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Spiritual Reflection
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February 04, 2010 | | | |  | Spiritual Reflection for Fifth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
February 7, 2010
When was the last time God got your attention? Think back to the last time you found yourself almost speechless because you had come face-to-face with some manifestation of his love, his power, or his majesty. How did it happen? Did a passage from Scripture leap out at you and pierce your heart? Was it through the beauty of a spectacular sunrise? Was it in the birth of a baby?
In today's readings, we see three different ways God spoke to his people and changed them. In the Gospel, we see Jesus blowing Peter away through a large catch of fish (Luke 5:5-8). The first reading tells how Isaiah was cut to the heart by a vision of God's heavenly throne (Isaiah 6:1-4). And in the second reading, we hear how Paul received the gospel both through personal revelation and through the testimony of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). God speaks in so many different ways, but one thing is always the same: He wants to reveal himself to us.
On one level, the Bible is one big story of God revealing himself again and again to his people. It begins with Adam and Eve, and progresses through Noah and his family, to Abraham and Sarah, then on to David, the shepherd who became king, to Isaiah and the other prophets, then to a young woman named Mary. And it didn't stop when Jesus came into the world. The New Testament is filled with stories like Peter's and Paul's, Lydia's and John's, and so many others. And every one of them had a personal encounter with God that radically changed their lives.
With all this evidence, how can we doubt that Jesus wants to reveal himself to us? Even more importantly, how can we doubt that he wants to reveal himself to us today? At Mass today, or as you go through the day, keep your eyes and ears open. Jesus is everywhere. There is no place we cannot find him.
“Lord Jesus, what do you want to say to me today? How do you want to show yourself? Come, Lord, and open my heart that I may know your presence within me.”
(Excerpt from: The WORD Among Us) | | | | | |
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 Our Lady of Lourdes - In 1858, in a grotto, near Lourdes in southern France, Our Lady appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, a young peasant girl. She revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision, and told the girl to drink from a fountain in the grotto. When Bernadette dug at a spot designated by the apparition, a spring began to flow. The water from this still flowing spring has shown remarkable healing power, though it contains no curative property that science can identify. Lourdes has become the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. |
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