Praying the Sunday Mass Readings with St Beuno’s Outreach

St Beuno’s Outreach is based in St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in the hills of North Wales, in the Diocese of Wrexham. The Outreach began in 1989, with the idea of helping people develop and maintain a personal relationship with God through Christ by praying the Word of God in the Sunday liturgy. From a prayerful awareness of the Spirit working in and through us will come a sense of mission, a desire to join Christ in his mission.

How to pray with Scripture - from St Beuno's Outreach
It is usually most helpful when entering into a formal period of prayer to spend some time quietening down and centring on God. The following indications, known as “Anchor Points” have been found to provide a good framework for your prayer. Particularly important after coming to some inner quiet is the slow entry and slow exit from prayer.

FOUR ANCHOR POINTS

  1. PREPARATION

Choose your place of prayer. Make yourself comfortable, you may like to light a candle. Get in touch with your feelings: What is my frame of mind? What do I want to say to the Lord; what do I desire?

  1. ENTRY INTO PRAYER

Become quiet and still. Relax. Try to put aside any distractions. Choose a passage of scripture. Make the sign of the cross, visibly or in your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your prayer. Read your chosen text slowly several times. Notice what comforts or disturbs you.

  1. SLOW EXIT FROM PRAYER

Speak to the Lord in your own words about this time of prayer, what has it meant to you. Perhaps finish with the Glory be to the Father or a favourite prayer of your own. Make a sign of the cross, internal or external. Leave your place of prayer, thanking God for the time he has spent with you.

  1. REFLECTION AFTER PRAYER

Ask for whatever grace you need to respond to our Lord, “with my whole heart, my whole soul, my whole mind”. If possible, do this in a different place. Recall the prayer period: Was it good to be at prayer?  Did you learn something; maybe feel that the Lord was asking something of you? Notice how you are feeling now. You may find it helpful to jot down your thoughts in a notebook.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of our Lord, Year A, 2nd April 2023

Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!

As we begin Holy Week, our readings take us from the joy and Hosannas of Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem to a profound contemplation of his suffering and death.

In the First Reading from Isaiah we meet the suffering servant: the disciple who suffers without offering resistance, but is supported by God so that he can bring life to others.

The Psalm will accompany us through the week, as well as being quoted by Matthew in our Gospel. It foreshadows Jesus’s sufferings but also hints at his future glory.

The Second Reading is a wonderful hymn which underlines Jesus’s divinity, but also his obedience and suffering before his exaltation and glory.

In the Gospel we hear the Passion narrative of St Matthew, in which Jesus is betrayed, mocked, denied, accused and crucified. His body is laid in the tomb, and a guard is placed to secure it.

This week, may we follow Christ in his Passion, holding each other, and our suffering and tortured world, in prayer. May Mary be with us in this journey and help us understand the value of following the example of her Son.

passion-sunday-year-a-2023Download
prego-plus-passion-sunday-year-a-2023Download

Previous Posts

1 … 7 8 9