Text: Luke 5:1-11 (see below)
Today, the Church remembers John Horden, a missionary Bishop who served the Cree people in Canada during the nineteenth century. Born in England, Horden received a call from the Bishop of Rupert’s Land to serve as a schoolmaster in the town of Moose Factory. He was told that before he was to leave for Canada, he should marry so that his wife might assist with the teaching. While he was not thrilled by this appointment, he dutifully set about getting ready to sail for Canada. He found a young lady who also had a passion for the proclamation of the Gospel and she agreed to marry him.
The rest of Horden’s story is a remarkable adventure of faith. He and his growing family (five children) ministered to the Cree people of Canada. Horden translated the Bible, Prayer Book and hymnal into the Cree language. He was successfully learned the Cree speech in less than eight months from the time of his arrival and had no need of a translator. He was later elected a Bishop to the Church of Canada in 1872.
Every evangelist I have ever met has been a person of hope. When you are proclaiming the Good News of God, it’s hard not to be hopeful. Evangelists have an expectation that God is about to do something new and wonderful. Since I received such assuring comments yesterday about my reflection on prayer, I thought I would share with you some words again by Henri Nouwen on Prayer and Hope from his book With Open Hands.
Nouwen writes: “In the silence of prayer you can spread out your hands to embrace nature, God, and your fellow human beings. This acceptance means not only that you are ready to look at your own limitations, but that you expect the coming of something new. For this reason, every prayer is an expression of hope.
“When we live with hope we do not get tangled up with concerns for how are wishes will be fulfilled. So, too, our prayers are not directed toward the gift, but toward the one who give it. Our prayers might still contain just as many desires, but ultimately it is not a question of having a wish come true but of expressing an unlimited faith in the giver of all good things.
“In the prayer of hope, there are no guarantees asked, no conditions posed, and no proof demanded. You expect everything from the other without binding the other in any way. Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good. Hope includes an openness by which you wait for the promise to come through, even though you never know when, where, or how this might happen.
“This hope gives you a new freedom that allows you to look realistically at life without feeling dejected. This freedom is expressed through words of a student who wrote: ‘Hope means to keep living amid depression and to keep humming in the darkness. Hope is knowing that there is love, it is trust in tomorrow, it is falling asleep and waking again when the sun rises. In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land. In the eyes of another, it is to see that you are understood. As long as there is hope there will also be prayer. And you will be held in God’s hand.”
Love One Another – Brian
There are only six days left to the feast of Saint Thomas’ Day. How are those Christmas preparations coming?
Living Deeply
William Clemmons
Journeying more deeply into our deepest center and into the world around us pushes us into seeing more deeply into all of life. Not only are we forced to deal with the illusions of our false selves, but also of society.
The one who begins to live deeply as a contemplative begins to see things as they really are. We are called to deal with the illusions of ourselves, so we can enter into a loving dialogue with the world. We are called to embrace the world as we journey deeper and deeper into ourselves and God. We turn with a singleness of vision, to see God in each new situation, in every person, and every experience--seeing all those things in a truer perspective.
Source: Discovering the Depths
Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
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