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Homily for the 14th Sunday of the year
It seems that in the modern era we have become far too busy. We have many different forms of technology where we make life easier and I put that in inverted comas. From the Internet to the mobile phone we can now have instant access to information and world events. These modern devices have been designed so that we many have a less busy life. But, in fact they have had the opposite effect. 

We have become busier as a society and the affects are showing in the wider world. There are more people with health problems because of being too busy there burdens are too heavy for them to carry. So we need to find places and times where we slow down and learn to breath and ultimately find God.
In today’s Gospel we are told “Come to me all you who are over burdened and I will give you rest.”  The one word that is contradictory to our modern way of thinking is the word “Rest.”  To be at rest is not to be lazy but active listening and being with the Lord. The invitation by Jesus is to come and I will give you rest. To be with Jesus in Rest to come into contact with the Spiritual self to find rest in the Lord. If the burden feels to much too hard to carry then ask the Lord he has broad enough shoulders let him take the strain.
We need to have the courage to allow this to happen to allow ourselves to be at Rest with the Lord and to respond to the invitation to come. This invitation comes out of the Lord’s love for us. This love is gentle and a humble acceptance to be who we are in front of the Lord. He does not want anything else. Come as you are not how others or even what you might think God wants us to be. He loves us and has chosen us to reveal his love to us.

Now for the difficult bit: Here is comes. We need to accept this help we need to respond to the invitation to Come and rest in his love. We need to accept that God loves us and so we need to learn to accept and love ourselves. To give our burdens to God and allow his gentle hand helping us as we heard in the psalm “The Lord supports all who fall and raises all who are bowed down.”   

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