Photo was taken yesterday at Aubane, near Millstreet, Co.Cork (Irl)

Peter Wills confidently jumps high in one of the slides that were part of the family fun day at Aubane yesterday. Thankfully for a change the weather obliged and beautiful sunshine made it a great day for everyone!

Thought on Monday – June – 25/06/2012

‘Notice that all of the great liturgical prayers of the churches end with the same phrase: “through Christ our Lord, Amen.” We do not pray to Christ; we pray through Christ. Or even more precisely, Christ prays through us. We are always and forever the conduits, the instruments, the tuning forks, the receiver stations. We slowly learn the right frequencies that pick up the signal of God.’ ~Richard Rohr

We often talk about praying to God or praying to Jesus. Somehow if we pray hard enough our prayer flies straight to Jesus and that’s all we have to do. But it is totally different to say that prayer is praying through Jesus or that Jesus prays through us. This is very comforting when we find prayer difficult or when our energy levels are low. Like a receiver, an instrument or a tuning fork, all we have to do is be open and let God work through us.

As a priest I often find the thought of giving or sharing a homily daunting. How can I adequately say what needs to be said. Just before I begin I always say a short quiet prayer that no one else notices but enough to give me the confidence to go: “Lord, it’s not me here but you, so over to you!” Somehow it works for me and reminds me that I am simply tuning into the signal and sharing it with others. We are also invited to tune in as best we can and let God do the rest.