Fr Peter Harris
number of people have mentioned to me that they had read the short “Point of View” piece that I wrote for the local newspaper this week about ‘listening’. One parishioner particularly commented that he had read it and it had a particular poignancy for him since his wife was in a care home with dementia and he had learnt through his frequent visits to her how important listening was – please do remember him and his wife in your prayers this week.
My reason for writing the piece was the calling of the Synod by Pope Francis and his desire that we listen attentively to the presence of the Holy Spirit. At all our Masses this weekend we will be handing out the Synod Prayer Card which has a prayer on it that has been used for many centuries and is thought to have been written by St Isidore of Seville around the year 600AD. Every session of the Second Vatican Council began with this prayer. I do ask you to take your copy home and particularly pray this prayer during the month of November when in our Parish we will have the chance of coming together in small groups to be listened to.
I read somewhere this week, “These gatherings are not meant to be debates but prayerful Spirit-guided sharing of our lived experiences that will lead to our offering solutions to the many issues facing the Church today. These are meant to be deep listening sessions where we are journeying together, walking the path that God is calling the Church to undertake for the third millennium.” I thought that was very well put. I also read another piece that struck me deeply: “The Spirit continues to guide us in our translating the Good News into different contexts, so that the words of Jesus continue to resound in the hearts of men and women in every age”.
That last writer noted that they had always like a quote from the composer Gustav Mahler, where he said: “…tradition is not the repository of ashes but the preservation of fire.” Now, there is something to think about as we pray this week!!