mcoleman117@hotmail.co.uk RETURN
LIKE A BRIDGE TO SOULS
Jesus appointed a further seventy-two and sent them in pairs before him, to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them "The Harvest is rich….. Cure the sick. Say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand.’"
Luke: 10:1-9
The Samaritan woman then left her water jar and went off into the town. She said to the people,
"Come and see someone who told me everything I ever did! Could not this be the Messiah?"
At that they set out from the town to meet him.
John 4:28-30
under the wings of Mary by means of the Third Order. The Third Order is not an essential part of Colin. At the Chapter 1872 (124)
your congregation: but the Blessed virgin entrusts it to you like a bridge (the expression is not my own)
to go to souls, to sinner.
INSTRUCTION
1. Jesus was sent ("missioned") by the Father and he sent others out on mission. He knew that he himself could not reach everyone.
2. Jesus’ use of the imagery of the harvest indicates that he did not think of ministry of bringing something to people who had nothing at all. Rather it had more to do with recognising how the seeds had already been planted in people’s lives and ad already grown in some way, but that the fruits had to be gathered.
3. It is on the basis of our own experience that we are able to help others recognise where God and God’s saving grace can be found in their experience. This can happen only if we are vulnerable and able to acknowledge tat we are sinners ourselves and that we have found mercy with God. This is why the Samaritan woman was able to proclaim the Gospel to her neighbours: she had experienced Jesus revealing her heart to her, showing her "everything she had done" and not condemning her but offering her living, healing water.
4. All of this Fr Colin had in mind when he used the image of a bridge to describe the role on the lay people in the Society of Mary.
5. Fr Colin knew that many people and many areas of life (e.g. business, politics, etc.) could only be reached effectively and evangelised by lay people.
6. But he also knew that ministry is like a bridge. It connects with people; it connects with their experience. Lay people can be bridges because they can connect with the experience of other lay people.
PRAYER
Pray for the grace to know how, you in your own situation in life, can best be a bride linking people
to one another or to the Church.
ACTION
1. Try sharing your own experience of faith with someone, and see how your experience both of
being wounded and of being saved connect with that person’s experience.
2. With a spiritual companion or with others learning the Marist way, talk about what
happened in this encounter
