SAINT AUGUSTINE'S, GRAHAME PARK
  • ABOUT US
    • Identity Statement >
      • Mission through the Eucharist
      • Sant Augustine of Canterbury - Legacy
      • Serving the Catholicity of Church - A Compassionate Mission
    • A Brief History of the Estate
    • Resources for our DCC members
    • Our personal data policy
    • Contact us
    • Financial Support
  • WHAT'S ON
    • This week's services and newspaper
    • Sunday School and Mass For Children
    • LIVE STREAM - Services/Prayers
    • Our Youtube and Facebook Channels
    • Our Social Media Notice Board
  • DONATIONS
  • SPIRITUALITY
    • PASTORAL CARE >
      • Visiting the sick
      • Weddings/ Reading of Banns
      • Funerals, bereavement
      • Baptism
      • Monastery Without Walls - Join Us
      • Confessions (Reconciliation)
    • Daily Online Old Testament study with Rabbi Gordon
    • Daily Online Bible Study
    • Daily meditations on the readings of the Mass
    • Sermons
    • The Rule of Saint Benedict in the life of our community
    • A Selection of Prayers
    • A Short Catechism - Christian faith
    • How to pray the ROSARY
    • Media Resources
    • 'Monastery Without Walls'
    • An Ignatian Spiritual Retreat
  • BLOG
  • GALLERY of our Events
    • Photo-meditations
    • For Children
    • Confirmation 2017 >
      • Confirmation and First Communion 2016
  • Hall Rental
  • YOUTHWORK
    • Art Workshops for children
    • Guitar Classes
  • our SOCIAL MEDIA
  • NURSERY

Our Biblical Blog /'Examined Life'

On the Feast of Apostles Peter and Paul (Acts 3:1-10; Galatians 1:11-20; John 21:15-19)

6/28/2020

0 Comments

 
Today’s three readings are related to the work of the two chief apostles of our faith. ‘Peter the Apostle, and Paul the teacher of the Gentiles, these have taught us your law, O Lord.’ What connects them is a strange twist hidden in these accounts. There is an unexpected ‘turn’ which is easily overlooked. What is it? 

The first miracle of Peter is healing a crippled beggar. ‘He was a cripple from birth, and they used to put him down every day near the Temble entrance called the Beautiful gate so that he could beg from the people going in.’ This first miracle of God, this first miracle of the Church born at Pentecost is this healing. Surely, there were other sick and crippled from prominent families -why this most insignificant beggar is signled out? Not the worthy, not the powerful, not the prayerful, not the rich, not the friens of the apostles. We are invited to contemplate this question… Perhaps, becaue this beggar did his humble task, asking for help, and bringing people’s attention to God’s mercy. Seemingly a menial and unnoticed job. Jesus rewards him with his special attention and gift. This answer is not given to those who excel in their profession, it is not given to the ‘best’. But God’s grace appreciates something in this person’s life. It tells a lot about how God sees people.

A further twist in this first reading is that it is Peter who makes this miracle, in the power of Jesus’ name. Again, not the worthiest of the apostles, not John, who never betrayed their master -but Peter who denied Jesus three times, when his support was most needed.
In our second reading the twist in the story is that Paul has never met Jesus. Neither had he contact with all the apostles. After his conversion, he ‘did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were already apostles before me’ but went to preach Christ to the Gentiles. ‘Even when after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days, I did not se any of the other apostles. I only say Jamws, the brother of the Lord, and I swear before God that what I have written is the literal truth.’ The twist in the story is not the lack of meeting, but despite this lack of physical contact and personal meeting, the profound bond with the other apostles. This bond is their love for their Master, and the connecting power of the Holy Spirit. They act for the same purpose: bringing Christ to the newly formed and emerging communities. Extending this bond, web of grace and love.
Also, it is striking that Paul knows that for this mission God has ‘specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb.’

Again, there is so much to celebrate and apply to our lives. Unworthy we may be, like Paul, God, for a reason, for something in us, has chosen us to be part of the bond of love which sustains our churches throughout generations, and throughout the whole globe. Again, while has God chosen us -‘beggars of grace?’

The Gospel reading just amplifies how God is chosing people. Peter, who would have been unworthy to be the chief apostle because of his past, is chosen. He is appointed to this task after unmasking his past unworthiness. ‘Peter, do you love me? Look after my sheep.’
‘Lord, you know everything;you know I love you.’ 

​What is this ‘everything’from our past, which makes us unworthy to join the mission of the Church, the mission of Peter and Paul? What has to be processed in our lives, and let go through Christ’s forgiveness? And why is it that God, so consistently, has been calling us to build up his Kingdom, the beauty and justice of that Kingdom of God, which is such a start contrast to shortcomings of this world? Why is God insisting upon meeting you, calling you, leading to a realisation that you have an important work for this Kingdom? 
What cold make us sit at the right place and right time, as in the beggar’s case, that we don’t miss that moment of reawakening – or that moment of reassurance?
 
29.06.2020
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    newmansermon4advent.docx
    File Size: 23 kb
    File Type: docx
    Download File

    newmansermon4advent.pdf
    File Size: 108 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    j_h_newman_advent_sermon1.pdf
    File Size: 107 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    j_h_newman_advent_sermon1.docx
    File Size: 23 kb
    File Type: docx
    Download File

    living_in_imagination_vs_real.docx
    File Size: 260 kb
    File Type: docx
    Download File

    living_in_imagination_vs_real.pdf
    File Size: 179 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    Support OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

    Soliloquy

    These are verbal Icons, expressions of how the world is seen from Saint Augustine's..

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • ABOUT US
    • Identity Statement >
      • Mission through the Eucharist
      • Sant Augustine of Canterbury - Legacy
      • Serving the Catholicity of Church - A Compassionate Mission
    • A Brief History of the Estate
    • Resources for our DCC members
    • Our personal data policy
    • Contact us
    • Financial Support
  • WHAT'S ON
    • This week's services and newspaper
    • Sunday School and Mass For Children
    • LIVE STREAM - Services/Prayers
    • Our Youtube and Facebook Channels
    • Our Social Media Notice Board
  • DONATIONS
  • SPIRITUALITY
    • PASTORAL CARE >
      • Visiting the sick
      • Weddings/ Reading of Banns
      • Funerals, bereavement
      • Baptism
      • Monastery Without Walls - Join Us
      • Confessions (Reconciliation)
    • Daily Online Old Testament study with Rabbi Gordon
    • Daily Online Bible Study
    • Daily meditations on the readings of the Mass
    • Sermons
    • The Rule of Saint Benedict in the life of our community
    • A Selection of Prayers
    • A Short Catechism - Christian faith
    • How to pray the ROSARY
    • Media Resources
    • 'Monastery Without Walls'
    • An Ignatian Spiritual Retreat
  • BLOG
  • GALLERY of our Events
    • Photo-meditations
    • For Children
    • Confirmation 2017 >
      • Confirmation and First Communion 2016
  • Hall Rental
  • YOUTHWORK
    • Art Workshops for children
    • Guitar Classes
  • our SOCIAL MEDIA
  • NURSERY