{"id":425,"date":"2014-03-31T11:46:01","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T11:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=425"},"modified":"2016-02-23T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T15:49:03","slug":"walking-the-road-of-reconciliation-4th-sunday-of-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/walking-the-road-of-reconciliation-4th-sunday-of-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking the Road of Reconciliation – 4th Sunday of Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored (John 9:7)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Song Open My Eyes (Jesse Manibusan)<\/strong>
All sing:<\/strong> Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see your face
Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see.<\/p>\n

A Thought<\/strong>
I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon. I am one who is looked upon by the Lord. I always felt my motto, Miserando atque Eligendo (by Having Mercy and By Choosing Him), was very true for me. (Pope Francis)<\/p>\n

Reflection Five \u2013 Two Mirrors taken from\u00a0100 Wisdom Stories from Around the World \u2013 Margaret Silf <\/strong>(2003 Lion Publishing)<\/em>
Satan always takes great delight in creating confusion. To help him do this better, he once had a special kind of mirror made. This mirror shrank the reflections of all the good and beautiful things in the world, and it enlarged all the bad and ugly things.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Satan took great pleasure in going round the earth, holding this mirror in front of people\u2019s eyes, until there was not a single land, or a single person, who had not seen this distorted view of the world. One day, Satan was laughing so much over the\u00a0 trouble this mirror had already caused that it slipped out of his hand and shattered into thousands and millions of tiny fragments. And a great storm blew up and carried these fragments to every corner of the world. Some of the fragments were as small as grains of sand. They lodged in people\u2019s eyes, and from them on, these poor people could only see the bad things in the world. The good things shrank until they were almost invisible. Other fragments were gathered up, over the years, and made into glasses, they could never see anything in its proper perspective again. God was very sad when he saw how damaged people\u2019s vision had become, and how so many of them could only see the bad things around them, and had lost sight of all that was good and beautiful. He had an idea for putting everything right again. \u2018I know what I will do,\u2019 he thought to himself. \u2018My Son is the image o me, he is my true reflection. I will send him into the world. He will reflect my goodness and my justice, and show the world how I long for it to be.\u2019 So Jesus became a mirror for God\u2019s people. He reflected God\u2019s goodness out to the world, even to thieves and frauds, and to those whom the world despised. He reflected courage and confidence into the hearts of the sick and despairing. He reflected comfort to those in grief, and trust to those whose hearts were crippled by fear. Many people recognized God\u2019s mirror, and followed Jesus. The loved and trusted him. But others were jealous, and felt their own power threatened by the love o God. In the end they could tolerate him no longer. They plotted against Jesus and killed him. They shattered God\u2019s mirror.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And a great storm blew up. It blew millions of fragments of God\u2019s mirror to every corner of the world, an it continues to do so today. These fragments lodge in the eyes of many, many people, and whenever this happens, they are able to see God\u2019s world again, just as Jesus saw it. The beauty and goodness of God\u2019s creation and God\u2019s people are the main thing they see, and then they realise that the bad and the ugly are only transient and can be overcome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Action
<\/strong>Each morning as you wash your face look into the mirror and pray the daily prayer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Daily Prayer<\/strong> I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon<\/p>\n

Song Amazing Grace (African American Spiritual)<\/strong>
All sing:<\/strong> Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I\u2019m found
Was blind, but now I see.<\/p>\n

\u2018Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.<\/p>\n

Prayer Let us pray,<\/strong>
God of insight and discernment,
Open my eyes to see your mercy.
Open my ears to hear your compassion.
Open my mouth to ask for forgiveness.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored (John 9:7) Song Open My Eyes (Jesse Manibusan) All sing: Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see your face Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see. A Thought I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feasts-celebrations","category-lenten-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}