Today is Friday the 20 May in the seventh week of Ordinary Time.
The Dunedin Consort sings Mache dich, mein Herze, rein from
Bach’s St Matthew Passion: Mache dich, mein Herze, rein.
‘Make my heart pure.’ We tend not to think of ourselves, as pure,
just because the bad feelings in our own hearts – anger, spite, impatience –
are so plain to us. But what is a pure heart? It is a heart that is open
to God, that wants whatever God wants. I purify my heart whenever I ask God to
show me the way, whenever I surrender my will to God’s will. And
I can do that, now.
Today’s reading is from the letter of
James.
No one likes to think of themselves
as a grumbler, but most of us to do it from time to time. Grumbling is
what we tend to resort to when it's all we have left to do, when we feel
something is wrong but we're powerless to change it. What are the
situations you face where you have perhaps given up and resorted to grumbling?
James also talks here about
suffering, patience and endurance. Where might God be calling you to
patient endurance in your life? Is it in some of the same situations you
thought of before, where you have lost hope?
As you hear the reading again, listen
out for the encouragement that God is trying to give you through these
words. What is God trying to say to you?
Let your "Yes" be yes and
your "No" be no. Speak plainly and simply, honestly and openly,
says James. And you can do the same with God, who is listening to you
now. Speak to him honestly now, as one friend speaks to another, about
whatever this prayer time has stirred in you.
