O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water
Matthew 11:28 – 12:8 “Come to me, all you who are weary and overburdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain
and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry?
He entered the house of God,
and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—
which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.
Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
If you had known what these words mean,
‘I desire loyalty, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned the innocent.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
Following Jesus does not mean slavishly copying His life. It means making His choice of life your own starting from your own potential and in the place where you find yourself. It means living for the values for which Jesus lived and died.
What love is, You can learn from Jesus. He is the one who has loved most. He will teach you to put the centre of yourself outside. For no-one has greater love than the one who lays down his or her own life for friends He will also teach you to be unlimited space for others, invitation and openness:'
Come to me, all who are weary and over-burdened and I will give you rest.'
So be converted to love every day. Change all your energies, all your potential, into selfless gifts for the other person.
Then you yourself will be changed from within and through you
God's Kingdom will break into the world.
Keep Jesus Christ before your eyes. Don't hesitate to go anywhere He leads you; don't stay where you are, and don't look back, but look forward with eagerness to what lies ahead.
I will give you rest. I will cleanse you - I will fill you with new joy –
and establish you in a relationship with God that will give you new life –
here, and in the world to come.
A Reading from 'Rule for a New Brother',
by H. Van Der Looy on ‘Following Jesus’
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road. Though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me. And you will never leave me to face my struggles alone.
– Thomas Merton
God be the road on which you travel: God of the mountains on which you are tested and challenged; Christ be the light by which you travel: Christ the vision which informs and enlarges you; The Spirit inspire you as you travel; Spirit sharing stillness, leading you toward God’s heart. The Trinity, the Three, go with you as you travel: and may your journey begin, continue and end in Them