FRIDAY, April 16

John 16:1-15. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

We are doomed to hopeless frustration if we assume, as many Christians have, that the only way we can learn the Lord's will in our concrete decisions and dilemmas is to "look it up in the Bible." The Bible is not a book of prescriptive oracles. As an old hymn tells us, "New occasions teach new duties." New eras in human life bring new problems. We are, literally, always in a new situation. What does the Lord want us to do in it?

Christ told us before his death that he had many things more to tell us and teach us. He promised that he would go on teaching us, showing us his will for us down through the ages, through his blessed Spirit who dwells in us, who takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. And he keeps that promise with all who keep faith with him and rely upon him. In every new situation we shall have his light to guide us, if we turn to him in meditation, prayer, obedience; if we "practice the presence." We don't find all the answers in the Bible; but in the light of the ever-present Christ we see light. (1970)

PRAY for the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory (Dublin, Ireland)

Ps 16, 17 * 134, 135; Exodus 16:23-36; 1 Peter 3:13-4:6

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