My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound
reverence. I ask you for pardon of my sins
and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.
My mother, Immaculate St Joseph, my father, Lord, my guardian
Angel, intercede for me. We get today a scene in the
Gospel which has a a double miracle and and it's it's a very
nice scene described by Saint Mark.
I think it's quite nice because it just gives us an impression
of how just intensely busy Jesus was in his public life.
There wasn't just one thing after another, but it was one
thing on top of another one thing as we see in today's
gospel, one thing within another.
So there's so much happening with her Lord.
And in today's in today's gospel, our Lord is on route to
Kafernam to heal the daughter of an official of the synagogue.
This, this man who Jairus who comes to Jesus and and falls at
his and falls at your feet, Lord, and, and, and begs you for
the cure of his daughter who's dying.
And so Jesus very kindly begins to head in the direction of
Caffernau. But en route, again, we're told
there's very deliberately, we're told by saying Mark, there's
people pressing all around him and pressing really means
pressing against him and grabbing him and very physical,
I suppose. But then there was this one
woman, of course, with a flux of blood, who comes along having
heard about Jesus, comes up behind him through the ground
very quietly and twitched his cloak.
Nothing more gets down versus gets down low between everybody
and and just twitch twitches the hem of of our Lords cloak
because she told herself if I can twitch even his clothes, I
shall be well again. She says of a great conviction.
Well, that's all I have to do and I will be well.
I know it. And and she was dead right.
The this bleeding which had been with her for 12 years dries up
instantly. She felt immediately that she
was cured and the strange thing she thought that would be it and
that she could just slip away having got her her miracle.
But Jesus turns round and the crowd stops, stops everything
and and as that question which leaves his his apostles
completely perplexed. Who touched my clothes?
Because I suppose in the last couple of minutes, dozens of
people have touched the glows of Jesus, dozens upon dozens
pressing against Jesus, manhandling you, Lord, I
suppose. And, and yet the of all these
people grabbing you and, and, and touching you, Jesus, only
one person really touched you. And that was this.
That was this woman. And so this is a great lesson to
us in our prayer in our prayer and error sacraments.
We know that all the sacraments is a is a physical touching of
our Lord in all the sacraments. The humanity of Jesus is working
and there involves some kind of touching.
It requires there's no sacrament with without physical presence.
This is why it's still, it's funny, it's still COVID is now
distant history, but people have still come up and they talk as
if they, they couldn't go to mass, they couldn't go to mass
physically. So they went to mass online.
And, and I have to tell them when look, if you're meeting a
friend and you say, well, I'll just, I'll just download a
photograph and, and, and talk to talk to the photograph.
Well, you're not being your friend.
There's no real presence with a friend.
You're just looking at a photograph.
And so going online to Mass is not going to Mass it.
During COVID, of course it was. It was allowed to be a
substitute, but nobody was ever saying that was Mass.
So I'm going to confuse people a bit.
Is there anything about the sacrament of the Mass?
We're touching our Lord. Our Lord wants to touch people
and and you, Jesus want people to touch you.
Now, when we say this touching, obviously we have the touching
in, in there's so the intimate, the most intimate touching of
all in, in, in the mass when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist
and he he comes into our very body and and he's there
physically present as long as the the Eucharistic species are
there. But you can also say that when
we're praying, we also have to touch Jesus in our prayer as we
are like now before you, Lord, in this time of prayer, but we
have to touch you. This woman touches our Lord, not
just you could say just physically with the the finger
touching the hem of his cloak, but she touches Jesus with her
faith because Jesus says to my daughter, your faith is your
torture to health. Go on peace and be free from
your complaint. So is the physical combined with
this interior disposition and and her beautiful faith that all
I that's all I have to do not and I would say not it wasn't a
magical kind of way. It's it was maybe I suppose
because of such awareness or such reverence for the real
presence of Jesus and such awareness of his goodness and
his power. And so it was not just the kind
of the physical act of touching that was part of it, but also
was interior her faith. And so you think of us now in in
our prayer when well, we're blessed to be physically in your
presence Jesus and almost touching.
But we will all touch you in a moment in the mass.
But then touching you in in this is a way that this woman touches
you in this faith that she has my daughter.
Your faith is restored to the hath going peace.
Do I twitch our Lord in my prayer?
Is he even in the just the common meaning of the word?
Is Jesus touched by our prayer? You know when you you find
somebody who says something very touching and it's just a
conversation you're touched by what they say.
Do I touch Jesus in my prayer? Because it would be very easy
for us to be here very much like those others who are.
You're visibly present, piling around you or piling on top of
you virtually. And you, none of them twitches
you, none is it twitch you because there's something just
in all of them that's lucky, and you might say that's lucky is
the personal touch. Never say anything to our Lord.
So I'll just grab him and, and, and and almost just, I don't
know, something deeply impersonal, but their, their
interaction with Jesus. There's in a sense, there's,
there's only a, you know, it's, it's kind of rare enough to see
people who approach Jesus in this very personal way, very
twitching way. You want to put it that way?
The Cyrophenician woman is a very good example.
So she comes up and she finds it very hard to get near you, Lord,
because the apostles are trying to fob her off.
But when she finally does, she begs, Jesus, drive the demon out
of her daughter and our Lord, almost feigning distance.
First let the children eat all they want, He told her.
It's not right for the to take the children's bread and toss it
to the dogs. Lord, she replied, even the dogs
under the table eat the children's crumbs.
Then he told her, for such a reply, you may go, the demon has
left your daughter for such a reply.
It touches our Lord, not just Cos it's kind of very clever.
It is kind of clever. This lady observes every day
relaxing children. The the children's crumbs fall
on the table and those who are not part of the family, the,
the, the Jewish race. In this case, they, they, they
do get the crumbs and and it's a beautiful reply and it's a
beautiful reply that twitches you, Lord.
And so it's got a very I think it's a very important question
for us because you know, there is a danger day in day out,
morning in morning out my prayer.
Yes, I was there. Lord, did I twitch you?
No. And please God not our Father
says, lose the fear of calling the Lord by his name, Jesus, and
tell him that you love him. They feel like very simple
thing, not Lord, but Jesus. And very simply Lord, I love you
Jesus, I love you on the scene. I love to see you in the gospel.
I wish I were like this woman in my prayer wheresoever like the
desire of Phineasian woman, even Jesus.
I'm sorry that my prayer at times is so distant actually
that I'm not there with you. I'm not engaged with you.
I'm not saying loving things to you.
And it's funny because you know our our father often does that,
you know, to to say loving things to him.
Don't be such a cold fish with Jesus, whatever, but with other
people. Don't be a cold fish with Jesus
in your prayer. And as was even less in our
Thanksgiving, but certainly now in our prayer.
You know, it's, I suppose, you know, we all have the experience
in, in, in conversing with people and somebody's warm and
somebody's cold and somebody's great affection for us and
somebody's no affection. They're choke and cheese and so
looking at our conversation now daily, how much how much warmth
is there just human warmth. Tell him that you love him, our
Father. You can see really from our
Father, our Father's prayer full of faith, but a full of real
warmth. Tell him that you love him
anyway. The journey continues and, and,
and you, Lord, get to the House of the siren, the, the official
of the synagogue in Caffernau. I remember all those people
keening outside, the keeners totally.
They're just paid to do it. There's nothing very sincere
about their keening. But you don't go in, you, you,
you, you get them all out of the house.
And you, you go in with, with the parents and with some of the
apostles. And taking the child by the
hand, he said to her, Talitha Kum, which means little girl, I
tell you to get up. The little girl got up at once
and began to walk about, for she was 12 years old.
There's two things here which immediately link up with what
we've just seen, and maybe that's the reason Mark puts them
together. One thing is she is as old as
the flux of blood that the woman we've just seen had.
I don't know if there's a significance in that kind of
suspect. There is.
You know, she's she's 12 years old and that woman had her
flexible blood for 12 years. But there's something more
important because this miracle also involves touching and that
is that you, Jesus took the child by the hand saying those
words don't need to call me. You take her by the hand.
Once again, there's no miracle without touching, but funny in
this case, of course this girl didn't ask.
She's dead. She's been dead for an hour or
whatever. And and so she, of course, she
didn't ask for anything. It was the father who asked.
The father begged and we're told by Saint Mark this synagogue
official came came up Gyrus by name seeing him fed on his feet
and pleaded with him earnestly. That's the way it puts it in the
Gospel Parakali Parakali, the Greek for intense pleading.
But that's not enough Paula much so not just intense bleeding
much intense pleading translated plead with him earnestly.
So it's kind of interesting that it's it's emphasised there that
he really prays this this man, he really prays for his beloved
12 year old daughter saying my little daughter's desperately
sick. Do come and lay your hands on
her to make her better and save her now.
And and at this stage, our Lord is nowhere near Caffernau.
When, when this this official comes and it's quite, a quite a
distance. And yet Jesus sets off to the
house. She's went with him and a large
crowd followed him. They were all pressing around
him. So think of this, this other
kind of aspect of our prayer. So in this twitching our Lord
that we see in the first part twitching him with a heartfelt
prayer, saying things from our heart, not being a cold fish
with Jesus, not being afraid to call him Jesus.
And here prayer, petition for others, intense prayer, again,
pleading earnestly. And we have to pray, pray for
things and for others, prayer petition and, and, and in a
certain way to really try to touch our Lord again, it's the
same thing trying to touch our Lord.
And because, you know, it's not automatic, I suppose you could
say that we're here, we pray. But again, unfortunately, just
like I suppose many people in a certain sense, I suppose it's
fair to say that many people didn't get, you could say they
weren't as successful as this gyrus or successful as the woman
with the flux of blood because they didn't know how to twitch
Jesus with their prayer for themselves or for others or for
something. They didn't know how to twitch
our Lord. And so it is a kind of no, it's
a kind of skill, but it's because it comes from love and
faith and our our Father encouraging his some of the
fellows to pray for cash that they needed in in the 1930s.
This is an advice to one of them is who writes to Melissa Manolo.
Make yourself like a child before the Tabernacle.
The first thing you sound like a child before the Tabernacle and
pray this prayer to Jesus with simplicity, confidence and
boldness and perseverance. And this is the prayer Lord, we
want for you 25,000 Besantas in cold, hard cash and that's the
prayer so very specific but and and they get it.
But our father saying look, because obviously this way he
prays before Jesus simple, confident, bold and persevering
like a child in front of Jesus, which is very nice and the
children, of course, get to Jesus.
So we want to be like, like, like children in front of, of
Jesus. We want to be demanding in the
way little children are demanding of their, their
parents or siblings. Give me this, you know, they,
they don't, they don't know the kind of good manners of
politeness in that sense. Give me this, I want this, my
little brother. When we revisit our aunt, I was
always very embarrassed by it. We'd arrive at the door, she'd
open the door. Auntie Mora, lovely lady.
Oh, there were tweedies was the first word he said tweedies and
the only word he said tweedies. And, and he got them.
He got his tweedies. Just a little child demanding.
That's what I want, tweedies. And so with our Lord being
demanding in our petition is a sign of piety.
This is from somebody rather, although it might seem at first
sign sight a sign of selfishness, it's just the
opposite. Since the prayer petition
requires complete abandonment to God's will.
When we sense we are children without any resources, how
natural it is to turn to God and ask him for grace, help, and
forgiveness. Been demanding.
We just said it in the Psalm 2 posture Edmund Dabo di pigente
Sarita tum tum a possessing tomb.
Terry Mino's Terry ask of me you are my son begins over that.
Of course you are my child ask of me and I will give you the
peoples that there as as your inheritance and as your
possession. I will give you the ends of the
earth but but to begin postulate, I may ask me and so
we're supposed to do that ask Jesus if I'm not mistaken, this
Spanish word pedigueno pedirist. I ask you word pedigueno.
There are Father used be very pedigueno in your prayer ask a
lot in your prayer and for all kinds of things asking or we
need the we need the 25 percent, 25,000 percentas we need this.
I need that something in my health.
Lord, I want this my throat today, same place.
I don't know if you're hoping for a blessing, but but wouldn't
you do I want my throat. I want my throat healed.
So we ask for things with this complete abandonment to God's
will. But I, you know, there, I
suppose in a sense there might be a little bit of a danger of
phoning away from asking for things beyond.
I never get them for Lord never grants me my petitions.
But you know, whatever it is that we, we, we might be a bit
bit like that, that, that we, we kind of, yeah, we pray, we, we
come to do our prayer and this kind of thing.
But I actually don't ask Jesus very much for things, certainly
not very specific things. Little little miracles really,
that I don't ask for them. That would be a great pity.
And I suppose ultimately we pick our pity because gonna be a sign
that we're we're no longer, you know, see ourselves with little
children before God and that we ask, we say, Lord, I want this
knowing, of course, that if I don't get it is because I get
something else and probably something that's better.
That's the only reason I don't get it if I ask with
perseverance or or else I'm not asking.
We're perseverance. Sorry, in in in in a kind of
pious way. But otherwise, you know, you can
imagine you'd order. Well, you just ask knock and the
door should be open to your knock.
Ask and there's so much to ask for, for for ourselves, let
alone others again, even just the most kind of kind of
material things. I want it like this.
I need that and, and what if it's good for me and, and our
Lord will give it to me? Now with this, of course, our
prayer petition for others is very, very important.
Pope Francis in Gaudet de Exultate is a very interesting
little passage which says in reality our prayer will be all
the more pleasing to God and more effective for our growth
and holiness if through intercession, we attempt to
practise the twofold commandment that Jesus left us.
Intercessory prayer is an expression of our fraternal
concern for others. Very interesting.
Do I care about others? OK, The litmus, litmus test is
do I pray for them? And that is, that's kind of
that's, that's it. Do I remember people, you know,
people's petitions saying things that they ask for me, but then
even things that I'm not asked, do I do I find myself praying
for them? The very thing is very
important. We have to pray for ourselves,
but we also have to pray for others.
And this is the expression of our fraternal concern for the
others. And it goes on since we are able
to embrace their lives, their deepest troubles and their
loftiest dreams. And and and today's gospel is
very beautiful Gyrus you know that he doesn't ask anything for
himself, but it's it's very nice that Mark is saying it's not
it's not wrong that you ask for things for yourself like the the
woman with the flux of blood 12 years with that flux.
But in Jarvis's case, of course, the the child is dying and he
couldn't care about anything else.
This is the only thing that matters the only thing his
daughter pleading earnestly moving our Lord's heart with his
love for her. But like those four men who
carry the paralytic on the the stretcher, you know, their,
their, their love, seeing their faith.
We, we, we, it says in the gospel.
But imagine that you Jesus seen their faith, seen their love
also that that that led them to bring Jesus to bring the this
man before Jesus. No, no, not, not, not so
concerned about themselves. Just this man very nice.
So this is also a big part of our prayer, embracing the lives
of of these of others. There, there, there.
Embrace their deepest troubles, their loftiest dreams.
Only those who commit themselves generously to intercessory,
intercessory prayer, only to them can we apply the words of
Scripture. This is a man who loves the
brethren and prays much for the people from the book of
Maccabees, which we use actually, I think in the common
for pastors, a very different translation.
But the man who, who's prays much for people, always
interceding, praying for others and, and, and perhaps it could
be a nice thing for us to do, praying for, praying for these
who are even, you know, thinking of, you could say people are
already sick spiritually, even people who've died, because this
girl has died, this 12 year old girl, she's dead.
And, and, and there's a symbolism there, of course,
where spiritual sickness and spiritual death, she can do
nothing for herself. The only thing that can save her
is the intercessory prayer of her father who loves her so
much. And I suppose that happens so
much, You know, in our case, she says that we know so many people
who are very sick who are close to spiritual death.
And unfortunately, we know many others who are spiritually dead.
At least we suspect they're spiritually, they're not in a
state of grace. And maybe they haven't been for
a long time. And, and, and our prayer for
them is so important. It's amazing as a confessor,
it's amazing. And it's it's kind of becoming
more frequent. People come into confession,
Father figuring for our sin. It is 18 years since my last
confession. Everyone pretty recently like
that. That's happening quite
frequently now it is 18 years since or whatever numbers 20
years since my last confession, many years since my last
confession. And it's a huge grace that moves
them to come to confession. And I always think, what is this
person here because of the prayers of their grandmother or
their grandfather? Are you who never though prayed
for them and who died when a their grandson had gone off the
rails when in secondary school? And that there was, you know,
there was yet regarding their faith that somebody or maybe a
mother or father praying like Gyrus, you know, heal my child
very is very sick, dying even dead and praying and praying and
praying to come in and take that person out of their their like
the girl little girl. She's there in some kind of dark
limbo stone dead and in this dark, dark limbo.
And, and it requires you, Jesus to take her by the hand, but it
requires the, the loving prayers of her father.
And so us, who do I pray? Who am I praying for now?
Who am I planning to pray for in the Mass that we're about to
celebrate? Who will I remember, especially
in this in this Mass, who's who's dying or dead and will
remain dead if I don't pray for them?
I suppose there are, you know, there may be there's many people
like that that you'd order same. Well, you know, great that you
pray for your your intentions and that good.
But look, other people need you to pray for them.
I heard of of a lady in a supernumerum in in Boston who
she for, for for a good while and her final, final illness.
She had a brain tumour and was in the language area of the
brain, so she couldn't talk or work with text that that was
just gone by the because of the tumour.
And here she died. And at the, at the funeral, I
forgot who was telling me this, but at the funeral at the back
of the church there, they'd left a binder.
It was her family left a binder and it was her binder.
It was something she had with her in her in her sick band and
that she would use every day. And it was just full of pictures
of those people she was praying for and and on on on on Page 1
was the father. But pictures because she
couldn't work with their names and text.
So it was pictures. So I suppose you could check the
binder and see was your was your was your, was your picture in
there. It was very, very nice that
their Lady obviously would have loved to not on her a lot on her
plate with the brain tumour dying.
And yet in this binder she was praying for these, all these
people in there. Their little picture there in
the binder is very beautiful. So thinking the people were
praying for, praying for their vocation.
They were a great gift maybe for for friends of ours, praying for
the gift of vocation for them and that they would find their
vocation in life, whatever it might be.
Anyway, we finish up turning to Our Lady and think of her
intercessory prayer. This was the the one that we see
most clearly is in in Cana, in Cana, where nothing would have
happened without the intercession of Our Lady.
And of course, our anything that Our Lady says to Jesus moves
him, touches him. It's impossible for Our Lady to
say anything to Jesus except that it twitches to Jesus and
very deeply. And that's why, of course, we go
through the intercession of Our Lady in so many things or maybe
in a certain sense in everything that they're at the intercession
of our ladies involved. But but she gives us that great
example. You know, she touches Jesus
because she is her faith and her love are just so just at the
maximum that they can be her faith and her love in Jesus and
and how she touches him with this request that even startles
Jesus. But if her if she is asked of
that our Lord is touched immediately.
She wants this. So we're going to ask Connie to
give us the grace help us there would never do prayer and never,
never attend Mass in this kind of cold way, distant way that
fails to touch Jesus that those prayers fail to reach the heart
of Jesus because they're not said with love or faith.
But we that we anyway ask her need to to give us this grace to
to touch her to touch Jesus, rather to touch him with her
prayer of petition. I give you thanks to my God for
the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations you
have communicated to me in this meditation.
I ask you for help to put them into effect.
My mother, Michael St Joseph, my father, Lord, my guardian Angel,
intercede.