We invite you to make a ‘Sacred Space’, praying here and now, as you visit our website, with the help of the Gospel of the day and on-screen guidance.
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SOMETHING TO THINK AND PRAY ABOUT THIS WEEK
God is our deepest desire
The popular image of a mystic is of someone who spends a lot of time alone in solitary prayer, cut off from the distracting world. The mysticism of nature, however, is a gift for everyone in the audience! You may not be a person who spends much time alone with God but as you contemplate nature are you growing in wonder, in awareness that every bit of creation is singing a song to you, and is inviting you to catch on to its melody? Do feelings of awe arise in you as you spend little moments now and then marvelling at what nature keeps coming up with? When you worry about the messiness of life can you envelop it in gratitude for the steadiness of nature’s laws of growth? Can you hope that perhaps God hasn’t abandoned this chaotic world of ours to its own destructive devices but is creatively at work to bring it to its intended beauty?
The Pope says:
To sense each creature singing the hymn of its existence is to live joyfully in God’s love and hope. This contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us, since for the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice. (Laudato Si, 85)
To be a mystic, then, you don’t have to be a person whose knees are wearing out –though God draws some hearts to that silent intimacy. All you have to do is look long and lovingly at creation, and let it speak to your heart.
Brian Grogan SJ, Finding God in a Leaf: The Mysticism of Laudato Si’
We remember at this time...
Sport is practised across the globe, and, as Cardinal Tolentino reminded us during the recent Jubilee of Sport, “even when practised alone, sport is always a communal act, underlining its power to speak to the human heart, its joys, its longing for meaning, transcendence, and the infinite”.
Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed a vision of sport that encompasses the whole person – body, mind, heart and spirit. He emphasised teamwork and the educational dimension of sport.
Former Italian Olympic swimmer, Novella Calligaris, said, “For an athlete, losing is crucial—it’s the moment when one truly reveals who they are: how they recover, what they learn, and how they define their next goal.”
May this Jubilee awaken in all athletes – and any of us who play sport – the awareness that we too, too, are missionaries of hope.”
Sacred Space – Daily Prayer for 25 Years
Sacred Space began in 1999 and has offered new content every day since then. You can learn more about Sacred Space on our About page, or if you are a regular, you can share your Sacred Space Story on our Feedback page. For our 25th anniversary, we are featuring stories from people for whom Sacred Space has played a special part in their lives. Please consider sharing your Sacred Space Story.
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