11/08/2026
“Try not to be so busy in life that we neglect prayer with our God who gives and renews life”. Fr John OLA Chermside Catholic Parish 🙏🏽🙏🏻 💙 ✝️
In Sunday’s homily, Fr John shared how Jesus reminds us that we need never face life’s storms alone.
Christ’s hand is always reaching out for us to embrace prayer, faith, love, courage, healing and hope. Fr John deepens this insight through his newsletter reflection…
“Between miracles lies a detail that the Evangelist Matthew deliberately highlights: Jesus went up the mountain by Himself to pray.
This is not an insignificant detail. It is one of the most beautiful windows into the heart of Jesus.
Before confronting the storm, before revealing His divine power by walking on water, Jesus first spends time alone in prayer with His Father.
Throughout the Gospels, we repeatedly find
Jesus withdrawing to pray.
Before choosing the Twelve Apostles, Jesus prayed.
Before beginning His public ministry, Jesus prayed.
Before His Passion, Jesus prayed in Gethsemane.
Even on the Cross, Jesus prayed. Jesus
never did the work of God without first making time to be with the God of the work.
If the Son of God considered prayer indispensable, how much more do we
need prayer every day?
Prayer is not simply another activity to fit into an already busy schedule.
Prayer is where we discover who we are before God. It is where our fears are placed
before God’s love,
our burdens before God’s mercy,
our confusion before God’s wisdom,
and our weakness before God’s strength.
Prayer does not merely prepare us for life's battles; it transforms the way we face them.
Perhaps one of the greatest struggles facing today us as Christians is not that we have stopped believing in God, but that we have become too busy to spend time with God in
prayer.
Our calendars are full, our phones constantly demand our attention, and our minds are crowded with countless distractions.
Yet without prayer, our souls slowly become exhausted. The disciples discovered this lesson the hard way.
While Jesus prayed on the mountain, the disciples struggled against strong
winds in the middle of the lake.
They were experienced fishermen, yet their skills were no match for the storm. They rowed harder, struggled longer, and became
increasingly afraid. How often is that our own experience?
There are storms that no amount of intelligence can solve.
There are waves that no amount of money can calm.
There are situations where human strength
simply reaches its limits.
Those storms can come in the form a sickness that changes everything overnight. They can come through the death of someone we
dearly love.
In fact, they can appear as financial hardship that keeps us awake at night, uncertainty about the future, tension within our marriages, fractured relationships within our families, loneliness, anxiety, disappointment, or struggles with faith itself.
Every one of us can find ourselves somewhere on that stormy sea.
Whenever we fix our eyes solely on our problems, they grow larger.
When we become consumed by fear, discouragement begins to pull us down.
But whenever our eyes remain fixed on Christ, we discover a strength that does not come from ourselves.
Peter's salvation begins with a simple prayer: "Lord, save me!" This is one of the shortest prayers in the Bible, yet one of the most powerful.
Immediately Jesus reaches out His hand and catches Peter.
This gospel pericope concludes with a sentence that deserves to remain in our hearts every day of our life:
“As Christ got into the boat with Peter, the wind dropped."
The storm ceased not because the disciples
became stronger, nor because the waves suddenly disappeared on their own.
The wind became calm because Jesus entered the boat.
This is the permanent truth of Christian faith. When Jesus enters the boat of our lives, peace enters with Jesus.
Christ’s presence does not always remove every difficulty immediately, but it changes how we live through them.
Christ’s presence brings courage where there was fear,
hope where there was despair,
forgiveness where there was
resentment,
light where there was darkness,
and peace where there was anxiety.
The calmness that comes from having a
relationship with Christ is deeper than favourable circumstances.
It is the serenity that comes from knowing that, whatever happens, we are not facing life alone.
This is why prayer matters so much. Prayer invites Jesus into our life every single day.
Prayer keeps our eyes fixed on Jesus
instead of on the waves.
Prayer reminds us that we belong not to our fears but to Christ. Prayer teaches us to recognise that the God who fed the hungry crowd is the same God who still
walks upon the storms of our lives.
In the coming days, may we renew our commitment to daily prayer.
Let us make time to be with the God of life in prayer every morning before we leave home; for when Christ is welcomed into our lives and homes, the storms of life no longer have the final word.
Christ’s presence brings a peace
that no storm can steal, a hope that no darkness can extinguish, and a love that carries us safely to our day.
God bless you all,
Fr John
To read Fr John’s weekly newsletter reflections, please collect a copy at Mass or visit our website page
https://www.olaparishchermside.org.au/newsletter
