+The words of the first reading this morning are especially appropriate as the Regional Meeting comes to a close. St Paul saying: We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ..for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the holy ones.” The faith and love our superiors have shown to those they serve is an encouragement for all of us.
Their grappling with the difficult issues in their communities is not unlike the cure of Simon’s mother-in-law about whom we just heard in our gospel. One of the abbesses told me of how helpful it has been to grapple with the difficult pastoral issues in their communities, even though there are no easy answers. Just knowing the most urgent issues to be faced is not easy to come by but of one thing we can be sure of, is that Christ is right in the middle of it all if our faith will allow him to be present and active. Healing can go on all day long, as often as we invoke his loving presence. Anyone of us can manifest this loving presence as often as we let ourselves become what we celebrate at this altar as St Augustine has invited us to do.
Col 1:1-8; Luke 4:38-44.