Summer holidays 2023

Laatst bijgewerkt: maandag 10 juli 2023 Gepubliceerd: zaterdag 08 juli 2023 Geschreven door Lieve Desodt

Holidays

Vacation is a time of daydreaming and forgetting.
When you start work and school again
and doing normal takes some getting used to.
You feel like the marathon runner
that requires break-in time
to warm up muscles.
This is how your mind asks for time
(and pardon the boss)
to warm up.

It's good to take a step back from time to time.
To break up our everyday life.
Keep a deep clean in our minds.
To know where we stand.
To know God present
in that great creation.
The fruits of rich cultures
to admire.

Automatisms become because of it
questioned.
Break fixed patterns.
And the result may be there!
Charged energy.
Inside everything at a glance.
Inspiration to get back to it.
And vitamins for the ups and downs of everyday life
to endure well.

Hilde Van Putten

Vacation is making time

Make time to just be good, loving and kind.
Make time to laugh
and to spice up life with a little more humour.
Make time to listen and to be available to others.
Make time to be quiet not for fear of a busy life,
but because the deepest values
be experienced in silence.
Make time to think, for it is unworthy of man
to glide through life superficially
without critical judgment about life views
that are "fashionable".
Make time to pray aware that Thou, God,
are concerned with our lives.
Make time to love and be loved,
because the life in which only the mind plays a part
shrinks our happiness and that of others.
Make time to read something beautiful,
to enjoy the beautiful things
who are so numerous around us…
if we want to see them.

Pull away.
Your house, leaving your home.
Stepping through the summer.
Sing in the rain.
Playing in the sun of friendship.
Swimming in the sea of loyalty.
Carry, endure, carry each other on.
Forgetting yourself.
Place others.
Believe in each other.
Believe in Him,
the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Listen with your heart.
Passing on the joy of our God.

Perseverance on the path of faith

Father,
live in the footsteps of your son, Jesus,
gives birth to life.
Live in surrender, in trust, in service,
In connection, with you, with the people.

Living in the footsteps of your son, Jesus,
also brings with it many crosses:
crosses of incomprehension, of indifference,
of exclusion, of not being accepted.

Father,
teach me in difficult times
persevere on this path of faith,
from the growing conviction,
from growing confidence
that Thou art the source of all life.
Let faith grow in me
that you raise life from the cross.
In the Spirit of your son and our Lord,
Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Father,

we go on a journey together.
Be You our guide
on the known and the unknown roads
that we will ride.

Let us drive carefully
and also have for the people around us.

Father,
may we with a joyful heart
dwell among the people.
Let us get through our encounters
experience love with people.
Give us a patient and an understanding heart,
a heart that is not demanding,
a heart that does not criticize,
but a heart that is thankful
for the care and hospitality.

Father,
may our first word
after the example of your Son
be a word of peace,
carried by your Spirit;

Amen.

You pray in your deepest interior...

You pray
in your deepest interior,
in the silence of your heart,
where words are superfluous ?
You let God speak
and you listen
how He addresses you
with his own name :
"I will be there for you";

And that name leaves you
seep in,
penetrate into your heart,
until he is your innermost self
has become.

You pray
in your deepest interior,
in the silence of your heart,
and you call
the name of God,
and keep repeating
word by word :
"I'll be there for you",
until that word
Your own name has become.

You pray
inside you :
what lives deep inside you
take you out.
You say, "I'll be there for you",
you mention the name of God
in every encounter,
in every conversation,
in every future
and every decision
that you have to take.
You always call
his name,
until He your way of life
has become.
That's how you become a little God,
God becomes a little you.

Carlos Desoete

Father,

we go on a journey together.
Be You our guide
on the known and the unknown roads
that we will ride.

Let us drive carefully
and also have for the people around us.

Father,
may our first word
after the example of your Son
be a word of peace,
carried by your Spirit.

Amen.

Reflection at 14° Sunday through the A-year

Do you long for the night
in the evening,
are you tired,
then quiet down inside
and listen to my voice,
says God.

Let go of your worries
I take them, I wear them.

Your shoulders creak
under the burden of life,
are you at your wits end,
then quiet down inside
and come to me
says God.
I give your heart peace.

Can't see a way out
are you overworked,
then quiet down inside
and know that my name means :
"I am there for you".

A soft yoke

Jesus does not put heavy burdens on our shoulders.
He does not ask the impossible of anyone.
Rather, he appeals to the child in us.
Open-minded,
we can watch with an open heart
to people and the world.
We may discover God
with admiration and reverence
as the basis of our existence.
We can interact freely and liberatingly with others.
Jesus invites us wholeheartedly and cordially
to stand in life.
Then nothing is too heavy,
because love is anyway
our greatest power source.
By the example of Jesus
may we derive energy in boldness
to give the best of ourselves.
He is no tyrant, no nitpicker,
but a living invitation
to be man of God.
His easy yoke keeps us balanced;
we can bear his light burden heartily.

Wim Holterman osfs