3rd April 2011 - 4th Sunday in Lent

Apologies for the delay in getting the details of this weeks show up for our regular readers!

On this weeks show John and Colin discuss a charity for elderly home care in Medugorje, we have our regular reflection on the weekly gospel; this week looking at the healing of the man born blind, a quick look at the saints of the coming week and some local announcements.

Charity - St Lukes Home Care

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John and Colin discuss their encounter with Jane Dowd who has set up a charity called St Luke's Homecare which provides outreach and aid to elderly and poor people around the village of Medugorje and gives assistance to them through working with locals to help them with their basic needs and also helping to employ local nurses.

If you would like to contribute to this outreach work you can contact Eileen Giltenane at Giltenane's Pharmacy in Rathkeale 069 63437


Gospel - John 9: 1-41

This weeks gospel is a continuation of a themetic gospel from John during Lent. It is another arch-type gospel where the anonymous person in dialogue with Jesus represents themselves and also represent us as we can associate with the people involved.

The man born blind represents both physical and spiritual blindness relating to Jesus at the time and blindness to Jesus in our world today. It is a very symbolic gospel with baptism like last weeks gospel with the Woman at the Well which is important link for those preparing to be received into the church at Easter - light and water, symbols of new life in Christ. We have a man born blind but through his suffering as a blind person in life can "see" and "know" much more than those who have eyes to see.

The story of the blind man is one of hope for us in our spiritual journey as it is a progression in terms of recognising who Jesus is. The blind man first sees him as a man, then a prophet and finally in a recognition of faith sees him as Lord. It is a call to us all to discover where are we blind? Do we see our neighbour? The begger at the ATM? The person we dont have time for? Have we time to examine where are our blind spots are? The journey of the blind man also reminds us that the journey to encounter God is a gradual process which takes time to develop and work on.

The spiritual blindness of the pharisees is a challange to us all. Are we pharisees who dont have time to "see" the Lord and recognise him? Are we doubters afraid of letting Jesus through the shield that we set up around ourselves and recognising him as God? The questions posed by the Pharisees - What do you have to say about Him? A huge challange to us, what do we have to say about Jesus and do we have the courage to say it?

Further reflections on this weeks gospel from Sunday Reflections, Word on Fire, Godzdogz, Salt & Light Blog.

Saints of the Week

April 4th - St Isidore of Seville, patron of the Internet
April 5th - St Vincent Ferrer OP
April 6th - Bl Michael Rua SDB
April 7th - St John Baptist de la Salle
April 8th - St Julie Billiart - founder of the Sisters of Notre Dame
April 9th - St Mary of Egypt

Thanks for listening!

All the team at Sacred Space 102fm