My Thoughts on 05/10/2021

When designing the sanctuary at Our Lady Immaculate Church, Tolworth, we thought about what sort of decoration to put on the Ambo which is the place from which the Scriptures are proclaimed and from where the homily is delivered.

In many churches you will find a motif of the four evangelists. Matthew depicted as an Angel, Mark as the lion Luke as an Ox and John as an eagle. After discussing this with Theodore Gillick, the sculptor, he created a lovely carving of Jesus with Mary at his feet listening. This is the gospel for today. Mary is listening as a disciple listens.

The tension we experience in our busy lives today is making sure that we give ourselves time to listen. I believe that our work and activity will only bear fruit if we balance this with a listening to God’s word.

We need time to be still with Jesus. This is true whether we are a business person, a health worker, a full time mum or dad, a teacher, a shop worker, a HGV driver, a politician or a single and retired person. Whoever we are, whatever we do, we need to be Mary as well as Martha.