Susanne Timpani's Blog, page 10

The rhythm of the Christian life

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Susanne Timpani (No.205)Mark 6:31-33 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

  'There are two dangers in life. First, there is the danger of a too constant activity. No one can work without rest; no one can live the Christian life unless he gives himself times with God. 
It may well be that the whole trouble in our lives is that we give God no opportunity to speak to us, because we do not know how to be still and to listen; we give God no time to recharge us with spiritual energy and strength, because there is no time when we wait upon him. 
Second, there is the danger of too much withdrawal. Devotion that does not issue in action is not real devotion. Prayer that does not issue in work is not real prayer. 
We must never seek the fellowship of God in order to avoid the fellowship of men but in order to fit ourselves better for it. 
The rhythm of the Christian life is the alternate meeting with God in the secret place and serving people in the marketplace.'  (William Barclay)

Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you.Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.









Susanne Timpani
Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

Reflection by Louise Crossley

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Louise Crossley (No.204)
Reading: Mark 9:38Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
‘One of us,’ an interesting phrase. We’re mere humans with mere human powers, so how can we possibly see who is and is not ‘one of us’? I’ve met church goers who listen to God music on the radio and pray before every meal who turned out to cheat, lie and scheme. On the other hand, I’ve met people who are rough looking and talking, but honest, trustworthy and want good things for others. One of my students once said: ‘no one is good or bad because we cannot see their heart’. I agree. We are not omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, God is. This Gospel passage reiterates that fact. We must not judge as we cannot see; we are not equipped to measure what constitutes good and bad. It’s not our job.One thing I am equipped for, however, is to appreciate the purity and goodness that true worship generates. I have friends from many religions who follow their faith truly and devotedly with respect for all religions.We have no place to judge others, but we are called to ask ourselves, 'am I against or for Jesus? 39  But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40  Whoever is not against us is for us.
Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you. Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.










Louise Crossley

Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

Pentecost Sunday

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Susanne Timpani (No.203)  


A mighty wind invades the world,So strong and free on beating wing:It is the Spirit of the LordFrom whom all truth and freedom spring.
The Spirit is a fountain clearFor ever leaping to the sky,Whose waters give unending life,Whose timeless source is never dry.
The Spirit comes in tounges of flame,With love and wisdom burning bright,The wind, the fountain and the fireCombine in this great feast of light.
O tranquil Spirit, bring us peace,With God the Father and the Son.We praise you, blessed Trinity,Unchanging, and forever One.

(Hymn from The Divine Office)
  Susanne Timpani 









Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you.Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.  Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

Reflection by Christine Coombe

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Daily Gospel with a prayerful heart.By Christine Coombe (No.202)
Reading: John 17:11b-19
 Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.  None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.


Here is a passage close-packed with truths so great that we can grasp only fragments of them.
Luther said, "This no creature can say with reference to God.”  Never did Jesus so vividly lay down His oneness with the Father.  Jesus is so one with Him that he exercises His very power and prerogatives.
We must always remember that God has chosen us and dedicated us for His special service.  That special service is that we should love and obey Him and should bring others to do the same.
And God has not left us to carry out that great task in our own strength. Out of His grace He fits us for our task.
Our response is to place our lives in His hands.
Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you. Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.












Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

Ponder Mother's Day

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Susanne Timpani (No.201)Adapted from Jane Borg (No.93)
The AnnunciationIn the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
 But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  Luke 1:26-29  
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38

Surely Mary, the mother of Jesus, holds the greatest honour amongst mothers? Mary responded to the invitation to bear Jesus by 'pondering.' This is a wonderful example for us.
Pondering implies a careful weighing of a problem or, often, prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter – reflection, meditation.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that little decisions don’t need our pondering.  Whatever we choose brings us closer to God or further away, and either brings others closer to God or further away. 
Regular ‘pondering’ facilitates the reshaping of our minds and hearts so we more readily conform to God's will. Romans 12:2
Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you.Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.   Susanne Timpani










Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

I still have many things to say

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Jane Borg (No.200)
Reading:  John 16:12-15  Jesus said to his disciples: "I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you to bear now. However, when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking of his own accord, but will say only what he has been told; and he will reveal to you the things to come. He will glorify me, since all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine."


How often do we listen to the Holy Spirit? That prompting we feel to say something or to do something kind to someone? That prompting to pray and to set time aside to seek God’s Word and His guidance in our lives?
It’s so easy for us to block out God’s Holy Spirit and to live life according to the messages we receive from the world – look after ourselves, strive to achieve for No 1 (me). But we are called to something more; we are offered so much more to assist us to live the life Jesus calls us to – His very own Spirit.
God gives us His Holy Spirit because He knows we can’t do it alone. God wants us to know truth – not the lies of the world, but the truth that is God. He wants us to know Him and His love for each of us, and God wants us to live in the hope of eternal life.
Every one of us is searching for this eternal life with God, whether we understand that or not. As St Augustine said: “Our hearts are restless O Lord until they rest in you”. The frustrating thing is that we can’t find God without God, so we need the Holy Spirit in our lives and we need to give the Holy Spirit permission to work in our lives.
How do we do this? Just ask and then come to God in prayer, not just in times of dedicated prayer but listen out for God’s voice; for the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks truth, and the truth sets us free.
Jane Borg







Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

I have loved you

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Susanne Timpani (No.199)
Reading: John 15:23-24I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.  


We are chosen for love. We are sent out into the world to love one another. Sometimes we live as if we were sent into the world to compete with one another, or to dispute with one another, or even to quarrel with one another.
But the Christian is to live in such a way that he shows what is meant by loving. It is here that Jesus makes another of his great claims.
If we ask Him, 'What right have you to demand that we love one another?' His answer is, 'No one can show greater love than to lay down his life for his friends--and I did that."
Many a person tells us to love each other, when their whole life is a demonstration that that is the last thing they do themselves. Jesus gave us a commandment which He had himself first fulfilled. 
(Adapted from William Barclay, Study Bible Series.)
Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you.Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.  









Susanne Timpani Read the Daily Gospel inbetween Reflections

Bear much fruit

 10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Malcolm Davies (No.198)
Reading: John 8:5-8
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Authentic Christianity is a life of growth in the grace of the Spirit, a deepening of the new life, a continuous rebirth, in which the exterior and superficial life of the false shallow self is discarded like an old snake skin.
The true Christian relationship with Jesus brings about transformation and the person is freed from selfishness and grows in love.
In the language of the mystics, we are called away from our self-centred shallow self, so that there may be only Jesus.
As a result, there is a deeper communion with Jesus and others and an ability to see beyond the struggles of the day or week and to be open to serving others.
To remain in communion with Jesus means to be in communion with his body on earth, the Church, and it is there we will receive the grace of perseverance and encouragement to prayer, reflection on the scriptures and service of the poor and marginalised.
God is not the creator who occasionally decides to love.
Love is the very nature of God and God is one who cannot not love!
Love is a decision on how we live and act. Let us be challenged this week to be energised by grace and to make a decision to love and care for someone in the way that God loves and cares for us.
Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you. Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.    Malcolm Davies












 Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections

ANZACS: They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read scripture with a prayerful heart.Repost 24/4/2015  The OdeThey shall grow not old,As we that are left grow old, 
Age shall not weary them, Nor the years condemn. 
At the going down of the sun, And in the morning 
We will remember them.
'The Ode comes from The Fallen, a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon (1869 – 1943) and was published in London at the Winnowing Fan: Poems of the Great War on 1914. The verse which became the League Ode was already used in association with commemoration services in Australia in 1921. 


The FallenWith proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,England mourns for her dead across the sea.Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,Fallen in the cause of the free.

No more tears

10 Minute Daily Retreat - Read the Word of God with a prayerful heart.By Susanne Timpani (No.197)
Reading:Revelation 21:3-4
  3  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, He will dwell[b] with them;
they will be his peoples,[c]
and God himself will be with them;[d]
4  he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

Have you ever shed tears over the experience of utter rejection? The devastation in relationship breakdown runs about as deep as it gets. Or perhaps the rejection is the loss of a dream, a goal we worked so desperately to achieve? 
Writers are encouraged to re-enter those experiences, examine them and from the depths, produce a story written from the heart.
Yet, it's not the pain readers want to experience. That's only part of the story. Whether Fact or Fiction, the power of a story is in victory over adversity. It's the power of love, the promise of hope, the moment when tears are wiped away.
No one can escape episodes of grief and pain. Today's reading tells us that God is with us in those moments, and that He promises to wipe away our tears.  
This is a sampler of the heavenly promise that one day there will be no more tears at all.


Read the scripture slowly.Reflect on its meaning for you. Listen for God's voice in the stillness. Pray for God's blessing upon you.











Susanne Timpani
Read the Daily Gospel in between Reflections