Exploring the Divine Presence in Human Life: A Reflection on the Incarnation, Summaries of Painting

Download Exploring the Divine Presence in Human Life: A Reflection on the Incarnation and more Summaries Painting in PDF only on Docsity! 1 ADDITIONAL PRAYERS (A) - BROTHER NICK HUTCHINSON For ready-reference purposes I have numbered each of the following prayers. I specify details if a prayer is from a particular source (whether one of my published prayers that I haven’t already sent you as part of the package of prayers used already on the coloured cards, or if a prayer is written by another author. E-1 Many picture-stories are given in the Bible, Father, that describe well your love for each of us. You moulded me from the clay of the earth Gen 2:7 and gave me life as you breathed the Holy Spirit into me. You knit me together in my mother’s womb, Ps 139:13; Wis 7:1 and I am your work of art, your masterpiece, Eph 2:10 made magnificently. Ps 139:14 You cast to the bottom of the sea Micah 7:19 the wrongs I have done, and no pit of mine is so deep (Corrie Ten Boom) that your love is not deeper still. I place my trust in your mercy and compassion because you love me tenderly and embrace me. cf Lk 15:20 I rejoice that nothing whatever can come between me and your love for me, Rom 8:39 and there on the palm of your hands my name is written. Is 49:16 Is it not remarkable for me to be able to say that you are very fond of me? I am not worthy, loving Father, but I thank you that you are always faithful, 1 Cor 1:9 exceeding by far anything that I might offer in return. (adapted from Nick’s July 2008 ‘Prayer in Prison’ – the original prayer is not complete at this time, but above is one of two extracts in this collection. This reads as a complete, distinct prayer) E-2 Anyone can, at any time, Lord Jesus, seek your forgiveness and be made whole. Anyone can, at any time, Lord, have a change of heart and become a ‘friend of God’. Lk 12:31; Jn 15:15; Jms 2:23. How encouraging, how affirming it is, how uplifting, good Lord, that you proclaim: “I call you friends”. Jn 15:15 2 In so many encounters in the Gospel, Lord, people found themselves captives no longer cf Lk 4:18 because you freed them from the effects of sin and death and sickness. I ask you to do the same for me and set me free Ps 119:32; Titus 2:14 from all that makes me less than fully human, from all that contradicts your love, from all that counters and diminishes the vision our Father has for me of being his work of art, his masterpiece, Eph 2:10 made magnificently! Ps 139:14 (adapted from Nick’s July 2008 ‘Prayer in Prison’ – the original prayer is not complete at this time, but above is one of two extracts in this collection. This reads as a complete, distinct prayer) ================================= E-3 COULD POSSIBLY GO WITH PRESENT PRAYER CARD, L.11 – rich young man Lord, you look on us with love and call us to do the same to those to whom you send us. Give us your vision and show us hw to bring your blessing to others through our gaze and our presence. Lead us to confirm for each person that you look on us all with great love. Bless us, Lord, this day and always. Amen. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC AND ALSO: Lord Jesus you treasure and hold a special place for each and every person, as though only that one individual exists. I rejoice that you accept me as I am, in the reality of my life this day. I rejoice, too, that though alone I need never feel lonely: I can grow in enjoying my own company and in appreciating, good Lord, 5 A bell had been placed there in the 14th Century but the theft of that bell by a pirate - which later led to him being shipwrecked there! – gave rise to Robert Southey’s poem, ‘The Inchcape Rock’. The Rock was infamous for many shipwrecks, culminating in 1804 with the loss of all 491 on board the warship, HMS York. Legislation was passed and exceptionally dangerous work took place finishing in 1810 on the building of a Lighthouse on The Bell Rock. The rock itself was under less than 12 feet of water for 20 hours a day. Initially the builders lived in a ship, moored a mile away. Then they built a beacon house on tall wooden struts where, for 20 hours a day, and often amidst howling winds and treacherous waters, they would live and eat and sleep. Often it must have been quite terrifying. With good reason The Bell Rock Lighthouse is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, and in the TV series of that title the faith of those who built the lighthouse at the very great risk of severe injury and loss of life came across clearly. Before and after work each day the architect, Robert Stevenson, prayed with his workforce, and I was very struck when they were shown to pray from a well-used psalm concerning the Presence of God: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell at the sea’s furthest end… even there you are with me…” Ps 139:9-10 Whenever I have prayed any psalm since that occasion bearing references to words like ‘rock’, ‘water’, ‘shelter’ and ‘light’ my mind has returned to reflect on the steadfast faith of those people in desperate circumstances. I think, too, of the heritage of faith and witness that has, in turn, been passed on to me. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC These men and boys may have prayed as I am doing now: bringing together phrases from different psalms (they came from a tradition of knowing the psalms by heart), bringing together into a ‘new’ prayer some themes from the psalms of ‘rock’ and ‘water’, 6 of ‘safety’ and ‘light’, of ‘refuge’ and ‘waves’…. In this ‘new’ prayer, ‘waves’ may be associated with nausea for someone who is ill. ‘rocks’ may be thought of as regards strength, and ‘water’ to whatever threatens an individual: Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC G-2B The waves of death rise about me; Ps 18:5 the torrents of destruction assail me, but God is my safety and glory, Ps 62:8 the rock of my strength. Take refuge in God, all you people. Trust him at all times. Pour out your hearts before him for God is our refuge. Lord, you stretch out your hand to the sea Ps 89:26-27 and I say to you: “You are my Father, My God, the rock who saves me!” Lord, you are my stronghold; Ps 94:22 my God, the rock where I take refuge. I love you, Lord, my strength, Ps 18:2-3 my rock, my fortress, my saviour. There you keep me safe in your tent; Ps 27:5 on a rock you set me safe. To you, O Lord, I call; Ps 28:1 my rock, hear me. Lord, you are the strength of your people, Ps 28:8 a fortress where your anointed ones find help. Be a rock of refuge for me, Ps 31:3-4 a mighty stronghold to save me. For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. In you alone, Lord, is my soul at rest; Ps 62:2-3 my help comes from you. Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; Ps 95:1-2 hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks. To him belongs the sea, for he made it. Ps 95:5 You, Lord, are my lamp, Ps 18:29 my God who lightens the darkness. The Lord is my light and my help; Ps 27:1 whom shall I fear? G-2C DESPITE WHAT IS HAPPENING, I CAN STILL ‘RING OUT MY JOY’ 7 Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC It would have been evocative to Stevenson’s men when they prayed the following words from the psalms, words about a ‘rock’, of ’ringing out’, of ‘lamp’ and ‘light’, of ‘darkness’ and ‘fear’: Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; Ps 95:1-2 hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks. To him belongs the sea, for he made it. Ps 95:5 You, Lord, are my lamp, Ps 18:29 my God who lightens the darkness. The Lord is my light and my help; Ps 27:1 whom shall I fear? ================================= G-3 “EARTH IS CRAMMED WITH HEAVEN” G-3A A wonderful few lines from Elizabeth Barrett Browning I often return to as they recall the encounter of Moses with God. It was in a bush that was on fire yet was not burning that Moses saw a sign of God’s Presence. God revealed himself to Moses, on whom there was such an effect that his face was so transfigured, so changed, so alight, that he needed to cover his face with a cloth so as not to dazzle or blind those people who came near him: such was the effect on Moses of being aware of God’s presence – yet the poet, here, wonders if others who saw the same bush would not be able to perceive what Moses saw and experienced: Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; and only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. Elizabeth Barrett Browning G-3B DO I PORTRAY THE PRESENCE OF GOD? We can think of Moses in whom the effect of your Presence, Father, from that encounter on the mountain-top, left his face shining so brilliantly that he had to wear a cloth, a veil, over his face so as to avoid dazzling those around him. 10 is your perfect way, Father, Col 2:9 of living as a human being. Yes, I have a lot to learn from him but it is all much greater than seeking to imitate him in the sense of setting out to try to be a ‘copy’ of him, as a photocopy is a copy of an original, or of someone trying to emulate the likes of a pop star or sports hero. Jesus is calling and beckoning, smiling and approaching, inviting and welcoming. I ask, Father, to be fully open to the workings of your Spirit in the remainder of my life: to be fully open to what you want of me. Amen. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC G-3F THE WORD-MADE-FLESH AND HIS CRUCIFIXION Crucifixion was intended to be a terrible, painful and slow death but paintings of that scene in the life of Jesus - although they depict torture – can inspire us, Father, by reminding us that you so loved our world Jn 3:16; cf Eph 2:4-9 that, in the fullness of time, Heb 1:1-2 you lavished your love upon us 1 Jn 3:1 by sending us Jesus, your Son. Such art prompts us to reflect, Father, that your love and his know no limits: cf 1 Jn 4:11 Jesus loved us to death - and beyond. He not only died for us; Rom 8:34 he rose from the dead and there at your right hand, Father, cf Lk 22:69 he is praying for us now: “he pleads for us,” Rom 8:34 and you never take back your gifts Rom 11:29 or revoke your choices. I thank you, Father, for your love and for the love of your Son and for the love I can have today in being empowered by your Spirit to live as the person you call me to be. Amen. 11 ======================================================== G-4 PROCESSION TO CALVARY G-4A Brueghel’s ‘Procession to Calvary’ can readily be accessed on the Internet. Amidst the ‘busy-ness’ of daily life, Jesus – and him carrying his cross of execution, at that – appears to be hidden, lost, whilst so much is going on around. Looking closely at the picture, undoubtedly as the artist intended, it is in the very centre of the picture that the Lord is detected: there at the heart, the centre, of daily life. It is a very powerful picture and very poignant for all that it conveys. It can be viewed on these webpages: www.navigo.com/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/calvary.jpg http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/bruegel1/p-brueg1-8.htm www.khm.at/data/page435/page435/Bruegel_Kreuztragung600.jpg G-4B In some paintings, the crucifixion is depicted amidst the earthiness of daily life. In my opinion this painting is not meant to convey either callousness of the crowd or disrespect on the part of people who bear looks and traits very similar to our own! Instead, I think the portrayal is to emphasise the wonder and magnificence and generosity of all that ‘Incarnation’ means: that God is among us as a fellow human being - and in many ways (as in Bruegel’s Procession to Calvary)) it is, quite deliberately, hard to distinguish him from others around him. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC G-4C Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “God is weak and powerless in the world, and that is exactly the way, the only way, in which he can be with us and help us… Only a suffering God can help.” “If Jesus Christ is not true God, 12 how could he help us? “If he is not true Man, How could he help us?” G-4D WE NEED TO ‘LOOK AND ‘REALLY SEE’ SO AS TO ENCOUNTER JESUS IN OUR MIDST Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569) in his ‘Procession to Calvary’ depicts the Crucifixion happening somewhere in the middle of rushed daily life as many people mill about their business and their amusements. The people know only too well that suffering abounds in their midst but, with so much frenetic activity, they are hardly likely to discover that the Son of God is in their midst. The artist makes it difficult for us to see where Jesus is in the painting - and that is done deliberately, I think, partly reflecting our need to ‘look’, before we ‘really see’ (before we perceive) what is in our midst. It is, perhaps, not a co-incidence, that it is on sketching a cross through the painting, dividing it into four equal rectangles, that there, in the precise centre of the painting (if we look carefully) we can see the almost horizontal cross being borne by Jesus. Yes, right here in our midst Jesus is to be found if only we will look, and if only our eyes are really open for us to see, for us to perceive. Burdened as Jesus is, his cross is almost horizontal. As regards Jesus himself, it is a matter of perception as to whether or not we can detect him and see the cross which he is carrying and recognise it for what it is, there at the centre of the painting. Indeed, in this painting it is the cross that we see before we perceive Jesus himself, perhaps pointing out to us that if we see a cross being carried 15 And, later, to the diminutive Zacchaeus, high up in the tree, Jesus proclaims: “Hurry, Zacchaeus! Lk 19:5 because I must stay with you today. This day salvation has come to your house.” And in the prayer that Jesus taught us, the Lord says: “Give us this day our daily bread” Mt 6:11 and adds “Do not worry about tomorrow: Mt 6:34 tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” To the Good Thief beside him on the cross Jesus promises: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Lk 23:43 May Jesus open my eyes, Father, and your Spirit enable me to appreciate that you call me today. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC G-6B REFLECTION John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) in his evocative hymn, ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’, ‘places us’ in situations of the Gospel. He mentions ‘beside the Syrian sea’ and ‘Galilee’ and the hills above; and in his poem, ‘The Chapel of the Hermits’, he wonders if life would have been so much better for him if only he had lived in the Holy Land two thousand years ago. And then he appreciates, Father, that Jesus your Son is, indeed, with us today in his fullness: It is in our world of today, in the here and now, that Jesus becomes flesh for us. In his poem, then, John Greenleaf Whittier writes: N.B. ‘Gennesaret’ is another name for the Sea of Galilee’ "I …. envy them Who touched his seamless garment's hem;… Mt 9:20 "Who saw the tears of love he wept Above the grave where Lazarus slept; Jn 11:43 And heard, amidst the shadows dim Of Olivet, his evening hymn. Mt 26:30 "How blessed the swineherd's low estate, Mk 5:1-20 The beggar crouching at the gate, Mk 10:46 16 The leper loathly and abhorred, Lk 17:20 Whose eyes of flesh beheld the Lord! "Oh, bear me thither! Let me look On Siloa's pool, and Kedron's brook; Jn 9:7; 18:1 Kneel at Gethsemane, and by Mt 26:36 Gennesaret walk before I die!… Mt 14:22-34 "Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more For olden time and holier shore; God's love and blessing, then and there, Are NOW and HERE and EVERYWHERE." Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC ==================================== G-7 THE GOSPEL TAKES SHAPE WITHIN ME G-7A Mother Teresa said: “I am a little pencil in the hands of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” G-7B These are words from a poem by Walt Whitman, ‘Song of Myself’: “I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God’s name.” G-7C Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting - a wayside sacrament.” 17 G-7D PRAYER – Nick Hutchinson – PRESENTLY = prayer card P.13 God our Father, until the time of the printing press, people copied the Gospel, writing it by hand. Slowly the Gospel took shape - both on the page and deep within themselves. I ask that the Gospel - the Good News of your love - may be written in me not with ink but with the Spirit of God. 2 Cor 3:3 Only then will I grow as a credible witness of the wealth of your love. Day by day, as the pages of my life turn over, remind me that you write my name on the palm of your hand. Is 49:16 I ask this prayer through Jesus, who is your Word, living amongst us. Amen. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC ‘Praying Each Day of the Year’; (Volume 3: September 22) Matthew James Publishing G-7E Being Christians, we are following not a set of rules, but we are following the Person of Jesus! To 5th Century Christians, St Augustine said: “Let us listen to the Gospel as if Jesus himself stood before us.” G-7F PRAYER Nicholas Hutchinson May the message of Christ Col 3:16 in all its richness always find a home in us - but we would be misguided if our reading of the scriptures was limited to gaining a ‘set of rules’ or even insights by which to live. Instead, what we seek 20 and can readily be myself, but it serves as a reminder to come to you in a genuine way, just as I am, with no pretence or insincerity that only build up walls of separation - whether with other people, or with you. Whenever I am anxious or afraid, Lord, Mt 6:34, Jn 14:1 or am not really myself, and “the doors of my room are closed”, Jn 20:19 do come through those doors and be with me and bring me your peace. Then, with courage and with the strength of your Spirit, those doors, too, will be opened. You told a friend to ask “Where is the room in which I can eat the Passover with my disciples?” Lk 22:11 My answer, Lord, is here: because I am keen that there always be room in my life for you. Lk 2:7 I open my door as I hear you calling me and knocking Rev 3:20 and I invite you to come in, knowing that you are ready to join me, side by side. As with any other guest in my home, Lord, I welcome you warmly, and I hear you say: “Make your home in me as I make mine in you.” Amen. Jn 15:4 Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC JESUS DWELLS IN ME, HERE, TODAY G-9C When Jesus says: “Make your home in me as I make mine in you” that wonderful invitation to ‘incarnation’ refers to me: to this person, this day, in this time, in this place. In this place, and at this time the Lord Jesus dwells IN ME… I wish to make my home in him as he makes his home in me. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC 21 G-9D Here we have some words of St Julian of Norwich (1342-1420) in which she reflects on Jesus choosing to make his home in us, and finding there that “we are his homeliest home”: “My good Lord opened my inward eye and showed me my soul in the depth of my heart. It was as big as an endless world and like a blessed kingdom. In the middle of it sits Our Lord Jesus, God and Man. He sits in the soul in silence and peace. and he shall never leave that place in the soul, forever. For we are his homeliest home and his dwelling place for ever.” ================================ G-10 THE SACRAMENT OF THE PRESENT MOMENT G-10A The focus on God’s presence and actions in the here-and-now is sometimes called ‘The Sacrament of the Present Moment’: William Blake calls it ‘the holiness of the minute particular’. God doesn’t wait for what we might think is a ‘perfect’ moment or what we might think are the ‘best’ circumstances: he does not wait until we think we might be ‘ready’ or ‘worthy’ for him. Instead he comes to us as we are, in the here-and- now, in the ordinariness and the mess of daily life. G-10B We perceive that God is ‘accessible’ to us all the time: but far more than that, he is with us and in us all the time. Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) writes: God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament. Evelyn Underhill G-10C The thought of ‘Incarnation’ – of God having chosen to become a full human being and being with us and experiencing what we do – can leave us with a very great sense of wonder. There are so many implications to God’s 22 choice! Another human being, with flesh like mine, going through similar circumstances, was the Son of God. He did not opt out from suffering but embraced people who were suffering, identifying fully with us, and he experiencing much suffering himself. G-10D Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC Here I am, good Lord, in a difficult time, and I know that you do not need words. My resting in your presence continues to be life-giving for me and I feel that, in order to pray, I would benefit from returning to a time when I had infinitely more energy and far greater awareness. Yet I know that my meeting with you is always NOW, and my prayer is NOW. There is no need, as Isaiah reminds us, to keep looking to the past; Instead it is always HERE AND NOW that I encounter you, and it is good that that is so. You love me and you speak to me in this moment. Your gift of yourself to me is here in the sacrament of the present moment: because it is always ‘here and now’ that you meet me, Lord. I come before you, Lord, just as I am or, rather, you are already with me and already you know how life is for me this day. I ask you to give me the fullness of your blessing. ======================================== G-11 EXAMPLE INFLUENCES GRAPHICS – PHOTO OF SCENTED FLOWERS – hyacinths G-11A Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote: Help me, Lord, to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by example 25 - my own peace. Do not be worried or upset; do not be afraid. I rejoice, Lord, that you have made your home in me and call me your friend. 2. Jesus said: Be healed; get up and walk; unbind him; your sins are forgiven; be clean; go in peace and be healed of your trouble. I rejoice, Lord, that you have made your home in me and call me your friend. 3. Jesus said: I do not call you servants; I call you friends. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. When two or three come together in my name, I will be there with you. I rejoice, Lord, that you have made your home in me and call me your friend. 4. Jesus said: Those who come to me will never be hungry or thirsty again. The life-giving water that I will give is the Holy Spirit. I will ask the Father, and he will give you the Holy Spirit: the ‘Helper’. I rejoice, Lord, that you have made your home in me and call me your friend. 5. Jesus said: I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit. I have come that you may have life, life in all its fullness. I rejoice, Lord, that you have made your home in me and call me your friend. 6. Jesus said: Those who believe in me will live, 26 even though they die. I will prepare a place for you where I am going. I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the Resurrection and the life. I rejoice, Lord, that you have made your home in me and call me your friend. 1 - Mt 11:28; Jn 14:27 2 - Mt 9:29; Jn 5:8; Jn 11:44 ; Mk 2:5; Mk 1:41, Mk 5:34 3 - Jn 15:15; Jn 13:34; Mt 18:20 4 - Jn 6:35; Jn 4:14; Jn 7:38; Jn 14:16 5 - Jn 15:5; Jn 10:10 6 - Jn 11:25; Jn 14:1-16 ======================================== G-13 YOUR WORD BECAME FLESH G-13A 4.54 How could I be closer than to be called your son or daughter, and to be invited to have that very warm relationship with you of father-and-son/daughter? In means much to me to be called your son, to be treated as your son. The fullness of your revelation, of course, came in Jesus, your Son: your Word made flesh. There I am using such an amazing and beautiful phrase that sometimes trips off my tongue but which is, amongst others, so profound in all that it conveys. Jesus, fully God and fully human, himself said: that ‘those who have seen him have seen you, Father’, and I rejoice in those very beautiful expressions of love that I read in the Letters of St John and elsewhere - and perhaps none more so than ’what we have seen 1 John 1:1 and have touched with our hands’. Yet it is because words escape us that, after many words in the scriptures of old, and many words through holy people, you made your word – your WORD – into flesh, living amongst us. 27 Yes, I rejoice in the fullness of humanity in Jesus, your Son – and I rejoice that a fellow human being walking down the streets of Nazareth was fully God as well as fully human. It was in the fullness of time that your Son took the same flesh and blood as mine and did what other human beings did. It is no wonder, then, in our prayer to him that the Lord Jesus understands the ups and downs of being human! We can contemplate, too, that if Jesus had not been God he could not have saved us, and if he had not been human we would have found it even more difficult to appreciate what it means to ‘be saved’ from all that makes us less than fully human. Jesus says that he no longer calls me his servant but his FRIEND. No longer do you or Jesus consider me your ‘servant’ but your FRIEND, and I am not so much a ‘worker’ of Jesus as a ‘friend’ of Jesus. cf. Lk 10:38-42 It means much to me that I can say, that I can proclaim, that I am your son, that Jesus is my brother, that I am called “God’s friend”, that your love for me doesn’t have boundaries, and a delightful and touching expression to use is this: to say that you are very fond of me. I thank you, Father, for the many consequences of your limitless love, and I rejoice that we are called to live our lives as a tale of friendship with you. In giving thanks for your many blessings, we are called to help others to grow in the Good News of your love, upholding the dignity of one another, since we are all brothers and sisters – and friends – of Jesus, your Son and our Brother. I pray that you continue to bless me, Father, and I rejoice, as I do so often, in so many blessings that you have given me. Nicholas Hutchinson, FSC ========================================