Bishop John’s Daily Reflection for Friday 27 March full scrip below.



Daily Reflections
Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
 
 
Intro
Thank you for tuning in on this Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent. I really look forward to my daily meeting with you, just so we can be together, feel close to each other and get through these days together as a Church. I enjoy leading you in prayer and sharing God’s word with you.  And I know many of you appreciate these posts from my little Oratory.  Especially in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  This is your daily visit to Him to tell Him about your joys and sorrows and ask Him to hear and answer your own particular prayers. So, let us pray:
 
Collect
O God, who have prepared fitting helps for us in our weakness, grant, we pray, that
we may receive their healing effects with joy and reflect them in a holy way of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
 
First reading ( Wisdom 2:1,12-22)
Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man and condemn him to a shameful death
 
The godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning: ‘Our life is short and dreary, nor is there any relief when man’s end comes, nor is anyone known who can give release from Hades. Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our breaches of the law and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing. He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a son of the Lord. Before us he stands, a reproof to our way of thinking, the very sight of him weighs our spirits down; his way of life is not like other men’s, the paths he treads are unfamiliar.  In his opinion we are counterfeit; he holds aloof from our doings as though from filth; he proclaims the final end of the virtuous as happy and boasts of having God for his father. Let us see if what he says is true, let us observe what kind of end he himself will have. If the virtuous man is God’s son, God will take his part and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put his endurance to the proof. Let us condemn him to a shameful death since he will be looked after – we have his word for it.’ This is the way they reason, but they are misled, their malice makes them blind. They do not know the hidden things of God, they have no hope that holiness will be rewarded, they can see no reward for blameless souls.
 
Responsorial Psalm ( Psalm 33(34):16,18,19-21,23)
R/: The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
 
The Lord turns his face against the wicked to destroy their remembrance from the
earth. They call and the Lord hears and rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted; those whose spirit is crushed he will save Many are the trials of the just man but from them all the Lord will rescue him.
 
He will keep guard over all his bones, not one of his bones shall be broken. The Lord
ransoms the souls of his servants. Those who hide in him shall not be condemned.
 
 
Gospel Acclamation ( Joel2:12-13)
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory! Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks 
come back to me with all your heart, for I am all tenderness and compassion. Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
 
Gospel ( John 7:1-2,10,25-30)
They would have arrested him, but his time had not yet come
 
Jesus stayed in Galilee; he could not stay in Judaea, because the Jews were out to kill him.  As the Jewish feast of Tabernacles drew near, after his brothers had left for the
festival, he went up as well, but quite privately, without drawing attention to himself. Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Isn’t this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have made up their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.’ Then, as Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out: ‘Yes you know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: no there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me.’ They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.
 
Reflection
In today’s Gospel we find Jesus forced to stay at home in Galilee for most of the time because things were becoming a bit panicked and unsafe in the City of Jerusalem.  Jesus liked being at home there in Galilee and found it a good place to pray.  As a child in his home in Nazareth in Galilee he liked praying with his family of Mary and Joseph.  When He was an adult he liked to go off for a walk before dawn and pray in a quiet place there.  Sometimes He would pray all night.   But he also liked the City of Jerusalem and going up to the Temple for the Feast which was like an essential spiritual service for Him.  So, He was creative and found a different way to be there that the usual way.  Even though He was self-isolating from the authorities He found a way to be there, one that allowed Him still to express God’s word quite freely and in a way that drew people to Him just as much.  I think today we can thank God for the internet and social media that allow us, even though confined to home, to be at the Feast of Holy Mass and the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Feasts online, and to express our faith, hope and love of God freely.  Let’s thank God for all our priests who have found new ways to reach out to us and may God bless their effort. 

 
Intercessions
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
 
For a speedy and safe end to the global pandemic of coronavirus.
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For our loved ones to be kept safe
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For the vulnerable and sick to be protected
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For our families and livelihoods to be secure
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For our medical, health and care workers to be brave and kind
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For our civic leaders and governments to lead us wisely
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For our priests, bishops and the Holy Father to be good fathers and pastors to us
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For those who have died to enter their home in Heaven
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
For our world to turn back to God in renewed faith and devotion
Lord in Your Mercy:  Hear our prayer
 
The Lord’s Prayer
 
Prayer over the People
Look upon your servants, O Lord, and in your goodness protect with heavenly
Assistance those who trust in your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.