February 2025: Seeing Your Life Through The Lens of The Gospel
John Byrne osa
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The Presentation of the Lord
2 February 2025 • World Day for Consecrated Life
- What started out as an ordinary day turned out to be a day with a meeting Mary and Joseph would remember for a long time. Perhaps you too have had significant meetings on what you expected to be just an ordinary day?
- Simeon gave thanks because his eyes saw the salvation God had prepared. In what ways have you experienced God’s salvation in your life: an experience of being loved, or discovering a sense of purpose in life, or being touched by the wonders of creation? Give thanks for those memories.
- Simeon also acknowledged that not all would accept the light that would shine through Jesus, and this rejection would be a cause of pain to Mary. It can be a source of pain to parents, teachers, church ministers, and all who work for others when some reject values, projects, advice which would be for their good. Perhaps a sword has sometimes pierced your soul as well. What has helped you to maintain hope in such times?
- Even within ourselves we can be aware of division, at times being open to the light of God and at other times resisting it. Have you known the pain of that struggle? What has helped you to keep seeking the light of God in your life?
- The final sentence speaks of Jesus as one who grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom. What has helped you to grow in wisdom? Have you seen others grow in wisdom through the experience of life? Recall times when you had a sense of growing up in some way. What brought that about? Think also of how you have seen growth in another person.
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
9 February 2025
- Jesus invites Peter to put out the net again, and Peter does so though he thinks it pointless. When have you felt it was pointless to stick with a task, but did so nonetheless and been surprised by results? We never know when our efforts are going to bear fruit.
- ‘Push out into the deep’ The invitation is to go out into unfamiliar waters, where we are not sure what will happen, where we feel uneasy, and our safety is not assured. When have you responded positively to that kind of an invitation and got positive results you did not expect?
- The story gives us a glimpse of what prepared the disciples to follow Jesus. They were helped by the compassion and concern of Jesus (cured Peter’s mother-in-law); attracted by his work and teaching; and witnessed the power of God at work through him. This led them to ‘leave everything and follow him’. Who, or what, influenced you in making key decisions in your life? Who was Jesus for you in those situations?
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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
16 February 2025
- We are told that Jesus ‘fixed his eyes on the disciples’ before speaking. It suggests that he was about to say something that he really wanted them to take in. Surprisingly he then tells them it is no bad thing for us to be poor or hungry. But perhaps you have recognised the truth in what St. Augustine said: ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’
- ‘Blessed are you who weep’ is not an encouragement to be miserable. Rather it is an affirmation of the importance of loving relationships in life. We are blessed to have such people in our lives, but there may also be pain. Yet is it not true that the blessing of loving and being loved is worth the price you pay?
- Jesus said that his followers would be open to opposition and ridicule because of him, – and they are blessed when this happens. Unpleasant it may, but have you not been grateful on those occasions when you had the courage to stand by something that you believed in?
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Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
23 February 2025
- Our natural tendency when attacked is self-protection and when we are attacked, we attack back. We respond to an angry word with another, or to a blow by hitting back. Here Jesus suggests that at times there may be another way to act. What has been your experience of retaliation? Has it been life-giving? Have you experience of another way of acting?
- When we do good to another, it can sometimes be in return for what we have received. At other times it can be done in the hope of getting something back. Or we may do it simply for the sake of doing good without any strings attached. Jesus suggests that this is when we are at our best. Recall your experience of these different ways of giving and celebrate the occasions when you gave without expectation of return.
- Jesus proposes the generosity of God as a model for our generosity. Jesus himself, in word and deed, witnessed to that kind of generosity even when he met with ingratitude or opposition. It cost him his life because the mighty of the world would not tolerate it. Yet he was sustained by his belief that he was doing the Father’s will. What convictions support you in your efforts to show compassion to others?
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