{"id":838,"date":"2019-07-23T09:18:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T09:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=838"},"modified":"2019-07-23T09:18:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T09:18:56","slug":"reflection-dialogue-28-july-2019-c-seventeenth-sunday-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=838","title":{"rendered":"Reflection &#038; Dialogue 28 July  2019 (C) Seventeenth  Sunday of Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>B. Reflection &amp; Dialogue<\/em><\/strong><em>: Recall\nto Prayer in a Secular Age<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s Gospel\nreading presents an occasion to reflect on the place of prayer in our own age,\nmainly in secular surroundings. Changed practice has not come about merely from\nsecular conviction. It has partly been from a changed religiously neutral\nmindset. In the not too recent past vocal prayer was very much part of the\ndaily routine. There was prayer both in Irish and English for most new\nencounters: God bless the work, on meeting people at work; God bless all here,\non entering a house. These died out rather easily, but grace before and after\nmeals continued in many quarters. Greater knowledge of weather forecasts and\nclimate movements brought an end to prayer for fine weather, or even rain. Prayer\nfor success in an interview with a job prospect seemed natural enough, but even\nhere occasionally eminent Catholics would object, since it implied asking God\nto favour against other applicants! But this is to forget that it is the\nall-seeing good God who sees sides who answers prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The secular viewpoint very\nnaturally militates against prayer even for believers, who must take stock of\nthe situation. Both the practice of Jesus and his frequent prayer together with\nhis explicit teaching on the subject call for a renewal of prayer life,\nespecially for a fuller understanding of the mystery of Christ and the Church,\nfor the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us, and protect us in temptation.\nRecall to prayer needs to take account of changed situations, the difficulties\nof family prayer, finding ways in which believers who no longer frequent the\nsacraments can keep in contact with God and Christ. Reflection is called for on\nso many issues. But for all Christ\u2019s call for prayer in any occasion remains\nvalid, constant, persevering prayer. See also Reflection for 12<sup>th<\/sup>\nSunday this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>B. Reflection &amp; Dialogue: Recall to Prayer in a Secular Age Today\u2019s Gospel reading presents an occasion to reflect on the place of prayer in our own age, mainly in &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}