Jesus took up the book and read it

This year the Church will read the Gospel of St. Luke each Sunday. This Sunday we begin the systematic reading of the Gospel, each weekend we simply read on from where we left off the weekend before. During the Easter season we will read from St. John’s Gospel.

One of the simplest ways to pray is to read the Bible. Pope Benedict a few years ago told the priests of Rome that reading the Scriptures was a most profitable way of praying.

Sometimes when we come to pray we can become worried that we won’t know what to say and how to stop ourselves from becoming bored or distracted. We feel at times we are always asking for things when we come to pray and that becomes monotonous too. You may be afraid to start praying because you don’t know what to do.  So what are we to do?

Listen to him as he reads from this passage of the prophet Isaiah. Imagine the shock in the community when he said that in him the prophecy was being fulfilled. Allow the passage to speak to you. Read a passage from the Gospel. Picture the scene. This Sunday think of Jesus in his local synagogue. Picture his mother Mary looking down from the women’s gallery on her son.  Think of how Jesus went to the synagogue each Sabbath in obedience to the Commandments.

One of my greatest discoveries in prayer was the day I realized I did not have to get anything out of it. I did not have to feel more holy after praying. I did not have to have new ideas. But I was to be happy in the presence of the Lord; I was there for the Lord not for myself,  even when it felt I was alone.

But when you open the Bible and read the story of the Gospel you will never feel alone. That was why St. Luke wrote this Gospel for Theophilus. He wanted him to know Jesus and we get to know Jesus by knowing his life. We get closer to Jesus the better we know the Gospels. We know them better if we read them prayerfully. That means to read them slowly and to think on what you are reading.