Prayer This Week
Reflection
Pray the Examen
at the end of the
day or at the end
of the week as
outlined in the
introduction leaflet.
”Christ is Risen
He is risen indeed!
We are baffled by the very Easter claim we voice.
Your new life fits none of our categories.
We wonder and stew and argue,
and add clarifying adjectives like “spiritual” and “physical.”
But we remain baffled, seeking clarity and explanation,
we who are prosperous, and full and safe and tenured.
We are baffled and want explanations.
Memorise the verse
from the Psalm on
the previous page
and carry it with
you as prayer.
Reflect on and pray
the prayer opposite.
What is it saying to
you?
Reflect on this
statement from
Rabbi Heschel,
“Faith is not an
insurance, but a
constant effort, a
constant listening to
the eternal voice.”
But there are those not baffled, but stunned by the news,
stunned while at minimum wage jobs;
stunned while the body wastes in cancer;
stunned while the fabric of life rots away in fatigue and despair;
stunned while unprosperous and unfull
and unsafe and untenured . . .
Waiting only for you in your Easter outfit,
waiting for you to say, “Fear not, it is I.”
Deliver us from our bafflement and our many explanations.
Push us over into stunned need and show yourself to us lively.
Easter us in honesty,
Easter us in fear;
Easter us in joy,
and let us be Eastered. Amen.”
Walter Brueggemann Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth
Thoughts to Journal and/or Pray
In an address at World Youth Day in 2013, Pope Francis stated:
“We need a Church able to dialogue with those disciples, who, having
left Jerusalem - their Church - behind, are wandering aimlessly, alone,
with their own disappointment, disillusioned by a Christianity now
considered barren, fruitless soil, incapable of generating meaning.”
What does that say to you?
When have you found God in an unexpected place or person?
Reflect on this insight from Margaret Silf: “God’s wisdom comes
quietly alongside us where we least expect it, and every road is a road
to Emmaus.”
Third Sunday of Easter
Cycle A
L
et him easter in us . . .
Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ
A Pilgrimage of Prayer for Easter Time
Lord, you will show us the path of life.
Acts 2:14, 22-33
“But we had hoped he was the one . . .”
Psalm 15
Luke24:13-35
Luke 24:21
A Prayer to Begin
Acts 2:14,22-33
Pause
For Reflection
Waken me, O Lord
Open my ryes to your glory
Open my ears to your story
Open my heart to your fire
Open my will to your desire.
Reading what comes before and after a scripture passage from
the Sunday lectionary can add to our understanding of the
context. Reading from the beginning of Acts 2 sets Peter’s
speech, which begins in 2:14, in the context of the coming of
the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Take a few moments to respond to the thoughts to ponder on
the left. You might like to journal these or reflect with a
favourite piece of music. Quietly pray the verse of the Psalm at
the top of the page.
On the road that escapes
Jerusalem and winds along
the ridge to Emmaus two
disillusioned youths drag
home their crucified dream.
Waken me, O Lord
To your risen power
To your presence
every hour
To your never-ending love
To your coming from above.
Waken me, O Lord
To your peace here today
To your meeting on the way
To your speaking in a friend
To your guiding to the end.
Waken me, O Lord,
to your glory.
David Adam
Landscapes of Light
The lectionary reading does not include verses 15 to 21, but
these verses add to appreciation of one of Luke’s concerns in
Acts; to highlight the continuity from Israel through to Jesus
and on through Peter and Paul.
Read Acts 2:1-36 through slowly two to three times.
What do you notice? What is it saying to you?
Some Thoughts to Ponder
Just as the first reading for last Sunday did, this reading also
begins after the experience of Pentecost. The ‘amazed and
perplexed’ crowd think that the disciples are drunk and ask
‘What does this mean?’ A once fearful Peter responds that the
disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit. He is inspired to
powerfully interpret the Hebrew scriptures in the light of the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter challenges the
people to respond to the presence of God in their lives
through the risen Jesus, poured out in the Holy Spirit.
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What do you particularly notice in this reading?
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Reflect on who we are as Church today. What is the Holy
Spirit calling us to?
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Pope Francis began a catechesis on the Holy Spirit in April,
he says: “The Holy Spirit is the soul, the lifeblood of the
Church and of every Christian: He is God’s love, who makes
our hearts his home and enters into communion with us.
The Holy Spirit is always with us, always in us, in our
hearts.” Reflect on what this means to you.
Luke 24:13-35
Scripture scholar, Brendan Byrne SJ, refers to Luke’s
account of the Walk to Emmaus as his masterpiece, ‘rich
in suspense, irony and play upon emotion, it offers a
paradigm of Christian life and mission.’ We might
wonder how it was possible that these two disillusioned
disciples walking away from Jerusalem where their hopes
had been shattered did not recognise Jesus. Perhaps they
had never seen who he really was. Jesus calls them ‘slow
of heart.’ As Jesus walks with them in their sadness, they
come to know Jesus for the first time. The biblical
understanding of the heart is where the intellect,
emotions and spirit converge in the deepest essence of
wholeness. A heart on fire lights the eyes and sight is
transformed. What we are able to ‘see’ depends on what
is going on in our own hearts. The disciple’s encounter
with the risen Jesus begins a new story of hope and
gives them the courage to return to join their
community in Jerusalem and proclaim that Jesus had
indeed risen and how they had recognised him in the
breaking of the bread.
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What does the text say?
What is God saying to me through this text?
What do I want to say to God about text?
What do I want to do based on my prayer?
They had smelled messiah
in the air and rose to the
scarred and ancient hope,
only to mourn what might
have been.
And now a sudden stranger
falls upon their loss with
excited words about
mustard seeds and
surprises hidden at the
heart of death and that evil
must be kissed upon the
lips and that every scream
is redeemed for it echoes in
the ear of God and do you
not understand what died
upon the cross was fear.
They protested their right
to despair but he said, ‘My
Father’s laughter fills the
silence of the tomb.’
Because they did not
understand, they offered
him food. And in the
breaking of the bread they
knew the impostor for who
he was, the arsonist of the
heart.
John Shea
The Hour of the Unexpected