Nepsis

Category: Time to Pray

  • John 4:31-38 Harvest-time

    Meanwhile the disciples pressed him: ‘Rabbi, eat.’ He said ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another: ‘Surely no-one can have brought him something to eat?’

    Jesus said to them ‘To do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work is my food.

    ‘Do you not have a saying “There are still four months before the harvest comes”? I say to you look! Lift up your eyes and see the fields that are white for the harvest. Already the harvester is earning their pay and gathering a crop into the life of the resurrection age. So ‘the sower and the harvester rejoice together.’

    See, the saying is true: “One sows and another harvests.” I have sent you to harvest something you have not worked hard for. Other people have worked hard and you reaped the benefits.’

    Grant, Lord,
    that we may hold to you without parting,
    worship you without wearying,
    serve you without failing;
    faithfully seek you,
    happily find you,
    and forever possess you,
    the only God,blessed now and for ever.
    Amen

    St Anselm

  • John 4:27-30

    And at this moment his disciples arrived and were amazed that he was speaking with a woman. Though no-one said ‘What are you after?’ or ‘Why are you speaking to her?’ So the woman left her water jar and went to the village. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything that I have done, maybe he is the Christ?’ They left the village and started going to him.

    Thank you, dear Jesus,
    for all you have given me,
    for all you have taken away from me,
    for all you have left me.

    Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

  • John 4:16-26 Mountains and Spirit

    He said to her ‘Go and call your husband and come back here.’ She replied : ‘I haven’t got a husband.’ Jesus said to her ‘That’s right, you said “I haven’t got a husband.” You have had five husbands and you are not married to the man you have now. What you have said is quite right’.

    The woman said to him: ‘I see that you are like a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain and yet you (Jews) say the place to worship must be in Jerusalem.’

    Jesus replied: ‘Believe me lady, because the hour is coming, when neither here nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You,( Samaritans) worship someone you don’t know. We worship someone we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming- and now has arrived- when true worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit and truth. For indeed the Father seeks people like that as worshippers. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in the spirit and truth.

    The woman said to him ‘ I know that Messiah is coming, (the one called Christ). When he comes he will tell us everything.’ Jesus said to her ‘I am the one, the one speaking to you.’

    Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
    Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
    Where there is injury, pardon;
    Where there is discord, union;
    Where there is doubt, faith;
    Where there is despair, hope;
    Where there is darkness, light;
    Where there is sadness, joy,
    For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

  • John 4:15-26 Men!

    The woman said to him ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty, or have to come here to draw water.’

    He said to her ‘Go and call your husband and come back here.’ She replied : ‘I haven’t got a husband.’ Jesus said to her ‘That’s right, you said “I haven’t got a husband.” You have had five husbands and you are not married to the man you have now. What you have said is quite right’.

    The woman said to him: ‘I see that you are like a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain and yet you (Jews) say the place to worship must be in Jerusalem.’

    Jesus replied: ‘Believe me lady, because the hour is coming, when neither here nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You,( Samaritans) worship someone you don’t know. We worship someone we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming- and now has arrived- when true worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit and truth. For indeed the Father seeks people like that as worshippers. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in the spirit and truth.

    The woman said to him ‘ I know that Messiah is coming, (the one called Christ). When he comes he will tell us everything.’ Jesus said to her ‘I am the one, the one speaking to you.’

    O Lord Jesus Christ,
    stay beside me to defend me,
    within me to guide me,
    before me to lead me,
    and above me to bless me,
    that with you and in you,
    I may live, and move and have my being,
    for ever and ever.
    Amen.

    (unknown)

  • John 4:11-15 Water, water everywhere

    The woman said to him: ‘Sir, you do not have a bucket and the well is deep. So where will you get living water? Surely you are not greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons and his cattle?’

    Jesus replied ‘Everyone who drinks (again and again) some of this water will become thirsty once more. Whoever drinks (once) from the water I will give them, will never ever thirst, for eternity. The water that I will give them will become for them a spring of water, bubbling up to resurrection life in them.

    The woman said to him ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty, or have to come here to draw water.’

    God, give me grace to accept with serenity
    the things that cannot be changed,
    Courage to change the things
    which should be changed,
    and the Wisdom to distinguish
    the one from the other.

    Living one day at a time,
    Enjoying one moment at a time,
    Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
    Taking, as Jesus did,
    This sinful world as it is,
    Not as I would have it,
    Trusting that You will make all things right,
    If I surrender to Your will,
    So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
    And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

    Amen.

  • John 4:7-10 Mixing drinks

    A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her: ‘Give me something to drink.’ (For his disciples had left for the town to buy supplies at the market.) So the Samaritan woman said to him: ‘How it is that you a Jew are asking from me something to drink, when I am a Samaritan woman?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered: ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who is the one who said to you “Give me something to drink” you would have asked him and he would have given living water to you.’

    Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
    Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
    Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
    Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

  • John 4:1-6 Jesus on the move

    Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptising more disciples than John – although it was not Jesus who was baptising but his disciples – Jesus left Judea and went again into Galilee. It was necessary to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan village, called Sychar, close to the land Jacob gave Joseph, his son. There was Jacob’s well . So Jesus, exhausted from the journey, sat down, as he was, at the well. It was about the sixth hour.

    Lord, you have given me so much,
    I ask for one more thing –
    a grateful heart.

    George Herbert

  • John 3:31-35The Father loves the Son

    The one coming from above is over all.
    The one from the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.
    The one coming from heaven is over all.
    The one who has seen and heard bears witness yet no-one receives his testimony.

    The one who receives his testimony has certified this, that God is true.
    For the one sent by God speaks his words, for he (God) gives the Spirit without limit.

    The Father loves the Son and has placed all things into his hands.

    The one who believes in the Son has resurrection life.
    The one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God stays on him.

    Be thou a bright flame before me,
    Be thou a guiding star above me
    Be thou a smooth path below me
    Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
    Today – tonight -forever
    Amen.

    St Columba

  • John 3:22-30 – How big is the pie?

    Some time after this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he stayed with them and was baptising. John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim because there were many springs there, and people kept coming and being baptised. (For John of course was not yet imprisoned.)

    A dispute arose between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him: ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you beside the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, he is baptising and everyone is going to him.’ John replied ‘A person cannot receive anything unless it is given to them from heaven. You yourselves can bear me out that I said “I am not the Christ but I have been sent before him.” It is the bridegroom that has the bride. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and listens for him is overjoyed because of the groom’s voice. So my joy is complete. It is necessary for him to increase and me to decrease.’

    O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
    O Love, who redeemed me,
    fill up in me whatever part of your love
    has fallen into neglect within me.
    O Love, O God, who first loved me,
    grant that with my whole heart,
    and with my whole soul,
    and with my whole strength,
    I may love you.

    Gertrude the Great

  • John 3:16-21 Love and Light

    For God loved the world so much that he gave up his only child, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have the resurrection life. For God did not send his Son into the world in order to pronounce condemnation on the world but that the world would be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe is already condemned, because they do not believe in the name of the only Son of God.

    This is the judgement – that the light has come into the world and yet people loved the darkness than rather the light, for their deeds were evil. Indeed everyone who goes on doing evil hates the light and and does not come to the light, lest their works might be exposed. The one who acts in truth comes to the light, so that their works may be shown to have been carried out in God.+

    Teach us, good Lord,
    to serve thee as thou deservest;
    to give and not to count the cost;
    to fight and not to heed the wounds;
    to toil and not to seek for rest;
    to labour and not to ask for any reward,
    save that of knowing that we do thy will,
    through Jesus Christ our Lord.
    Amen

    St Ignatius