Do you want to be well again?

Notes of meeting on 11 March 2014

John 5 v 21- 17

1 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos; 3 and under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed. 4 for at intervals the angel of the Lord came down into the pool, and the water was disturbed, and the first person to enter the water after this disturbance was cured of any ailment he suffered from. 5 One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, 6 and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in that condition for a long time, he said, 'Do you want to be well again?' 7 'Sir,' replied the sick man, 'I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.' 8 Jesus said, 'Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.' 9 The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath, 10 so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.' 11 He replied, 'But the man who cured me told me, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around." ' 12 They asked, 'Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around"? ' 13 The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared, as the place was crowded. 14 After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, 'Now you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.' 15 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. 16 It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus. 17 His answer to them was, 'My Father still goes on working, and I am at work, too.'

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Pope Francis: Fasting 'chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else' By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) March 10th, 2014 Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

"Rend your hearts, not your garments," Pope Francis said in regards to the Lenten season. The pope offered a homily before receiving and distributing ashes at an evening Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina. Focusing on a line from the prophet Joel, Pope Francis wished to remind others that Lent is meant to wake up Christians. The season is intended to help the faithful see that God can give them the strength to change their lives and their surroundings.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - During Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome, Pope Francis said that the Prophet Joel "reminds us that conversion can't be reduced to exterior forms or vague resolutions, but involves and transforms one's entire existence, starting with the center of the person, the conscience."

Conversion, the pope said, starts with recognizing that "we are creatures, that we are not God." Too many people today, he said, think they have power and "play at being God the creator."

Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving

Christians during Lent are called to use the three elements the Gospel recommends for spiritual growth: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. "In the face of so many wounds that hurt us and could lead to a hardness of heart, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of the boundless love of God, in order to experience his tenderness," the Pope said. Christians at this time are called to think of the needs of others, "interceding before God for the many situations of poverty and suffering" in the world. In regards to fasting, Pope Francis says that the purpose isn't just to follow the rules for Lenten fasting and abstinence. This could lead to self-satisfaction. "Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan, who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him," he said. Fasting should "exercise the heart" in order to recognize what is absolutely essential and to teach one how to share with others. "It is a sign of becoming aware of and taking responsibility for injustice and oppression, especially of the poor and the least, and is a sign of the trust we place in God and his providence." Almsgiving is a practice that should be common among all Christians, but especially during Lent, he said. Christians give concrete help and attention to those in need, asking nothing in return, as they recognize how much God has given them even though that they were not deserving. Almsgiving also helps free people from "the obsession of possession, from the fear of losing what they have and from the sadness of not sharing their well-being with others," the Pope said.

Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving

"Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy," the Pope said. The Ash Wednesday Mass began after a penitential procession from the nearby monastery of St Anselm. To a chanted litany of saints, the Pope walked behind Benedictines from St Anselm, Dominicans from Santa Sabina and cardinals who work in the Vatican.

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Lord Jesus as you healed the man at the Pool so you want to bring us healing.

You desire to heal us physically and spiritually.

Lord bring us your Mercy, your Love, Your Forgiveness, Your Peace.

Lord we also pray for all in the world who are in need of healing, physical and spiritual.

Lord bring to the world Your Mercy, Your Love, Your Forgiveness, Your Peace.

No one can be the slave of two masters

Notes from meeting on 25 February 2014

Matthew 6 v 24 - 34

24 'No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money. 25 'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing! 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? 27 Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life? 28 And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; 29 yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these. 30 Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith? 31 So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?" 32 It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. 33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God's saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well. 34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'

Come back to Yahweh

Notes from meeting on 11 February 2014

Genesis 9 v 8 - 17

8 God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons, 9 'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, 10 and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. 11 And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.' 12 'And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: 13 I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. 16 When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.' 17 'That', God told Noah, 'is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.'

Hosea 14 v 2-10

2 Israel, come back to Yahweh your God your guilt was the cause of your downfall. 3 Provide yourself with words and come back to Yahweh. Say to him, 'Take all guilt away and give us what is good, instead of bulls we will dedicate to you our lips. 4 Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say, "Our God!" to our own handiwork, for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.' 5 I shall cure them of their disloyalty, I shall love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned away from them. 6 I shall fall like dew on Israel, he will bloom like the lily and thrust out roots like the cedar of Lebanon; 7 he will put out new shoots, he will have the beauty of the olive tree and the fragrance of Lebanon. 8 They will come back to live in my shade; they will grow wheat again, they will make the vine flourish, their wine will be as famous as Lebanon's. 9 What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when I hear him and watch over him? I am like an evergreen cypress, you owe your fruitfulness to me. 10 Let the wise understand these words, let the intelligent grasp their meaning, for Yahweh's ways are straight and the upright will walk in them, but sinners will stumble.

My house will be called a house of prayer

Notes of meeting on 4 February 2014

Isaiah 56 v 6-8

6 As for foreigners who adhere to Yahweh to serve him, to love Yahweh's name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant:

7 these I shall lead to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

8 Lord Yahweh who gathers the exiles of Israel declares: There are others I shall gather besides those already gathered.