It would be an exaggeration to say that this morning’s Gospel passage changed my life, but it certainly played a huge part in shaping the direction it has taken over the last twenty-one years. It happened in March 1989 while I was in St Beuno’s, a Retreat House in North Wales, near Rhyl. I had gone there to do a three month course on the Spirituality of Saint Ignatius Loyola, at the heart of which lay what are known as ‘The Spiritual Exercises,’ which I experienced in the form of a thirty day silent retreat. The very idea of being silent for thirty days might seem a bit daunting, but, despite difficult and painful moments, it was a wonderful experience. Some people in the parish in Kilmarnock, mind you, could not get their heads round the idea that someone would willingly take on such a thing and clearly thought I had been sent their as a punishment for some misdemeanour or other. But there was no truth in this whatsoever. I had, in fact, been attracted to the idea since the early eighties but had done nothing about it believing that I could not possibly be away from the parish for three months. In 1988, however, I spent a week in hospital in Ayr with an eye problem. That was an crucial experience, teaching me, as it did, that the world and the parish could manage fine without me, and less than nine months later I was driving down the M6 towards Wales.
The first three weeks there were spent preparing for the retreat which began at the beginning of March and the experience I am speaking about today happened about half way through the month. It was a Sunday morning and for a whole day I had been praying the story of the Marriage Feast at Cana. Each day of the retreat contained five periods of prayer, each lasting an hour and spread evenly over a whole day, one of which, therefore, was during the night. The days, however, did not necessarily go from midnight to midnight but from the time you met your director one day to the time you met him the next, which was why, although it was the middle of the morning, I had already prayed the passage four times. And as I approached it for the fifth time, I had a strong feeling that there was nothing left in it for me; as if, like an old piece of chewing gum, I had chewed to the point where there was no taste left in it. I was tempted to move to another passage, but something in me resisted this and I went to the wedding for the fifth time. And as I did so, my mind drifted back to Kilmarnock. As I said earlier, it was a Sunday morning and I began to imagine the people in the parish gathering for the 11.00.a.m. Mass. Although only half way through the retreat, God had already done amazing things for me and as I imagined the scene in St Matthew’s I began to look forward to the time I would go back there and tell them all about the things God had shown me during those days. And as I did this, a sentence from the story which had meant nothing to me during the previous four hours leapt out of the page and, in a way only the Word of God can and which you will only understand if it has happened to you, grabbed hold of me and, for a second or two, simply overwhelmed. And it was the phrase, ‘Only those who drew the water knew.’ In that fleeting moment of insight and revelation I saw with utter clarity that it was not about going back to Kilmarnock and telling people about what God had done for me during the retreat. Only those who drew the water knew. This kind of knowledge is not passed from one person to another. It’s not possible. Each person has to draw the water themselves and from that day to this the focus of everything I’ve done as a priest has been to help people do that.
And so when I came home from Wales one of the first things we did was to move towards having in the parish what is known as a ‘Week of Directed Prayer.’ These were developed first in Dublin and in October of that year, 1989, we had our first Week of Prayer in St Matthew’s, to be followed by twenty others in each of the years since. These weeks have helped so many people draw that water themselves and come to know God in completely new ways and my hope is that they will do the same here in West Kilbride when, during this coming Lent, we have a Week of Prayer here in this parish. Many other parishes in the diocese also have them every year and this has been possible because one of the other things we did when I came back from Wales was train lay men and women to act as Prayer Guides during those weeks, an enterprise God has blessed beyond our wildest dreams. And then there are the Spiritual Exercises themselves. Over those twenty one years more than a hundred individuals have done them in parishes near here in a form which does not involve thirty days of silent retreat but which can be experienced at home in the midst of daily life over a period of six or seven months. Currently I am helping four people do this, one a priest of the diocese, two laymen, one from Cumnock, the other from Prestwick, and a woman from Fife. Several others are about to start, including someone from this parish, and my greatest wish and prayer is that many of you will do the same over the coming years. I know what these Exercises can do for people and want you to share in that experience.
A well-known Jesuit writer from Derry called William Johnston says in one of his books that the Church today must either give people mysticism or die. Religion is no longer enough in the twenty first century. To have heard of God, listened to sermons about God or read books about God is not enough. Another famous Jesuit, Karl Rahner, one of the great theologians of the twentieth century, often spoke of how only those with personal faith would survive in the Church of the third millennium, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he is right. God showed me that day in 1989 that only those who draw the water themselves know. And so, for as long as I am here, helping anyone who wants to draw that water will always be my first priority.
So how thirsty are you for it?
BIDDING PRAYERS
When the writer, William Johnston, says that the Church today must give people mysticism or die, he is not talking about something strange or exotic of the kind we hear about in the lives of some of the saints. The mysticism he speaks of is simplicity itself. It is the ability to look at everything around us and see beyond the surface of it to recognize the presence in it of the God who is closer to us than the air we breathe. And so we pray for that this parish will be filled with mystics of this kind..........Lord hear us
If we are to be men and women of faith in the twenty first century, it is not enough that we have heard of God, listened to sermons about God or read books about God. Such knowledge is by its very nature second hand and cannot sustain us at this moment in history or survive the pressures of our age. Only those with personal faith, predicted Karl Rahner, those who know God from their own experience, will survive in the Church of the third millennium and we pray for the grace to be such people.............Lord hear us
But it is not just for the sake of our own faith that we need to have personal experience of God at this time. Called to bearers of the Good News of God’s love to the world, we will only have credibility with people and be able to say something meaningful to them if they recognize in us something that is real. In other words, that, like Jesus himself, we speak with authority based on what we ourselves have seen and heard. And so we pray for the integrity and inner consistency we need to do this...........Lord hear us
Over the last twenty one years, Weeks of Directed Prayer have helped many people in parishes throughout our diocese come to deep personal faith rooted in their experience of God. Wherever these weeks have taken place, God has poured blessings into those who have taken part. And so, as we begin to move towards having one ourselves this Lent, we pray that some among us will feel a desire to take part and, with God’s help, overcome the natural human fears which can so easily get in the way............Lord hear us
In the second reading this week, St Paul speaks of how there are a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit. There are all sorts of service to be done but always to the same Lord working in different kinds of people. Called to be witnesses to the Gospel here in West Kilbride it is impossible for God not to have given us the gifts we need to fulfil this mission. But it can only happen when the gifts of every single person in the parish are put at the service of the Community. And so pray that this will happen..........Lord hear us
The News this week has been filled with reports of the earthquake in Haiti, often referred to as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. But what is not so widely reported is that the reason Haiti is so poor is that the developed countries like America and ourselves have, for political reasons, deliberately chosen to keep it poor. The fact that, while even the presidential palace collapsed, the American Embassy remained standing, speaks for itself. And so we pray for justice as well as aid in that part of the world............Lord hear us
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