Distractions

In an OCDS group I was in recently the eternal question of distractions came up.  One of the members reported a lovely expression she had heard in a talk.  When we are distracted during silent prayer or liturgical worship by extraneous thoughts of family issues or the news of the day or whatever is stressing us at the time, and then we come back to focus on God, we can say ‘Thank you Jesus, for bringing me back!’  Another helpful thought about distraction is to remember what Fr Matt Blake OCDS constantly stresses, to remember that what matters in the silence - more than what I am doing - is what God is doing.  To engage in silent or contemplative prayer is to tell God ‘This is your time!’ and if you do that, He will honour the offering and He will be pouring his graces into your heart and into your life, invisibly and imperceptibly perhaps, but really and truly.  To live by faith is to trust that He is working constantly in you no matter whether  you feel it or not. That is a fundamental truth stressed by John of the Cross.

Intercessions

RIP Chinaka, Jacqui

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Theresa K, Elena

Sophie – newborn having heart surgery; Sianna, young child in the post-operative phase; James, recovering from surgery

Ivy – sick child

Brian (recovering from Pneumonia)

Kevin (heart attack)

William Gove (in recovery)

Illness:  Katy Keeling, Noreen

Siena, Elara – sick children

David OCDS – housebound

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Mark – brain infection

Michael, Kira – vulnerable youngsters

Defence of the unborn and the elderly