THE HEALING OF A PARALYTIC (Mark 2:1), mozaic, 5th  century, St. Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravena, Italy.

1."He is blaspheming" : an accusation made here and repeated during the trial of Jesus (Mark 14: 60-64)

2. "Rise, pick up your mat and walk!" - a parallel to the resurection of Jesus: "He has been raised just as He said" (Matthew 28:6)"Christ has risen"!

3. A paralytic carried by four men in front of Jesus: a parallel to the church's basic identity:

a) Jesus is our head, our spose and our shepherd;

b) the baptismal pristhood, common to all the faithful, to all baptised Christians, both non-ordained and ordained. It is the church, the community of the baptised, which is "a chosen race, a royal pristhood, a holy nation, God's own people"(1 Peter 2:9);

c) the ordained pristhood in the church exists as a ministry of service in order to enable the church to be what it is called to be - a priestly people. If ordained priests are called to be holy, to be "men of God", it is fundamentally because of their baptismal priesthood rather than primarily because of their priestly ordination. The ordained pristhood should have a life of humble service to the priestly people of God. 

The Pope kisses the foot of an inmate at a juvenile detention centre in Rome as part of the Holy Thursday, 28.03.13.

 

 

 

READING THE PSALTER: CLOSING THE GAPS.

1. Closing the compassion gap (Psalm 72:4). Compassion causes us to become identified with those who are less fortunate than ourselves. You did love us when we were unlovely, unlovable, unloving. May we love others as You love us.

2. Closing the praise gap (72:19) We should not allow ourselves to get behind in our thanks to the Lord. Let us have a heart that continually overflow in praises to You, for You are worthy of all glory, honor, and worship.

3. Closing the performance gap - "flesh" and "heart" have failed me ( 73:26) We will be miserable failures if we put our trust in ourselves, but we will find an unfailing source of spiritual victory in You.

4. The veneration gap (74:7) - discrediting of sacred things, a disregarding of the holy things. Jesus is the Lord, we can do our part  in producing a rain of righteousness.

5. Closing the position gap (75:6-7) Lord has a plan for every life; anything He designs is challanging, adventuresome, and fascinating.  May we keep sensitive to Your guidance, so we can keep pace with Your timetable and Your blueprint for our lives.

6. The stewardship gap ( 76:11) May we hold the things of thid world with such a loose grasp that You can have what has been entrusted in us, just for the asking.

7. Closing the communication gap (77:12) We fail to bring the works of the Lord into our conversation - May we make an effort to bring each conversation to a spiritual reference, and make Christ the chief subject of talking