Reminding ourselves who we are…and what is important.

Reminding ourselves who we are…and what is important.

This week we celebrated the horse race that ‘stops the nation’.  Well, most of the country did.  I didn’t and I have my reasons. But before you think I’m not really Australian, let’s say I have other ways of reminding myself of what I am as an Australian.   I do realise though that celebrating the Melbourne Cup has less to do with the horse race and more to do with being a way we recognise who we are as a nation.  It is something we do to remind ourselves of who we are.  That is what rituals are for.  They regularly focus our minds and hearts of what is important in case we can get too bogged down in necessities, crises and the sheer ordinary details of life.

We need ritual in other areas of life but most importantly in our relationship with God. Rarely will God push into our lives making a big splash.  Rather, in respect and love, God waits for us to respond in love.  We need ritual prayer to remind ourselves of this loving, waiting God.  The ritual can be as profound as Sunday Eucharist or as simple as a prayer made as the cake goes into the over.  Time honoured rituals are prayer at the beginning and end of each day, and before meals.  As believers, it is a good idea to ask ourselves what do we do to remind ourselves that we are people of God.

Loving God, we so often get caught up in the business of life, forgetting that your love upholds our lives. Give us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may regularly remind ourselves that your care surrounds us at all times.  We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb