NEWS - August 22, 23

A relationship with God. This was the title of a piece written by Br. John Venard (Marist brother, teacher and principal) years ago and included in his booklet entitled “SURPRISE – The Battler’s God Dwells Within”. His key point is that the way to build such a relationship with God is through prayer.

One has to work at it, much the same as with the development of any human relationship and we have to work out the best way for us to go about it. For most of us, from when we were young, we probably did it by saying particular prayers. Later on in life we tend to speak to God in different ways, often about things that are happening in our lives, especially when times are tough and we are not seeing a positive result from our prayers and it seems God is not listening to us.

An interesting quote from John’s article is as follows.

“Prayer is not an end in itself: it is a means to an end, the end being a relationship with God. We don’t say a rosary for the sake of saying a rosary. We don’t go to Mass for the recording angel to give us a tick; we don’t help somebody just to make us feel good. No, we do these things to get closer to God and this is the simple test we apply to our prayer life, “Is it bringing me closer to God?”

“ If the answer is YES, we are on the right track. If the answer is NO we need to re-evaluate”.

We are all different. For John, as time passed, where once he put emphasis on the physical saying of prayers and attending Mass, he then became more conscious of having a relationship with God.

Some Br. John Venard’s “Battler’s God” books are available for borrowing in the Faith Matters lending library in the church shop at Grovely. Just fill in the small book for borrowing and return the book when finished.


Faith Matters lending library

Perhaps, throughout your hectic week, you are looking for a small book of various articles dealing with common day spirituality and with a touch of humour. We have a number of such booklets written by Br. John Venard (Marist Brother). There are about 6 titles under the theme “The Battlers God”. Why not take one home for a week and browse it. John was very good at communicating spiritual themes with readers. Duck in to the church shop at Grovely at the end of any Masses on the weekend.

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NEWS - August 15, 16

In 2013, a book called “Zealot – the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” was written by Reza Aslan and was the New York Times best seller. The writer is a well-respected author and historian. In the book he reveals the historic Jesus of Nazareth and details the culture and other realities of first century Palestine.

This book is so interesting. We think of Jesus wandering south from Galilee to Jerusalem over three years with a band of followers , doing wonderful deeds, teaching people along the journey about a different way of living, and upsetting the establishment. He certainly did this but in that first century there were many other groups wandering the countryside whose leaders also claimed to be the messiah.

The Roman soldiers showed them no mercy when they caught them and usually crucified many of them at the one time – probably this was the situation when Jesus was crucified. The charge was treason and the Scriptures speak of 2 bandits only, but probably there were many more that day on Calvary.

Jesus took His time on the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem as he had a mission to accomplish, given to Him by His Father and He wanted to finish it before he entered Jerusalem.

His name was Jesus of Nazareth – that is how people with the same first name were named so as to distinguish them. Usually there were no surnames. His name is not Jesus Christ. He is also referred to as Jesus the Christ but that is a story for another day. History has next to nothing to say about the historical Jesus of Nazareth. The two evangelists who have something to say about Jesus’ early life were Matthew and Luke. Mark and John had nothing.

Paul, who was writing some time before the evangelists, was not interested in the historical Jesus and in only three times does he refer briefly to Jesus’ life – the Last Supper (1 Corinthians 11: 23-36), the Crucifixion (1 Cor. 2: 2} and the Resurrection (1Cor. 15:14}
Jesus was God, true, but in every sense he was also a human being.

Faith Matters lending library
Perhaps, throughout your hectic week, you are looking for a small book of various articles dealing with common day spirituality and with a touch of humour. We have a number of such booklets written by Br. John Venard (Marist Brother). There are about 6 titles under the theme “The Battlers God”. Why not take one home for a week and browse it. John was very good at communicating spiritual themes with readers. Duck in to the church shop at Grovely at the end of any Masses on the weekend.

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