Today, we go back to Gospel of St John, chapter 6, where Jesus is presented to us as the Bread of Life.

About 30 years ago, our parish priest invited the Movement for a Better World to conduct our parish Lenten Retreat.

Quite a large number of parishioners, myself included, turned up on the first night. The presenters consisted of two priests, one nun and a layperson.

We met in the church for our first session, during which we were asked to listen to a calypso. Almost immediately a murmur ran through the church and people began complaining.

• Calypso in church? I came to a retreat, not a calypso tent
• How can Father allow this?
• It was pan in another church, now is calypso in our church!

A few persons even decided to leave and walked out. The majority stayed on, however to the end of the session, but the complaints continued even after the team left.

• What does a calypso have to do with God?
• What can this calypsonian teach me about my faith?
• This kind of retreat is not for me.
• Playing games and calling one another by first name, this is too much for me!

And so the numbers dropped drastically the following night. However, those of us who stayed had such a fantastic experience that I have never forgotten that retreat. The dynamics of the retreat fostered basic life-giving experiences.

We learned to dialogue, which entails listening to each other with good will, even though you may not agree with what the other person is saying.

The interaction of the different age groups taught us to respect one another and also to communicate our feelings freely without being told that we were wrong.

We shared, we played, we prayed and we learned. Barriers were broken down during our recreation periods. We became open to one another. Meanwhile, God's word became alive for us; we were made aware of God's presence among us and in the world.

At the end of the retreat, the group that persevered emerged a transformed group. We were a group on fire. Lots of changes took place in our parish after that. There was greater participation in the life of the church by almost everyone. Persons volunteered to become involved.

A long time has passed since that retreat but what I learned during that week continues to help me in my everyday living dealing with people. I have learnt to listen and to read the signs of the times, to believe, to hope and to trust because I have been “taught by God.”

As I recall this experience, I am better able to enter into today's reading, which at a first reading appeared to be so difficult.

How difficult it was for the Jews to accept Jesus, that ordinary person whose parents they were familiar with, as being “sent by God” and who also claimed to be “the bread of life.”

In the same way my fellow-retreatants could not understand that a retreat that involved a calypso, games and ordinary everyday experiences could “teach us about God” or bring us “to eternal life.” The retreat directors had taken on this journey.

“Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God, he has seen the Father.
Father, we thank you for today's reading. We thank you for those persons who journey with us and raise us up to your presence so that you can raise us up on the last day.
We thank you, Father, for our mothers, leaders, and persons like Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, who gave their flesh for the life of the world.
We are sorry, Lord for the times we complain about life and all it has to offer. We forget that it is through the ordinary things of life that you draw us to the Father who has sent you.
Father, we pray that those whom you call to be parents, teachers, leaders would take their vocations seriously and really give their lives so that their charges can live.
Lord, send us persons, like Jesus, who give us bread that comes down from heaven, so that we may eat it and not die, for the bread they give us their flesh for the life of the world

Gospel Meditations for August are by Miriam Mannette. Miriam is a retired primary school teacher and Confirmation catechist. She and her husband Tony are members of the Santa Rosa, Arima parish community.