Prayer – Benedictine Monastery

August 1, 2020

Jesus comes home…to us!

Last Sunday, we had a strange Gospel reading. It told the story of Jesus’ return to his home town. You would have thought they would have been delighted, ‘Local boy makes good!’ and at first it seems they were, but then they turned on him. They had heard about his teaching and miracles and they wondered and questioned where he got his power. Right question! Well, the obvious answer was from God. Oh dear, that made them uncomfortable. How could someone that they knew well- why he was a local traddie, they knew his Mum…and all his rellies- reveal God to them? And they rejected him, closed their hearts to him.

What they did reveals something about how we humans want to do religion. We want God to be ‘special’ (which God is) but we can make God special by removing him from our ordinary daily life. We can do this by excessive religious practices that neglect the people around us. Or we can do it by leaving religion for the special occasions when we go to church, e.g. Christmas, First Communion. Is that what our Christian faith is about? With the coming of God in human flesh, God tells us very clearly, “I don’t want to be out there, something special. I want to be here, now, in the midst of your ordinary life, transforming from within.” In this coming week, imagine God coming to you as a local traddie to do some maintenance. He sees your situation and offers reassurance and advice – what could he say that you need?

Loving God, with the coming of Jesus you showed how much you want to be part of lives. Show me how I keep you remote from my life. Heal my heart of its fear and embarrassment and let me be open to your Spirit’s life and grace. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

July 29, 2020

“Sacramental Moments”

After the Russians sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space, Nikita Khrushchev claimed that though Gagarin had looked, he hadn’t seen God ‘up there’. Maybe that was because Khrushchev was expecting God in the wrong place – ‘up there’ not ‘here’ ‘now’ ‘in me’. In our lives there are moments when something greater shines through our physical and emotional world. Wonder, awe and love can overcome us at the birth of a child, the gesture of a grandchild, a tree or any of the myriad of things that can expand our mind, heart or vision. These are ‘sacramental moments’. The physical world becomes a doorway to the divine. As Catholics we treasure the physical so much that in our communal prayer, the Sacraments, we use the most basic things, water, bread, wine, oil, words, gestures, to convey the reality of God’s love.

So why aren’t we overwhelmed by the reality of God’s presence. We’ll maybe we are. Maybe we go through life like owls in the noonday sun, blinded by the light. Our ‘sacramental moments’ are when we notice a glimmer. Those moments we should treasure and ponder so that we can notice more often the God in whom we live move and have our being. We need to stop looking for God ‘out there’ and affirm the divine presence ‘here’ ‘now’ ‘in me’.

Loving God, in you we live, move and have our being. Send us your Spirit that we may relax into your presence and see you shining in the ordinary things of life. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 29, 2020

Missing the tap, but getting the point of prayer.

Earlier this week at home, I had to shift the car. I reversed it back into the shade and as I got out, realised I had just missed going over a tap. All the way into the house I prayed devoutly, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you!” Did this show a good trust in God, possibly, but possibly not? In the Gospel of Mark, which is being read at Sunday Mass this year, Jesus shows mixed feelings on people approaching him as a miracle worker. Yes, his amazing power does attract people’s attention but it can have a down side. We can expect God to be some form of servant, fixing up the problems we have in life. With such an attitude, we look to God to do our biding. Ouch! That’s hardly the basis for a relationship with a human being, let alone God. Where’s the respect? Where’s the love? So when we pray, it is not so much for escape from trouble and bother, but rather for the sense that God is with us in all the circumstances of life. To be devout, I would also have to thank God for being with me if I had run over the tap with all the expense, mess and inconvenience that would flow. (Still, to be honest, I’m still grateful the tap’s still there!)

Loving God, you desire to be with us in all the events of life. When your Spirit prompts us to pray, may we look to you as a friend and loving companion. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

July 29, 2020

Reminding ourselves who we are…and what is important.

This week we celebrated the horse race that ‘stops the nation’. Well, most of the country did. I didn’t and I have my reasons. But before you think I’m not really Australian, let’s say I have other ways of reminding myself of what I am as an Australian. I do realise though that celebrating the Melbourne Cup has less to do with the horse race and more to do with being a way we recognise who we are as a nation. It is something we do to remind ourselves of who we are. That is what rituals are for. They regularly focus our minds and hearts of what is important in case we can get too bogged down in necessities, crises and the sheer ordinary details of life.

We need ritual in other areas of life but most importantly in our relationship with God. Rarely will God push into our lives making a big splash. Rather, in respect and love, God waits for us to respond in love. We need ritual prayer to remind ourselves of this loving, waiting God. The ritual can be as profound as Sunday Eucharist or as simple as a prayer made as the cake goes into the over. Time honoured rituals are prayer at the beginning and end of each day, and before meals. As believers, it is a good idea to ask ourselves what do we do to remind ourselves that we are people of God.

Loving God, we so often get caught up in the business of life, forgetting that your love upholds our lives. Give us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may regularly remind ourselves that your care surrounds us at all times. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 29, 2020

Ritual and Community

I was in Africa recently and was struck by how integral dance was to their society. Dance wasn’t primarily for entertainment, nor for self-expression, nor for show – rather it was a ritual by which they made community. Whether an event was the opening of the Sunday Mass, the greeting of guests or a presentation of gifts, the celebration would begin with a small group dancing. The steps were usually simple with the rhythm inviting all the onlookers to join in at the very least by clapping in time. In a very real sense, we joined in the dance coming together as one community.

Ritual always had an important place in the practice of our Catholic faith – it is integral to the way we pray together as a community. Simple gestures done together, like standing or blessing, let others see that we are joined together in this faith. Simple things like water, wine, bread are used to reveal the presence of God in ways that are too deep for words. They may mean different things to different people at different times, but the simple symbolic rituals can hold us together as a community. Held together by ritual and symbols our differences, instead of being divisive, can be a source of richness.

Next time you are at Eucharist, ponder the simple rituals and symbols used and wonder how they bring you together, into communion, with the other people present.

Loving God, forming a community of love is often difficult. Send us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may appreciate the role ritual plays in holding us together in love in spite of our differences. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 24, 2020

Things I love about you!

This week we celebrated Valentine’s Day, which was also my parents’ wedding anniversary. They were married 50 years before Mum was widowed. I say it that way because she misses Dad very much, everyday. He is part of who she is. Both were strong personalities and they had an ‘interesting marriage’. Amongst the things they loved, they loved free and frank conversations – especially with each other, and often to the angst of us children. But that was their way of doing marriage and they loved it. The pretty pictures used to symbolise Valentine’s Day just don’t ring true with Mum and Dad’s relationship – it was far more real than those pictures. Being real, it was also messy, but in the midst of the messiness they knew there were things they loved and admired about each other and they let each other know what they were. I think that was part of their success, recognising and conveying what they loved in the other.

What is successful in marriage can also be successful in our relationship with God. Instead of just drifting in that relationship, each of us can consider what it is we love about God. We each have special things. And we can ask ourselves what it is that God loves about us. God had a unique glorious vision in mind when we were each created. Ask God what it is that is delightful about you.

Loving God, you created us in love and we are made to love. Send us your Spirit to guide our minds and hearts that we may discover and delight in what you have made in us. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 23, 2020

Remembrance and Ritual

Last week, we celebrated the Melbourne Cup. This week we have Remembrance Day. On both these days we have rituals that help us enter into the meaning of these events. Having lived in Melbourne for 18 years I can say that the Melbourne Cup is more than a horse race. It is one of the times that the serious city of Melbourne breaks out into exhilarating frivolity. Later this week we will honour our war dead by the solemn ritual of a minute’s silence. Only silence can hold together honour for the dead and the conviction that we must work for peace in their name.

Rituals are very important in helping us express and understand the movements of our heart. Our heads want stimulation but our hearts grow deeper through repetition. Routine signs of love can actually deepen our relationships if we do them attentively. As something is done over and over, the memory adds layer upon layer of significance. Our children delight in family rituals as they tell them who they are as a family. Many of your children will now be looking towards the things “we” do at Christmas.

For Catholics, ritual prayer is very important. God is so great and mysterious that we can only go deeper into our hearts little by little. Regular prayer helps us in our relationship with God. Ritual prayers, like night prayer, with your children are a wonderful way for you to help them grow in God’s love. Ritual prayer in our schools is central to our Catholic identity. But the greatest ritual of all is the Eucharist – the outstanding prayer where Jesus is present in our midst.

Loving Father, our hearts are so mysterious because they are made in your image. Send us your Spirit to appreciate the place of routine in our relationship with you and with each other. May Jesus our brother lead us into the ways of love. We ask this confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris

July 23, 2020

Feisty Prayer

When we think someone praying, the image that often comes to mind is of someone quietly communing with God. Funny, Jesus does not use such an image. Rather he says we should be like a belligerent annoying neighbour, or a feisty persistent widow. If he lived today, he could possibly tell us to be like a toddler in the supermarket who wants the chocolate biscuits he saw in aisle 3. Nothing is going to put that child off: he is persistence personified. In his behaviour, we see the other attitude we should bring to prayer. That annoying child looks to his mother as the one to give him what he wants/needs. Even if he doesn’t get those biscuits, even if he is thwarted, the child still trusts his parent.

Next time you have one of your children coming to you and annoying you for something, ask yourself: “What would it be like if I prayed like that? What would I be prepared to pray for in that way?” You would find that such prayer, in an adult, would come from the depths of your being. No sweet polite manners, no gentle words beating about the bush, rather you would move right in close, trusting God’s love enough to really pour out your needs and your wants. You would open your heart to God.

Loving God, send us your Spirit that we might pray like Jesus. May we be as trustful and as persistent as children. May we truly open our lives and our hearts to you and to your love. We ask this is Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 19, 2020

Ritual and Community

Next time you are at Eucharist, ponder the simple rituals and symbols used and wonder how they bring you together, into communion, with the other people present.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 19, 2020

Reminding our selves of who we are

Reminding ourselves who we are…and what is important.

This week we celebrate the horse race that ‘stops the nation’, one of the quirky ways we recognise who we are as Australian nation. Yes, it is odd. People, who normally have no interest in horse racing, stop, get together, dress up and have a sweep in which the winners usually get next to nothing as a prize but the one who has the ticket for the horse who came last shares in the ‘winnings’. In a broad sense that is this ritual by which we remind ourselves of who we are. It all sounds a little silly but actually it can be an important ritual. It focuses our minds and hearts of what is important in case we can get too bogged down in necessities, crises and the sheer ordinary details of life. Getting together with other people and having fun is central to the building up of a community, especially when we celebrate with people who are not necessarily our family or friends.

Sr Kym Harris osb