Sunday 18 April

This weekend is Sunday the 18 April, beginning the Third Week of Easter.  

Bless the Lord, my soul, who leads me into life. The most important thing for me to do now, as I enter into prayer, is to let go for a moment, to let go of my own concerns, my own worries and fears and reluctance, and let myself be led by God, trusting that God, who loves me, will lead me into life.  

As you listen to this weekend’s reading from the First Letter of John, see if you can notice where you are being called to love in your life.  

1 John 2:1-5

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him’, but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him.

Has the love of God reached perfection in you? Most of us would probably feel that this could never happen to us. That we’re just not good enough, we’ve got too many flaws and sins … or maybe even that it’s not the sort of thing we should even think about. But here is a reading that says it is possible for the love of God to reach perfection in us! What are your initial feelings about that promise?  

All through Easter we stand in the light of the Resurrection after the long shadows of the Cross. Do you feel yourself bathed in that light? What moves within you when you ponder that the light of Christ is shining on you?  

Maybe there is something that blocks out that light, or causes it to fade. As you listen to the reading again, hear the promise made; the promise that we have an Advocate with the Father.  

Having heard this reading, what moves in your soul? We know that the Risen Christ wanted to come back to the people he loved, his friends, his little children, in order to console them and build them up. In the final moments of this prayer, ask the Risen Christ to shine his light on you again, and say to him whatever needs to be said.  

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.