Scripture:
Reflection:
This meditation is based on today’s Word. “The One who comes from above (heaven) is above all….He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure.” (Jn. 3: 31, 33)
This is a meditation on the “world beyond our cell phones.” Yes, there is a world beyond our cell phones which is the greatest reality we have, which gives “the Spirit without measure,” and, which carries us into eternity. (You can stop right here, if that is enough to think about today!)
The other day I received a call from a friend who was in Machu Pichu, Peru. That was pretty amazing! It seems I’ve got the world in my phone. But, that is not quite true. The world that was confirmed within us at the Easter Rising of the Son of God is the world with which 1. we are accompanied, in which 2. we find the source of all wisdom and energy, and, 3. is through us and around us, whereby we find our meaning and direction, and our eternal destiny. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” (Jn. 3,36) We can call this meditation the daily “WIT” prayer, if you like. That all we do today is With Him, In Him and Through Him.
That prayer form is compliments of Fr. David Knight, a preacher and a teacher. I put no superlative adjectives in front of his roles, he would not approve.
Why is this prayer form so important? Things have not changed much from those days when the original missionary disciples were harassed by the temple police. Yes people get upset when the “true truth” of the Son of God is proclaimed. Did anyone hear anything of the reality of non-violence in Christ’s Passion and Death during Holy Week? And how we are to imitate Him in His Passion and Death?
Pope Francis is about to publish a new letter to the Catholic world addressing the “truths of Christ” around which we are to imitate Him in our words and deeds, to unite us and not divide us.
Let us see where the “WIT” prayer will take us today.
Remember the opening anthem of our Liturgy today, “O God, when you went forth before your people, marching with them and living among them, the earth trembled, heavens poured down rain.” May we find each other in that march today.
Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is the administrator at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Birmingham, Alabama.