Waterfall

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, June 1st, 2025:
The Ascension of the Lord

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Ephesians
1.17-23

Brothers and sisters: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

If St. Peter, the man of action, is king of the short version, then St. Paul, the poet of the Way, is prince of the long version. 

Peter, in Acts 10, manages to recount the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and the establishment of the Church in 167 words. Paul has been known to take 191 words to finish a sentence. A man after my own heart. 

I love him, and this prayer he penned for you and me. 

Looking at the language Paul wrote in, we actually have to go back to the verse before, verse 16, to pick up the main verb in this tremendous sentence. Cease. More particularly, ‘I don’t cease…’ 

Out of this flows a poem of a prayer, each phrase part of a waterfall of grace cascading down on us…

Hearts open, hands cupped and ready to receive, we step into this falling river and our souls soaks up the phrase we need, as the prayer of Paul still presses into the heart of the Father.




Noreen Smith

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