Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 8 September 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Our Lady. In doing so, we remember that each and every person is willed by God, and that our births are not accidents. Welcome to today’s reflection and let us begin by praying for peace in Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa,
and help us to live in your peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;
For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others. 
We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

The reading is an excerpt from the alternative Second Reading of today’s Mass (Romans 8:28-30):

We know that by turning everything to their good, God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those he has called according to his purpose. They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son…¹

Fundamentally, we believe that God has love for each and every person and is willing to co-operate with anyone. Sadly, it is not everyone who has love for God and thus he is rebuffed and rejected, a blockade is erected in their lives to prevent his grace from entering in and so conversion is resisted. It is worth noting at this point that love of God is achieved primarily when we know him, have encountered him and are able to respond to him by seeking greater communion with him and by serving him through good works. However, there have been many instances of God working through those who do not know him but who, nonetheless, are people who seek to do good and have chosen to live their lives according to values which correspond to the values of God’s Kingdom. For example, Cyrus in the Bible, was a pagan king and yet allowed the Jews to return to Israel and facilitated the re-building of the Temple. Another is the widow of Zarephath or Sidon who offered shelter and the last of her food to the prophet Elijah. Today such people are what the famous theologian, Karl Rahner, would refer to as “anonymous Christians”. This is why it is beyond our competence to put boundaries on God’s grace or to decide who he will work through or who he will save. We cannot dictate where God’s Spirit will blow.

God has given us life through his love and, from the time of creation, has entrusted humankind with the responsibility of caring for all he created. Furthermore, at the time of his Ascension, Jesus extended the trust that God has in us, by giving us – his disciples, the followers of Jesus – a share in his mission of salvation and restoration of Creation. He invites us to embrace our first innocence, the innocence of Adam and Eve before the fall, and, in so doing, to allow Christ to draw people to himself for the sake of their salvation. The mission of the Church, in which we the baptized all share, is to proclaim the good news of the Gospel. The good news that, not only our sins are forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ, but that Creation is restored to what it was intended to be from the beginning.

This is the common purpose we have as the baptized – to humbly serve God’s Kingdom of love, unity, inclusion, peace, harmony and justice. The evangelical mission of the Church is not simply to tell others about Christ or to instruct them – it is about living the Gospel ourselves. It is when we live in love of God and neighbour, that the goodness of Christ becomes manifest to others and, working through us, Jesus will draw people to himself². There are certain requirements on our part. Firstly, we commit ourselves to submit to God’s will in all things. We respond, with Mary, saying “Be it done according to your word”. Secondly, while we know our relationship with God is very personal, it is also communal. We belong to the Church, the community established by Christ, and so there is no room for egotistical behaviour. We work together as one. Thirdly, there will always be differences of opinions and perceptions – wherever people gather that will be the case and we have to accept it. The consequence is that we always have to be a listening community in order to understand the differences of perception. Above all, we have to discern and listen to what God is asking of us and where he is leading us, and not allow ourselves to become entrenched in any obstinate or fundamentalist ideology. Fourthly, it entails opening our hearts to God’s Holy Spirit through prayer and by keeping God’s commandments, not simply the letter of the law but the spirit of the law.

Mary’s birthday reminds us of the meaning and purpose of our own lives. As we rejoice in the birth of the new Eve who, in submission to and by the grace of the new Adam, co-operated with him in restoring creation to its first innocence, may we too seek that innocence in the complexity of life, and give ourselves wholly to God living for him in service of his Kingdom.

Let us now praise for God’s blessing: The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Loving Father, we thank you for the gift of life, and most especially today we thank you for the gift of Mary, the Mother of the Church. Through her intercession, may our hearts always burn with love of you and our neighbour, that through us you will draw all people to yourself. Through Christ our Lord, amen. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

1 Jerusalem Bible translation

2 John 12:32

Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Friday 3 September 2021, during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Reflection for Friday 3 September 2021.

I once again wish to start by saying the prayer for peace in Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa,
and help us to live in your peace. 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;

For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Some thoughts on the Good NEWS and on reflective prayer: Lk 5:33-39

In our Gospel passage for today’s Mass, Jesus says: “…nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins”. This means that we have to treat the Good News as simply that – something new and not some old hat. God is after all breaking into our lives afresh each day and we are called to be attentive to that.

Some years ago Fr Albert Nolan OP made it abundantly clear is his very-easy-to-read book entitled “God in South Africa” that the good news must be treated as news i.e. as something new. In “Evangelii Gaudium” Pope Francis speaks along the same lines encouraging Christians who are supposed to proclaim the Good News not to look like they have just returned from a funeral. This is why knowing the love of God is so important. It is the basis of Christian belief and helps us overcome our trials and to proclaim the good news. 

What is needed is an attitude which approaches the Gospel with fresh eyes. Easy to say – but hard to do as we have many presuppositions and these tend to clutter our prayer lives and our reading of Sacred Scripture, not to mention our relationships. One example is the attitudes we tend to develop when seeing others. This can be none other than the justification of our own prejudices. In South Africa, it was one of the “gifts” showered on the nation by the fallacy of apartheid. It helped people to tie up entire cultures into neat little bundles which they could manipulate. What happens then is that the vital ingredient of otherness is thrown out and I encounter not a brother or a sister that I can dialogue with – but someone whose motivations I think I know and am closed to the newness which every authentic human encounter can bring. 

The example of Jesus has truly been lost on many people. Jesus demolished artificial boundaries when he healed the foreigners (Syro-Phoenicians, Samaritans and other traditional enemies of the outwardly holy Pharisees such as the untouchables like the blind, the lame and the outcasts). He smashed the gender boundaries when he had a conversation with the Woman of Samaria. A close reading of the text of Jn 4 shows just how revolutionary that was. 

To cut a long story short; what we need is a little newness in our lives. It is only a genuine prayer life – one that seeks a genuine union with God that can help us to achieve this. This calls for availability and a total openness to God and not some perceived personal cleverness that works out our own solutions as that will keep us filling new wine into our old wineskins. This calls for discipline and a generous heart – the two most vital ingredients in authentic prayer. I wish you well in all this. I know from my own personal experience how difficult it can be to sit in inner silence and wait for God – but it does result in a meaningful encounter that can only be described as Real Presence and it is all God’s doing. All I can do is to make myself, my real self, available to God where I do not have to prove any points about how good I am, how clever I am, or even how right I have been all along. 

All our relationships vacillate between concealment and disclosure e.g. I will not say to a casual acquaintance what I say to my Spiritual Director. The one area in which I can truly be most fully myself is in my relationship with God – “and the Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:4, 6, 18). I am reminded of Archbishop Brislin’s faith reflection based on Ps 138 in which he points out God’s intimate knowledge of each of us (cf. ADCT webpage for the reflection on 25^th August 2021).

For us priests and religious an hour a day is what is needed. For others who might be new to this kind of life; go easy at first. Try 15 minutes, then 20, 30, etc. But do not give up. If you experience difficulty, start again at the beginning. My own prayer life is nothing else but a constant return to the basics and then with the help of my Spiritual Director and my close friends I see meaning in all this. All the while the relationship with God is deepened – and it is all God’s doing.

Let us pray: Lord teach us to pray. Help us to see that the more we disclose our true selves to you, the more we get to know who we are. Give us the courage to surrender to you the brokenness we experience and to wait in hope for the newness which you bring. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bishop Sylvester David OMI

VG/Auxiliary Bishop; Cape Town

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 1 September 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Blessings and welcome to this reflection. Today, the 1^st September, is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and so I will open with the special prayer for creation:

All powerful God, 
you are present in the universe and in the smallest of your creatures. 
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. 
Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty. 
Fill us with your peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. 
O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes. 
Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. 
Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. 
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light. 
We thank you for being with us each day. 
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle, for justice, love and peace. 

In the Responsorial Psalm of today’s Mass (Ps 51: 10-11) we hear these words;

I am like a growing olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the goodness of God
for ever and ever.

Olives and olive trees are mentioned many times in the Bible. One of the best known references is in the Book of Genesis where we are told that Noah released a dove from the ark and it returned bringing a freshly picked olive leaf (Genesis 8:11). In the Book of Judges a story is told of the trees looking for a king to rule them. First and foremost they requested the olive tree to be their king, but the olive tree responded, must I forego my oil which gives honour to gods and men, to stand and sway over the trees? (Judges 9:8-9). God refers to his chosen people Israel as a Green olive-tree covered in fine fruit (Jeremiah 11:16). St Paul uses similar imagery in his letter to the Romans where he refers to the wild olive being grafted on to the cultivated olive to share its “rich sap” (Romans 11:17). We know that Jesus frequented the “Mount of Olives” and and went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before his betrayal. “Gethsemane”means an “olive press”, and Jesus was indeed to be go through the press and be crushed in his torture and death, the fruit of which is redemption.

The olive tree was an essential part of the life and economy of Israel, as in a number of other countries. But more that this, it became a symbol of peace and reconciliation, renewal and revival. It is a symbol of beauty and abundance. It is also a symbol of the righteous person, as we heard in today’s psalm. It is a symbol of life and blessing (Your children round your table like shoots of an olive tree – Psalm 128:3). Oil symbolises healing (Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him – James 5:14), of being chosen and consecrated (Aaron and his sons were anointed with oil and were consecrated priests – Exodus 30:30). It also symbolises light since oil was used for lamps, such as those of the ten virgins. The olive tree is a sturdy, hardy tree that takes a number of years to grow and bear fruit. Reputedly an olive tree can live for 1,500 years and the average life span is 500 years. Thus it is also a sign of permanence and rootedness.

We can readily see the depth of the imagery of the olive tree, not only for the life of Israel but also for our own Christian discipleship. It is interesting to note that the use of olive oil is still prevalent in the Church and that the three holy oils are blessed every year at the Chrism Mass, namely the oil of Chrism (used in baptism, confirmation and the ordinations of priests and bishops), catechumens (used for those entering into the Christian faith as a protection against evil and the oil of the sick used as the sacrament of God’s healing. 

As with the olive tree we Christians are meant to have deep roots in faith, to be resilient in our belief in God and living a Christian life even in the face of adversity, to be able to weather the storm and persevere our whole life through. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and his mark of ownership was placed on us in Confirmation when we were anointed with Chrism. We are meant to bear fruit – for the benefit of others, not our own – and to gladden their hearts and bring them joy, to be healers and bearers of the light, reconcilers and peace-makers, to help others recognize the beauty of what God has given us, and to be upright and righteous people, drawing from the “rich sap” which is God’s grace.

An olive tree is not much to look at, but the richness and benefits it brings, and what it symbolises, are profound and abundant. I may not feel that I am up to much and that I’m rather ordinary, but the olive tree tells us that no matter how ordinary we may look or feel, it is within our power to bring richness and goodness into the world through the grace and mercy of God.

Furthermore, the olive tree serves as a reminder to us of the richness God has blessed us with through his creation. God created what is good for the benefit of mankind. He has entrusted creation to us. Sadly we have failed dismally to care for creation and to use it wisely. We have given way to exploitation, greed and selfishness and through our own fault this has resulted in a threat to our very survival, since our earthly life is dependent on the earth and creation. We have destroyed so much over the centuries. The question is now urgent: what can I do to reverse these destructive attitudes towards the environment – how must I change and what can I do to bring about understanding and change in others? 

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

O God, from the very beginning of time you commanded the earth to bring forth vegetation and fruit of every kind. You provide the sower with seed and give bread to the hungry to eat. Grant your people, enriched by the gifts of your goodness, to use these gifts wisely and praise you unceasingly now and for all ages unending. Through Christ our Lord, amen

May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Spirit of Contrition, spirit of humility, spirit of charity and a spirit of joy is what gives people happiness and peace within themselves – St Francis.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 25 August 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

It is wonderful that the vaccine is now available to those 18 years and older. We are on about day 517 of the Covid restrictions and sadly there is no end yet in sight. The vaccine roll out has been slow, partly due to reluctance on the part of some to receive the vaccine. Nonetheless, we are aware of God’s presence and the psalm of today’s Mass gives much comfort and consolation. But first, let us pray for peace in Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa, and help us to
live in your peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;
For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

These are the opening verses of the Responsorial Psalm 138 (139):

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

This most beautiful psalm should be properly understood. For some, it may give rise to feelings of “God the policeman” who is always watching us and waiting for us to make mistakes. This is not what is meant and the way to understand Psalm 138, and I encourage you to read the whole psalm, is in terms of the love relationship we have with God. The composition of the psalm is attributed to King David, a person who was well aware of his faults and sinfulness. He was also a person deeply aware of God’s love and forgiveness, and this filled him with repentance, humility and gratitude. He loved God, and the psalm celebrates God’s love and expresses his love of God. 

O Lord, you search me and you know me. Think about that for a moment. If you fall in love with someone, you really want to know them, to know what makes them “tick”, how they see the world, what makes them happy and what makes them sad. It is not idle curiosity or invasiveness, it is a fascination with the person you love. And so God “searching us and knowing us” is not invasive or punitive, it is God’s love for us. In modern society it often feels that we are only a statistic, one of a multitude, anonymous. How lovely it is to be known by someone else. How very blessed we are to be known so personally by God. Hopefully, we can have the same response to God in that we thirst, hunger and desire to know him more and more and to enter the depths of his being, because we love him and wish to love him more. Just as the psalmist says in v.17, How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Psalm 62(63) also captures this desire: O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.

The psalmist invites God to test his thoughts, Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!  It is easy to verbally profess love for someone, but how deep is that love? Is it true love or will it burn out when the initial fascination ends? Will I be rejected if I the other really gets to know me? And so, we may want to test the love of the other; not maliciously or harshly, but a little here and there to ascertain whether it really is love or not, and how far that love extends. The psalmist is willing to make himself vulnerable and so invites God to do the same to him, to “try him and know his thoughts”. The invitation is a mark of the genuineness of his desire to love and that, despite failings, his motivation is pure and there is no deceit in his expression of love. We also face circumstances from time to time when our love of God is tested. We are comforted by the words of St Paul in this regard, the God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The important thing about being “tried and tested” is not that God will discover new things about us– after all, “he knows us through and through”. But that testing leads us to know ourselves better, to see ourselves in a different light and to learn new things about ourselves, so that we can improve, correct mistakes and deepen our love to make it more true and authentic. We all have our “blind spots” and, as someone said, lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. Discovering our true motivation in life is a life-long endeavour. We sometimes couch our actions in philanthropic language which does not reflect a deeper and perhaps even unconscious motivation. For example, we help the beggar at the street corner saying we want to share our resources, whereas we are really doing so as an easy way of getting rid of him. We always need to question and reflect on our motivation, especially for the important decisions of life. God trying us and testing us helps us to see ourselves more honestly.

Finally, the psalmist invites God to “lead us in the way of life everlasting”, because we cannot embark on the journey to our eternal home without God’s leadership, guidance and accompaniment. We cannot do it by ourselves, we need God in our lives and, if we are to grow in love of God and neighbour, we need Him to shed his light into our hearts and onto our thoughts, that the love we profess so easily with our lips will indeed indicate the love we bear in our hearts and which is manifested in our actions.

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Loving Father, in these times of uncertainty we take comfort from the fact that you are never far from us and that, indeed, you search us and know us. Grant us perseverance, Lord, to use the passing things of this world wisely and to place our hope in the eternal truths of your Kingdom. Through Christ our Lord, amen