1 February 2012

Last night we began working on Paul's letter to the Philippians.  As you'll remember, that's where he was when we left him at the end of chapter 16 in Acts.  While this letter was written many years later, it was sent to the people we have been reading about in Acts.  We read chapter one of the letter, and the first page-and-a-half of the commentary on pages 91-92.  We answered questions 2-5.  As we go we will be filling in question 1.

From this week's Papal audience:
In our continuing catechesis on Christian prayer, we now turn to the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, the Garden of Olives, following the Last Supper. As the Lord prepares to face his death, he prays alone, as the eternal Son in communion with the Father. Yet he also desires the company of Peter, James and John; their presence is an invitation to every disciple to draw near to Jesus along the way of the Cross. Christ’s prayer reveals his human fear and anguish in the face of death, and at the same time shows his complete obedience to the will of the Father. His words, “not what I want, but what you want” (Mk 14:36), teach us that only in complete abandonment to God’s will do we attain the full measure of our humanity. In Christ’s “yes” to the Father, Adam’s sin is redeemed and humanity attains true freedom, the freedom of the children of God. May our contemplation of the Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane help us better to discern God’s will for us and for our lives, and sustain our daily petition that his will be done, “on earth as it is in heaven”.