The Word of God
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- John's Gospel, unlike any of the others, begins in eternity and before the beginning of time. He brings us back to the origins of the world and all life in the Word of God. We are in that. We are people of eternity, born in the beginning, in God's plan, and made for life with God forever. This big truth is a light for us all, for the life of God always guides us in darkness and enlightens our minds with His truth.
- Silent prayer immerses us in that eternal reality of God: the Word of God was born the child of a human mother, the Word of God brings eternity to earth.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- John’s mission was to witness to Jesus, to the One who was to come after him. John paved the way for the true light, for the One who was full of grace and truth. John knew that the light that was to come was for all people and that darkness would never overcome it. John is a witness to the light. What a powerful role John had in the salvation of humanity.
- The Son of God has become flesh and now dwells among us. He is the Word, the Light and is full of grace and truth. May I always recognise the glory of the Risen Jesus as John did.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- This magnificent passage provides a powerful opening to this gospel. It lays out the main themes of John’s gospel – life, light, truth, the world, testimony and the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. He is the Incarnate Logos or Word, who reveals God the Father to us.
- Then comes the dramatic statement: “the Word became flesh”. The Word took on our human nature in all its fullness. He did not have, as some people believed, just the external appearance of a human but was “like us in all things”. And he lived right among us. The Greek term literally means he “pitched his tent or tabernacle” among us. Let us welcome him today.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- Christmas. The birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh and lived among us. Heaven and earth met. The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. This is like a new creation story of light and darkness (Gen 1). Jesus the light of the world is introduced to us.
- John is a witness to the light. We are children of God who are promised new life by Jesus who revealed the Father’s love to us. The invitation is to welcome him in a world that does not know him. Even his own people did not accept him.
- Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us. Prayer today can rest in the mystery of God who is revealed to us in the coming of Jesus. From the beginning he was a sign to be rejected. Jesus desires to be at home with us and desires us to be at home with him. We pray to have room in our hearts and lives for him.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- Today let’s look at this wonderful passage from a new point of view, and say: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the word was LOVE! That love is creative; the beating heart of the universe. It is a love that brings light to everyone. If I allow it to shine on me, I begin to see everyone from the divine point of view. I see that the potential of each person is to become nothing less than a daughter or son of God!’
- This awareness will transform all my encounters. No one could ever have imagined such a project, but it is underway already around me and deep within me. Life, which before seemed ordinary and dull, now becomes a great drama. I ask the Lord that in it I may play my part well, by living in sync with the unforced rhythms of ‘the love that moves the sun and the other stars’ (Dante).
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- We come to the end of a year and listen to what God’s word says to us. It helps us look back to learn and look forward in hope. God’s word is a creative word who gives life to all, in love. Jesus is the Word uttered by the Father, the word of hope and promise. Jesus, is God’s message to us - he is our Good News. We know that God loved the world and sent Jesus among us. He is the ‘only Son who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known’.
- It has been an eventful year that leaves lasting memories. We have the fidelity of God to sustain us in the many challenges of life. We need light in the darkness and hope in the uncertainty that is around us. God has given us the Eternal Word and the living word of scripture to guide us. We pray to welcome and appreciate those words more fully, asking that our words may be in harmony with them. What word does the Lord desire me to take with me as I enter the New Year?
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- Christmas. The birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh and lived among us. Heaven and earth met. The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. This is like a new creation story of light and darkness (Gen 1). Jesus the light of the world is introduced to us.
- John is a witness to the light. We are children of God who are promised new life by Jesus who revealed the Father’s love to us. The invitation is to welcome him in a world that does not know him. Even his own people did not accept him.
- Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us. Prayer today can rest in the mystery of God who is revealed to us in the coming of Jesus. From the beginning he was a sign to be rejected. Jesus desires to be at home with us and desires us to be at home with him. We pray to have room in our hearts and lives for him.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- This, the Prologue, is a powerful opening to John’s Gospel, a type of musical overture with trumpets and drums, anticipating the major themes that will recur throughout the story of Jesus. I might consider reading it out loud, then come back and dwell on one sentence or phrase that resonates with me.
- “The Word was God” – this is the central truth about Jesus in the Gospels. In one word, the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart has made him known: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). To all who believe in his name, he gives power to become children of God. So I make my own Thomas’ declaration of faith in the Risen Lord, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) – the climax of John’s Gospel.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- This is the ‘Christmas Gospel’. Christmas is not simply the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus, but the awesome mystery of the Incarnation of God. God pitched his tent among us and remains among us as a human being forever.
- The world did not know him. His own people, the leaders of the Jews did not accept him. We have accepted him and our vocation is to make his light shine for the whole world.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- As our year draws to a close, today’s scripture brings us back to the beginning of all time. As we stand on the threshold of another year, we take time to recall the greatest event of all: God has entered our world, not just for a day’s visit, but has made it his permanent dwelling.
- Lord, let me set aside some time today, to reflect back on how the light of your presence has impacted on my life during this past year. Let me be grateful and give thanks for all I have received from you directly and through the gift of other people.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- As our year draws to a close, today’s scripture brings us back to the beginning of all time. As we stand on the threshold of another year, we take time to recall the greatest event of all: God has entered our world, not just for a day’s visit, but has made it his permanent dwelling.
- Lord, let me set aside some time today, to reflect back on how the light of your presence has impacted on my life during this past year. Let me be grateful and give thanks for all I have received from you directly and through the gift of other people.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- This is the truth round which the fourth Gospel was written: that in Jesus, God has broken his immemorial silence. His Word, the perfect reflection of his Godhead, has become flesh in this baby. We look at him, see him grow and change, and wonder at the grace and truth that shine in him.
- Lord, let me continue to receive from your fullness.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- God brought Moses onto the hills of Moab, from where he could see the Promised Land. He said to him, ‘The word is very near you’. The Word, Jesus, is the Promised Land waiting for us – not tomorrow, not in some faraway time when we will have dispensed with all that now distracts us, but now. God is in residence among us, his address is ‘Planet Earth’.
- As the year ends, let me pray for the Sacred Space community, that we may all experience the colossal reality that we are living temples, in which the Word of God is eternally spoken.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- The Light of the World has come among us. He is born in the night, with his own star blazing above him. He lies in the dimness of a stable, that same Lord who, as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, led the Israelites to freedom. He has come to bring his people from darkness into light. As we gaze into the manger, at the tiny creature who is given to us as a light to the nations, we can only whisper ‘Come, let us adore him’.
- Too often, I fear the emptiness, the darkness, the silence within me. Yet it is there that the Spirit lives and moves, working even when my prayers seem most arid. Lord, help me to go daily into the quiet of my own heart, to meet you there, in love and adoration.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- We often say that it is hard to pray because we cannot imagine God. But God has seen this problem, and has painted a perfect self-portrait in Jesus. Now we know what God thinks about us and how much God loves us. I make a New Year resolution: that in the year ahead I will give quality time to getting to know Jesus better.
- Jesus brings God fully into our world. He lives among us, in our country, our city, our neighbourhood. His love and his light radiate everywhere. We are all being changed by this. Christian tradition says that God became human so that human beings might become divine. I beg as the last grace of this year that I may let that wonderful truth sink in.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- We celebrate today the presence of God among us. Slowly and mysteriously Jesus brings light into the web of human history. Slowly his light overcomes our darkness, so that eventually everyone is enlightened. I see the light coming and it bathes me in its radiance. I give thanks for all of this.
- Now that Jesus has arrived, I have a whole new meaning to my life. I am becoming a daughter or son of God! I have been adopted into God’s own family. I am important to God! I can now feel happy about myself, no matter what difficulties may be in my life. Everyone else is important too, so I ask to have great reverence from now on, for myself and for those around me.
Some thoughts on today's scripture
ActiveDefault- The crib gives us one perspective on Jesus: on a human scale, easy to imagine and love. The Fourth Gospel gives us a cosmic perspective: Jesus as the power and intelligence with which God created and sustains the world, existing before time and space. Jesus is the Logos, the word, the source of life, which is the light of all people.
- John's Gospel opens with a Prologue, a hymn that sums up John's view of who Jesus was. John asserts, in opposition to the synagogue leaders, that Jesus was a divine being. In trying to explain what he meant, he drew on ideas from the Old Testament that spoke of God's Word, or God's Wisdom, present to God before the world was created. God's Wisdom was 'the fashioner of all things.' (Wisdom 7:22) From John's point of view, Jesus was God's Word spoken to the people of Israel.
- At his birth, Jesus was truly God, but he no longer knew it. In the same way, each of us is born male or female -objective fact - but it take us a long time to grasp even a hazy understanding of what that means. So it was with Jesus. Just as with each one of us, his lifetime was a series of new insights into who he was.