The Second Friends With Christ Retreat begins today

Few souls understand
what God would accomplish in them
if they were to abandon themselves
unreservedly to Him
and if they were to allow His grace
to mould them accordingly.

~ Saint Ignatius of Loyola ~

Today we begin the second of our Friends with Christ retreats. Please pray for us - the group of girls who are on the retreat, and Fr Richard and myself. The picture here is may be a bit old fashioned, but is an image of Christ and St John, who lay on Our Lord's breast at the Last Supper, and felt the very beating of his Heart while he instituted the Blessed Eucharist. Never was there such friendship with Christ than that of the Beloved Disciple and Our Lord (except of course the ultimate friendship with Christ that Our Lady had). So pray that through coming to know the Heart of Christ we may have friendship with Him, especially through receiving and adoring the Eucharist.

Funnily enough I was trawling the internet last night and found an excerpt on friendship with Christ from a Parish bulletin in the States:

While our friendships are parochial, needs-based and satisfiable in their purposes, a friendship with Jesus has to be universal, grace-driven and insatiable. Because we are beings of limited potential and capabilities, we prosper quite well with a limited number of friends. We cannot be friends with everyone. We pick and choose according to our likes, wants, common interests, and a sense of fulfillment that the relationship yields. Our "friend in need is a friend indeed."

Jesus, on the other hand, because He came to share everything that was told to him by the Father, truly looks to every single person on the face of the earth, past, present and future, as someone with whom to share His love.

Finally, just a few words of the Holy Father from the summary in English of yesterday's Wednesday audience catechesis:

In our own day, there are many who reject him or reduce him to a mere “teacher of wisdom”, stripped of his divinity. But Jesus is truly God and truly man, tirelessly proclaiming the Gospel to all people and challenging us to open our hearts to him. “To all who received him, he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). What is our response to him? Let us follow the example of so many holy men and women throughout the history of the Church who have welcomed Emmanuel into their lives, becoming beacons of light and hope. At the start of this new year, let us once more open our hearts and minds to him, so as to spread the joy of discipleship to those around us.