Matthew under the arm 32

Towards the end of the day and I am desperate for a wash! Columba sits at the edge of a loch and dangles his feet in the water. I asked him why he didn't take his sandles off (the walking ones, you understand!). He replies, 'My feet smell!'. So I reminded him about someone close to Jesus who said that he would not only have his feet washed but all of him. 'Good idea'. So he took all his clothes off and plunged into the river. Sheepishly, like some prudish school boy (which is probably all I am at heart!), I slipped into the river and almost had an arrest from the chill. Whoops and shouts and laughter. Close by, a monk thin and serious-looking appeared from behind a wall and shouted: 'I'm trying to say my prayers. So shut up!' Columba simply smiled and shouted even louder, 'Come on. Get in and learn to pray from the heart.' 'Who do you think you are?', said the monk. I didn't like to tell him!

Matthew 8:14-27….
Jesus appears to be ‘done to’ rather than working to a schedule. He restores, recreates circumstances to their true nature – a disease, an inner disturbance and an outer distress – become means of service to God. ‘Leave the dead to bury the dead’, he says – a graphic shock that wakens the disciples up to the necessity of determination to be single-hearted. The healings are about giving greater opportunity for people to be single-hearted in their service of God and therefore of others.

I would listen for Christ in each moment and serve Him in others



The Gospel narrative portrays the divine culture into which you are being brought. Prayer then is a co-operation, a collaboration with the Spirit of God that is bringing you into that divine culture. There are three parts to this meditation. 1. In your listening to others, to the world around you - its beauty and its harshness - what points you towards God’s love and desire for healing? 2. Acknowledge where it is hard if not impossible to listen for God. 3. Listen now to Christ in you. Use the sentence to still your mind and heart and just be there in your listening.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles