God speaks to us through the BIBLE
These are the stories that have been told over two thousand years. Just think about it…two thousand years, not a hundred or two hundred years but two thousand years.
I was told these stories nearly seventy years ago. You already know quite a few of them too. The strange thing with these stories, which we can all read about, because they are collected in the Bible, is that no matter how many times you read them, you always notice some new detail which makes you think. Even if you knew the story by heart, it would tell you something new every time you thought of it. Really, it is true. As you grow and as you experience new things and meet new people and find yourself in different situations, the Jesus story unfolds into a richer and richer feast for thought. Each story sheds a different light on the situation you currently are in. It is a bit like being in the same room alone one afternoon and with a few friends another afternoon. It will feel different or looking at your room in the morning when the sun is shining outside and at night when you can’t fall asleep. You will be having very different thoughts even if you are in the same place and you are of course the same person…That is why we call the Bible “the living Word”. We believe that it is one of the ways that God speaks to us. For that reason, precisely, during the Mass, before the priest reads the holy scriptures, we sign ourselves with the little sign of the cross on the forehead (so that the message we are about to hear, will touch our mind and influence our thinking), then we sign our mouth (so that we share God’s message in our speaking) and finally we sign our heart with the same cross (so that the Word of God stays in our heart).
We all have our favourite stories in the Bible. The one about the children coming to Jesus whilst adults are discussing things with Him and they get a bit annoyed that the children are to interrupt their serious discussion. They try to send the children away and Jesus beckons them to come close telling the adults that unless they become like the little children there will be no room for them in heaven.
Here is a wise reflective poem written by a young person:
A Bully
A bully’s eyes
Are like fires
Burning through its path.
A bully’s strength
Is like a rhino
Charging through the jungle.
A bully’s laugh
Is as painful as a lion Destroying everyone’s hopes.
A bully’s taunt
Is not very nice
But if you try, you can find the good in them.
Leo 4BW