, I have to admit that I haven’t got a clue. But I know a man who does!
The Bible is full of examples of God’s omnipotence (nice word - from the Latin Omni Potens meaning all powerful): the parting of the seas (Exodus), the food from heaven (Exodus), the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (John), the calming of the waves (Mark), Peter walking free from prison as the chains fell from his hands and feet (Acts), uneducated fishermen speaking to a crowd made up of people from different nations and all being understood.
I love cold, clear nights with star spangled skies. I have difficulty in conceiving the distances involved. Man with all his 21st century sophistication and technological know-how has managed to reach only the moon which is, astronomically speaking, on our doorstep. I look up and think: “God made that!” People sit and watch the sea crashing on to the shore, trying to forecast which wave will reach furthest up the beach. Then the sea recedes and leaves wet sand and dry - and God knows exactly how many grains are wet and how many are dry. We tend to think of what God can do in human terms and that is our mistake - we put human limitations on God’s power.
We all like to receive letters from those dear to us. There is great pleasure to be had from receiving news from loved ones. God is always waiting for our call and it’s a free phone number.
From our Biology lessons, PE lessons, the plethora of magazines and articles published on the theme of healthy living, we all know that regular exercise and a balanced diet are essential for physical well-being, we know the importance of adopting good habits, not just to avoid high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and other physical ailments associated with middle age, but to increase our quality of life here and now.
Our spirits, like our bodies, have requirements for health and growth. Good spiritual habits should not, however, be a straitjacket, but some structure is, nevertheless, necessary. Any half-decent training programme is structured, but, in addition, to make real progress you need commitment. Your spiritual life cannot grow without commitment any more than you can lower your body fat, develop good muscle tone, improve aerobic capacity, bowl a good length, play an overhead backhand volley, negotiate hurdles on the track by just sitting back and waiting for things to happen. You have to make a decision and that decision is non-negotiable.
If you want to improve get a coach. Some people pay a fortune to have a personal trainer. If you want to get spiritually fit, there’s a coach who’s been there, done it and his T-shirt bears his name: Jesus Christ.
In Luke we read of how the disciples, seeing Christ praying, and struck by his earnestness and his intensity, asked him to teach them how to pray. Like any teacher being asked about his speciality, Jesus was more than happy to respond.
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men ... When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep babbling on like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words, Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Nowhere else in the Scriptures tells us so clearly how to pray and the advice offered 2000 years ago is just as valid today.
Just as progress will not be made, no excellence achieved in sporting, musical or academic pursuits without daily practice, so we must find time to pray daily or else no good habits are formed.
Prayer is not a spectator sport - privacy is needed, a time and a place where we are free from distraction. We should try to establish a prayer place - this can be anywhere - and choose the best time for us. If we are larks, it might be first thing in the morning; if we are owls, then perhaps last thing at night would be better.
When we pray we must mean what we say, we must not babble, we must avoid clichés, we must pray from the heart and not rely on stock phrases. We must not pray on automatic pilot.
The Lord’s Prayer is not some form of incantation to attract God’s attention, but rather is a pattern to suggest the various elements that should be included when we pray.
OUR FATHER: we are God’s children, praying to a father who could not love us more than he does.
WHO ART IN HEAVEN: this is a reminder that God is sovereign, majestic, omnipotent. Nothing is too difficult for him. He is bigger than any problem we could bring and we must concentrate on his ability and not on our lack of worth.
HALLOWED BE THY NAME: we must not let our prayers become wish lists for Santa Claus. When we pray we must praise God for who and what he is .
THY KINGDOM COME THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN: we must submit our will to God’s, put his will first in our lives
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD: we should lay out all our concerns - if God was in the Yellow Pages, he would carry the slogan “No job too big, no job too small”.
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US: we must be sure that we are not an obstacle to God’s power flowing through us. We must confess our sins, acknowledge our shortcomings and live with a forgiving attitude towards others.
LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION: we pray for protection from evil and the strength to resist temptation
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER AND THE GLORY: we end with more worship. We acknowledge that everything in heaven and on earth is God’s.
Before you begin a fitness programme down in the Sports Centre, have a word with a member of staff with knowledge and experience in such matters. In some gyms you will see grotesquely over-developed biceps, bulging deltoids, rippling triceps on creatures incapable of running two laps around the track. On the track you may well catch sight of a runner effortlessly gliding around, but when he gets home, it’s his wife who has to open the sauce bottle.
To be effective pray-ers, we need a programme, we need balance, we need structure. The acronym, ACTS, might help us to go about prayer in a structured way.
A - We begin with adoration or worship. This sets the tone for the whole prayer. It reminds us of who we are talking to.
C - Confession. We acknowledge our shortcomings. We must not treat our sins like so much dirty washing to be thrown in a pile and then ask God to forgive the whole smelly lot! It’s not too difficult to lump all my sins together, to confess them en masse, it’s not too embarrassing. It’s a bit more difficult to name them one by one. No pain, no gain!
T - Thanksgiving. Remember that feeling grateful is not the same as giving thanks. In Luke’s gospel we read the story of the ten lepers whom Christ cured. They all felt grateful, but only one came back and thanked Jesus. We have so much to be thankful for: blessings in our spiritual life, in our material life and in our relational life.
S - Supplication, in other words “Asking”. We can categorise our requests. For example, family, other people, personal requests.
It can be rather embarrassing to be asked what you would like as a present when you are not too sure whether what you really want is within the budget of the person making the offer. There is no such problem when we make requests of our heavenly Father. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells us: “I tell you the truth , if you have faith and do not doubt .... you can say to these mountains, “Go, throw yourself in the sea” and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer”.
Everyone has a mountain. It may be a Ben Nevis, it may be an Everest, but no matter how great our problem, we should focus on the mountain mover and not the mountain.
But then there's the mystery, the agony of unanswered prayer. Sometimes our prayers are not answered, or so it seems.
It may be that the request is wrong and that God says NO. Does our request fit in with God’s wishes? Just before he died, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemine. His human nature was terrified by what lay in store for him, but he prayed: “Father, not my will, but thy will be done.”
In the gospels there are examples where Jesus rejected requests made by his disciples when he considered them inappropriate. Some of our requests may be self-serving, materialistic, short-sighted, immature. If the disciples were capable of this, so are you and I!
When apparently valid requests are not answered, we must trust God and not treat him as some sort of vending machine to be kicked and shaken when no jackpot is forthcoming.
When prayers are not answered, there may be a problem which we can address. We must beware of the attitude “When all else fails, pray”. We should pray regularly, earnestly, persistently. We must remember that unconfessed sins cut off communication with God. Unresolved relational conflicts can prevent prayers being answered.
We must slow down and make time for God in our lives. We must work at our relationship with him. We must allocate time for meditation and reflection. Unhurried, uninterrupted time. Like any married couple who wish their marriage to succeed, we must spend quality time with God.
If you want to see your headmaster, you have to see his secretary to make sure that he is free: he’s a busy man; he has to meet with the Bursar, the Deputy Head the Director of Studies, the Academic Registrar, Year Heads, Heads of Department, Heads of School, all essential for the smooth running of this little world of ours that we know as school. And yet the God of the Universe is available to us without an appointment, at any time. But when you speak to him, don’t forget to listen. Prayer is a two way process. God will lead you, nudge you in the direction he wishes you to go.
When school leavers take a Gap Year, go to India, Nepal or Kenya, they often do so with the ideology so admirable in youth and so often deficient in those with grey hair. They intend helping underprivileged youngsters, making a difference to their lives. Most often they come back with the realisation that the lives of those they encountered will be much the same after their return as it was before they left. However, they themselves have experienced something they will never forget, something that will mark them for the rest of their lives. Close encounters of the spiritual kind have much in common with this. We may hope to persuade God to change his plans for us, but the product of sincere prayer will be an acceptance of God’s will for us. We will be changed. God remains ever constant.
Awareness of God’s presence comes as a result of taking time to speak and listen to him through prayer and the powerful effect of prayer is unleashed in the lives of those who have spent time in God’s presence. No matter what, God will always be there for us.
