.

A couple of days ago I focussed on roofs: Lord I am not worthy, that you should come under my roof. Today it’s foundations: Be like the sensible person who built their house on rock.

However stable the rest of the house, if the foundation is not firm, the entire structure is vulnerable and in decline.

But Jesus is not giving a lesson in house-building. Jesus is teaching us about life.

Yesterday morning at the 10.00am Nazareth House Mass we did sing the twenty-third psalm (as I planned in yesterday’s post). People joined in enthusiastically – and all from memory, by rote, or (as we very appropriately call it) by heart.

There’s something foundational in learning by heart.

And we are heart-learning when we discover which aspects of life on earth are stable enough to be foundational.

We learn this not so much from what others tell us, but from our own lived experience with others.

We learn that unbridled ambition is problematic and resentment is exhausting.

We learn that the love, generosity and forgiveness we have experienced through life’s ups and downs really is foundational, not simply because love and generosity and forgiveness are good virtues but even more because we learn that living in this way creates a highway for God directly into the depths of our being.

There’s no more firm foundation for life than this divine experience.

And if you don’t feel particularly loving or generous or forgiving, no problem! Simply chat directly to Jesus about this asking him to fill you with these gifts. After all Jesus is THE foundation.

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Take an initiative and send me a date time and place for a FFF cafe-catchups. john@fff.org.nz. I’ll advertise these on each morning’s post throughout Advent.  

FFF DECEMBER DIARY

Reflection day with Fr. John O’Connor
Saturday 9 December 10.00am – 3.00pm
St Patrick’s Church  31 Gerald Street, Lincoln (Canterbury) 7608
All Welcome – BYO lunch.  (FFF – the book available, $40.00)

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Sunday 10 December 12noon
St Anthony’s Seatoun.
66 Falkirk Ave.
Kim

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Monday 11 December 10.00am (& every Monday)
Moko Cafe, (at this link)
Bush Inn Centre, Christchurch
Trish

Click the image below to order FFF – the book. If you already have the book please send a comment below. How are you finding it useful? Who do you think might appreciate it as a Christmas gift?  Your comments will be helpful for others.