Sent out, but never alone.
Our Gospel this Sunday tells us of Jesus sending out the 72 disciples ahead of him.
One of the most striking things about the passage is that he sent them out in pairs.
We often talk about being sent out into the world to proclaim the Gospel – it’s what I tell you to do at the end of mass each day ‘Go and proclaim the Gospel of Our Lord’.
What we don’t often consider is that we are never sent alone. We are sent in pairs just as Jesus sent out the disciples.
The question is who are we sent with? Who is the person who walks alongside us as we head into the harvest?
I’ve often reflected that we all need a ‘holy friend’. Someone who we are able to have good conversations with about our faith and about how Jesus is working in our lives.
In those conversations it becomes easier to talk about Jesus and in that ease between two friends we grow in confidence to share our love of Jesus with others outside our immediate group of friends or those who don’t come to church.
I’m very fortunate in that I have a friend in Fr. Sam Cross who I can call up, or message and ask honest questions about my faith, about scripture, about my place and calling from God.
But who is your friend? Who can you turn to and ask these questions of?
Have a look around you at church this week and if you can’t immediately answer that question then think about who it could be and go and speak to them over coffee. Ask them if they’d be your ‘holy friend’. Build one another up in the Love of God.
Fr. Matthew
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Items needed for Food Bank & Church Larder: Tins of meat & fish, baked beans, soup, cereal, coffee, sugar, deodorants (especially mens), sanitary pads, incontinence pads, nappies (esp newborn to size 2). (THESE ARE QUITE URGENTLY NEEDED NOW PLEASE DO DIG DEEP!)
After mass on the 3rd July Fr. Matthew will be driving to the Polish / Ukraine border to take a car-load of needed items to a refugee camp. He will be returning with two refugees who will be living at the vicarage with his family. Thank you to everyone for your support of cash for fuel and also for donations of flip-flops. We need more candy and fruit juice! Please bring them on Sunday.
No mid-week services as Fr. Matthew will be driving to the Poland / Ukraine border. Please do join in with St. Mary’s, Hayes or St. Edmund’s.