Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
May 15 - June 8, 2020
Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.
Good pastoral care does not force help on another but leaves them in charge and with responsibility; it respects their autonomy and thus their human dignity, and it avoids collusion.
There is an attentiveness that sees another's situation, puts it under the microscope to observe the detail, and acts compassionately.
Because the cross is at the heart of our lives, we will be faced with, rather than protected from, pain and frustration.
Diaconal ministry includes making hope visible, not as abstract hope but as hope that is grounded in God, the fruit of a vibrant prayer life, and capable of interpretation and revelation in the world.
Prayer, then, is not primarily something I do in order to achieve something, but something I do because this is the sort of creature I am called to be: one who has an intuitive sense of the transcendent, a muffled but persistent sense of the presence of the holy.7
while it may be true that we pray when we are out and about in our daily lives, when we see a beautiful sunset or meet a situation of great need, there is a danger that the ad hoc aspect of this approach puts our prayer life at the mercy of what happens to us in daily life.
‘Holiness means living within the divine perspective. It comes from attention to God – on your knees in prayer; and it comes from obedience to God – on your feet in action.’
If we look closely at what Jesus said to Martha he does not comment upon the relative value of being active or contemplative, but upon the fact that she is distracted whilst Mary is focused.
We can be just as distracted sitting in silence as we can be in the kitchen since we may bring inner chaos to the sitting still; the substance of Martha's complaint to Jesus points us to the source of her distraction, she felt uncared for by Jesus and ignored by Mary.
That is perhaps one difference between the ministry of the deacon and the ministry of lay people: the deacon amongst other things is an innovator, a catalyst, a resource person, a pace-setter in ministry.
Part of the catechetical ministry of the deacon is to help people to pray, teaching not only by word but by helping those who are running into problems in their own prayer.
love consists not in the extent of our happiness but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything.
Today, at least in evangelical circles, we talk about ‘bringing Jesus into my life’ whereas the New Testament speaks of bringing us into Christ's life.
Brought into Christ's life, we are more than just conduits of God's love, we put our own imprint on it, so that in us people encounter not God's raw love but God's love expressed in us.
Whereas the world is always trying to make our wants into needs – advertising expresses this so blatantly – God in his love is in the business of turning our needs into wants.
One of the attributes selectors look for in candidates for ordination is sufficient maturity and stability to show that they are able to sustain the demanding role of a minister and to face change and pressure in a flexible and balanced way. Candidates should be people of integrity.
There is a basic link between our love for God and our manner of life and our attitudes: love leads us to discipline.
Love is the fount, not just the expression, of diaconal ministry.
Because love for another means that we do not take authority for that person's life, we cannot expect or require people to do or be as we would like. Far from controlling others, love always frees them.
the challenge remains here too: the challenge to avoid becoming the pastoral professional; the challenge is to try to be someone for others.
Love for God requires that we know and love ourselves so that we can be ourselves in ministry and not constantly projecting an image that we can't live up to. We can only lay down our lives if we have first owned them.
‘Remember and read over frequently the vows that you made to God at your ordination, and the charge that was then given you, and examine yourselves frequently whether you do observe these or not.’
When we know the pattern of God's ways, when that memory is part of us, then we can detect the patterns as they play out in new circumstances encountered in ministry.
We do not build our memory simply to be antiquarians or custodians of the past, although passing on the tradition is part of our vocation. Instead, we remember the past in order to be daring and creative in the present, and hopeful for the future.
We dream of resurrection yet when it comes we cling to things known and familiar, the boundaries they bring.
But if we are to be people of memory there has to be time to remember, if we are to be people with imagination there has to be time to dream with God.
In risking Sabbath we discover that life can be lived without the control that reduces us and leaves us fatigued.’
it is bringing memory, imagination and hope to bear on the suffering of the world in the sure knowledge that God is faithful and good.
Diaconal ministry that can keep hope alive, that is not overcome by the absoluteness of the present moment, is a powerful and subversive gift.
