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JUST A THOUGHT FROM
Fr. JOHN GLYNN
THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
3rd January 2010
By now most of you will know that I am going away from the parish for ten
weeks on a pastoral renewal course. After giving out for more than seven years at Wickford I feel the
need for some space to be refuelled and receive a bit myself, so that I can be a more effective pastor.
I find it interesting and faintly amusing to hear the reactions of people to this news, ranging from one
comment, “it’s all right for you, going off for ten weeks’ holiday!” to another who said, “it doesn’t
sound like a break to me – more like a busman’s holiday!” Few people have much idea of what is really
involved in a priest’s life; they only see the tip of the iceberg. In this Year for Priests, it seemed
an appropriate moment to stand back and give thanks for God’s gift of priesthood, and not allow the
pressures and demands to diminish my effectiveness in ministry. As God said to me through a wise prophet
some thirty years ago, “you are my son, not my doormat.”
The wise men likewise left their homes and routines to follow a star to unknown lands. It was in having
the courage to pursue their dream that they were led to the Christ child. They upset Herod with their
search for a new-born king, triggering the massacre of the Innocents. But they were filled with delight
when they found Jesus and his mother, and offered their precious gifts. On our journey of faith we too
can upset others when we challenge them with the gospel message; but we find our consolation in meeting
Christ and his mother in prayer and the sacraments, offering our lives afresh in his service.
May the Lord bless you and yours as we begin this year of grace 2010.
Fr John
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
20th December 2009
The snow comes, and predictably the schools close, the roads are
treacherous and travel is disrupted. For a moment we are paralysed or severely restricted till we get
our snow legs or ice skates. No bad thing to stop and remember what all our frenzied pre-Christmas
activity is for – Jesus. Whether or not the first Christmas was really “in the bleak midwinter” with
“snow on snow” is beside the point. Yet for the things that really matter we’ll move heaven and earth to
get there.
And that’s what God did. Move heaven and earth – or more precisely moved heaven to earth by sending his
Son into our midst. Just as when the landscape is covered with snow everything looks different, so when
the Word became flesh and lived among us life took on a new meaning and purpose. We are no longer bound
by the restrictions of the here and now, the prison of hopelessness, the problems and tragedies of our
lives, the fears about the future of our planet or our jobs or our grandchildren. The good news is that
God has lifted us into eternity by sending his Son into our time and place, to share our limitations and
vulnerabilities and pain, and love us into heaven.
In today’s gospel of the Visitation, Mary was probably not restricted by snow, and certainly not
hampered by rail chaos or airport closures. But her journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth some one
hundred miles away was not easy. What impelled her was the Good News she carried in her womb and heart;
and thoughts not of herself but of God and of others. Our greetings across the miles are so much easier
these days with cards and phones and emails and Skype. May we see Christ in one another, and find time
for one another.
A blessed and peaceful Christmas to you and yours.
Fr John
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
13th December 2009
Have you ever seen God dance? No, I don’t think you will see him
competing in Strictly Come Dancing, but the prophet Zephaniah tells the people of Israel, languishing in
exile, that the day will come when God will set them free. They will exult and rejoice because God is in
their midst. And it seems that not only the people, but God too will be ecstatic about it: “The Lord
your God is in your midst... he will dance with shouts of joy for you”.
Of course, God is spirit and cannot literally dance. The prophet is conveying in human language that
“the Lord takes delight in his people” (Psalm 149). Can you imagine the Father dancing for joy over you?
Do you realise you are that special? What today’s first reading also shows is that when we are happy,
God is happy too. In Jesus, who took on our human nature, we can see it literally. While there is no
record in the gospels of Jesus actually dancing or laughing, there’s no reason to believe he didn’t –
quite the opposite. He is often shown expressing other emotions: fear, tears, anger, love, joy, etc. He
is truly “God-with-us” or Emmanuel. Through him we know what God is like in an accessible language, the
language of human nature.
To welcome him into our midst this Christmas, we need to ask the question the people asked of John the
Baptist when he called them to prepare for the Christ: “What must we do?” Wishful thinking isn’t enough
– there’s practical preparation too. John’s answer was to ensure our treatment of others is kind and
fair. Let’s hope we’re doing that much already. But why not go a little further, and find joy in doing
it? Will you put a dance in your step?
God bless you and tours this Advent.
Fr John
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
6th December 2009
Perhaps one of the reasons we have lost our capacity for wonder and
surprise is that we have lost our ability to wait. Credit cards were introduced with the slogan: “Take
the waiting out of wanting”. You can have it NOW. But what’s wrong with waiting? Yes, of course there
are many times where delays can be tiresome, dangerous or even fatal. But getting instant solutions to
everything reduces our appreciation and sense of gratitude, and eradicates the future. We have nothing
to look forward to.
Once we get what we want, the excitement of desire diminishes, and it’s not long before we want
something else. No, we can’t take the waiting out of wanting because wanting is waiting. We long for
something we haven’t got, and that longing is of the essence of desire, of our human energy. Ultimately,
it is our hunger for God which lies at the root of all our desires, and Advent is the season of the year
par excellence when we get in touch with our desires. In the famous words of St Augustine’s prayer in
his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in
you.”
Without waiting we cannot grow. A mother waits nine months for her child to be born. The people of
ancient Israel longed for a Messiah, a Saviour to come, but when Jesus was born he took us all by
surprise. God did not announce the exact date, but when it did happen is remembered in a specific date
and place in history, roughly 2009 years ago.
Has our life of faith become so familiar and predictable that we have lost the capacity to let God
surprise us?
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
29th November 2009
Happy New Year! As the calendar year (at least in the northern
hemisphere) heads into the darkest days and longest nights, the Christian year proclaims a new beginning
and the promise of hope. Are we simply optimists pretending all is well when everything around us is
sunk in gloom and despondency? Is it just a psychological trick to give us false hope? Is Advent just
escapism?
If that were true, then the opening words of Jesus in the gospel today are hardly sweet and gentle –
quite the reverse. They speak unequivocally of nations overwhelmed by tsunamis and people unable to cope
with the world’s traumas. Is he trying to intimidate us? Is he frightening us into submission? No, of
course not. That’s not his style. He is being realistic, making us face our own powerlessness and human
limitations which he himself assumed in coming among us. If we put our trust in him we will find a way
forward in hope, even when we can’t see the result yet. Put your confidence in me, he says. Hold your
heads high; don’t cower at the darkness, but trust that I am your Light leading and guiding you.
Advent is a time to stop and reflect while the commercial world bids us do the opposite – go on a
frenzied shopping spree. The pressure this puts on people who can ill afford to spend this Christmas is
enormous. Jesus says our hearts can be coarsened by the cares of life; we can allow worry to rob us of
the peace Christ came to bring. Make time to pray, read Scripture, and remember what really matters in
life. Stay awake to the real meaning of the approaching feast of Christmas.
Happy New Year!
Fr John
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING
National Youth Sunday - 22nd November 2009
When Jesus stands before Pilate on Good Friday morning, the Roman
governor questions him about his authority and status. Pilate thinks of kings and kingdoms in terms of
territory and political power; Jesus’ response to him takes Pilate into unknown territory and unearthly
power. Yes, Jesus is a king whose mission is to bear witness to the truth. Only those who are on the
side of truth listen to his voice and accept his authority. The way to find this kingdom is to find the
truth.
Pilate famously asks: “What is truth?” but doesn’t get a reply. The answer is in Jesus’ own words four
chapters earlier (John 14:6): “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” We tend to think of truth as an
abstract concept, the essence of what is right, good and honest. But today truth is treated
subjectively; what is true for you may not be true for me, we might say. In other words, it’s not the
whole truth. Truth itself is bigger than your truth or my truth.
We may say as members of Christ that we have the truth. But it might be better to say that the Truth
(Jesus Christ) has us. Ultimately Truth is not a concept but a Person. Truth does not consist in simply
doing the right thing but being in a right relationship with God. We measure the integrity and sincerity
of our lives by comparing them to the life of Jesus and his teaching.
Young people often have a way of challenging the humbug and hypocrisy of our society, and of getting the
rest of us to face uncomfortable truths about ourselves, much as Christ himself did in his ministry. May
we ask God’s blessing on them in the decisions and direction of their future.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK
8th November 2009 - Remembrance Sunday
The human memory is amazingly sophisticated. It records every second of
our waking life and in addition holds unconscious material, the extent of which we cannot guess. How
much we can recall is only a fraction of what’s there; and while it will not always yield up the
particular memory we try to recapture, at the same time it may reveal something we do not like or want.
Most of us were born since the two world wars of the last century, which is why Remembrance Day helps to
remind us of events that have radically shaped our lives today. But the wars and conflicts since, which
are still in progress in places like Afghanistan, make it difficult to forget that ordinary human lives
like our own have been and continue to be lost in the elusive search for peace. As the Constitution of
the Church in the Modern World of Vatican II states, “peace is not the absence of war, nor....the
balance of power between opposing forces. Instead, it is rightly and properly called ‘the effect of
justice.’”
Remembrance is also at the heart of our Catholic faith. Our central act of worship flows from the
command of Christ at the Last Supper to “do this in remembrance of me”. We remember his sacrificial
death, not so that we may harbour revenge or bitterness, but paradoxically so that we may have life to
the full, because he gave his life for us not out of duty but in perfect love. Whether we recall the
death of our loved ones, of those killed in battle, or the victims of violence at the hands of others or
of environmental disasters, each of them is united with Christ’s death on the cross, and is included in
every Mass which re-presents his death and resurrection. It’s good to remember that.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
ALL SAINTS
1st November 2009
Saints are more admired than imitated. We look at their heroic lives,
sigh with regret that we could never be that holy, and sigh with relief that God isn’t calling us to be
anyway. Sanctity is not for us; only for the chosen few, we believe.
Perhaps the problem lies with our restricting sainthood to those in the premier league of holiness. The
saints officially canonised by the Church are exceptional examples, coming from many different cultures,
countries and historical settings. The majority, somewhat unfairly, seem to be bishops, priests or nuns,
which gives the impression that holiness is better suited to the professional religious. Nothing could
be further from the truth. The central chapter of the key document of the Second Vatican Council is
entitled “A Call to Holiness”, and reminds us that every single member of the Church, by reason of their
baptism, is called to be a saint, to be holy.
What is holiness? Is it about adopting a pious attitude, saying lots of prayers, and being as good as
possible? No. Holiness is not our initiative, but God’s. God calls us to become like him, to grow closer
to him, to “put on the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5). He invites us to come to know him through
prayer, Scripture and sacraments, and in love and service of our neighbour. In the words of St Therese
of Lisieux, we are to do ordinary things extraordinarily well. If that’s what he wants, he will empower
us to do it – but in his way, his time. The last thing a truly holy person thinks they are is holy. Only
God can see the result of his own efforts in us. As another modern saint, Mother Teresa, used to say,
“God never asks us to be successful, only faithful.”
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK
25th October 2009
At the beginning of the gospel of St John, as two disciples of John the
Baptist start following Jesus, he turns round and asks them, “What do you want?” Again, in last week’s
gospel from Mark, Jesus asks the sons of Zebedee who are asking a favour of him, “What do you want me to
do for you?” And now it’s the turn of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, who is calling after Jesus, to hear
the Master saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”
It might seem strange that Jesus, who was able to read people’s thoughts, should need to ask those
questions. Surely he knew what they wanted. We could say the same thing about prayer. God knows our
needs better than we do, so why bother to ask him?
The reason he asks is to get us to think about our desires. A good teacher will not simply feed us
information; he/she will try to elicit the information from us by asking questions (drawing us out –
which is the root meaning of the word “education”). So when Jesus asks a blind man “what do you want?”
he is giving him the space to talk about his real desires. Being able to see may be the obvious one, but
no doubt he had many others, like “I’d like to stop begging and have a decent job”.
Jesus is doing the same for me and you. Right now he’s asking you what he can do for you. How will you
answer? What do you really want? Do you believe he can really do it for you?
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK
11th October 2009
The rich young man has acquired much in his comparatively short life. And
he wants more and more. Not only material goods; he wants the secret of spiritual success too. What do I
have to do to add eternal life to the shopping list? What hoops do I have to jump through to get to
heaven?
Jesus’ answer is to stand the young man’s thinking on its head. You obtain eternal life by renouncing
your life. You become rich by becoming poor and making others rich. But he couches that stark truth in
the context of the rich man’s desire. He sees deep inside him a seeking, an insatiable curiosity for
real happiness. He sees ultimately what the young man cannot see – that love is the object of his quest.
So “Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him” (Mk 10:21). Only by engaging us in a relationship of
love can Jesus call us to greater things. If you love someone deeply enough, you’ll do anything for
them; as St Paul famously reminds us, “love is always ready to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever
comes”.
Love is always an invitation, not forced on us against our will. The rich young man cannot accept Jesus’
invitation, and turns away sad. The sadness comes from being torn in two – he is inspired by Jesus’ love
and challenge to him, but he now finds he cannot go that far; the cost is too great. Perhaps we too feel
inspired by the gospel of Jesus, but the pressures and constraints of our daily living make us almost
despair of being good enough for God. Hence the disciples’ reaction: “In that case, who can be saved?”
And Jesus looks steadily at them, gazes at them, and says it’s impossible for us, but God can do it, if
you let him.
Let Jesus gaze at you now with love, and ask yourself how you would like to respond.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK
4th October 2009
One of the reasons why the Catholic Church holds marriage to be sacred
and inviolable is because it is a sacrament. Every married couple is making a statement that every day,
“from this day [their wedding day] forward.... till death do us part”, they are mirroring the faithful
love that Jesus the Bridegroom has for his Bride, the Church. When marriage is no longer a permanent
total commitment for life and ends in divorce, it ceases to be a sign of God’s constant love which never
ends.
This is not a judgement on any particular failed marriage, as the reasons for divorce are many and
varied. But it does argue for a careful, thorough and prayerful preparation for marriage in the Church.
The Church insists on at least four instructions for each couple preparing for marriage. When I consider
that I spent six years training for the priesthood, a mere four or five hours in preparing for Christian
marriage seems woefully inadequate. It is clear that many, if not most, Catholics do not know that a
Catholic is expected to be married in the Catholic Church. If they are married elsewhere without
explicit permission the marriage is not recognised by the Church.
Some would say that the Church is being unrealistic in such high expectations marriage. But she is only
echoing the words of Jesus in today’s gospel: “What God has united, man must not divide.” If God has
brought this couple together in unity, what human authority can override God? This is the ideal set
before us; and if we fail after giving of our best, we must entrust ourselves to the providence of a
loving and forgiving God who can heal our hearts.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK
Home Mission Sunday - 20th September 2009
I have been very touched by the kindness and sympathy of so many people following my
father’s death just over a week ago. He died peacefully following a stroke at the age of 87, and we his
children feel above all a sense of gratitude for his life, for all he has given us; our loss is that
much easier to bear as we endeavour to make our lives his legacy.
When in the gospel today Jesus speaks of his forthcoming passion and death, the reaction of his
disciples is to pretend they haven’t heard, and ostrich-like bury their heads in the sand. To compensate
for their discomfort and insecurity, they compete for power and argue which of them is the greatest –
after Jesus, of course. James in the second reading reinforces the damage caused by our aggressive
self-seeking. Wars and battles, he says, don’t start with one nation against another, or even one person
against another. They start with the conflicting desires fighting in a single human heart. Peace begins
with me.
To illustrate how to defuse the time-bomb of ambition and self-will, Jesus takes a little child and, by
placing him between himself and his disciples, implies that following Jesus is to be led by a child.
That child-like spirit, that being of service to others, that total trust in God’s providence was a
hallmark of my father’s life, from which I hope to continue to learn as he goes home to his Creator.
His funeral will be celebrated on Thursday next 24th September 10.30am at Our Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead.
May his gentle soul rest in peace.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK - 13th September 2009
At the heart of the Christian message – indeed, it is the Christian
symbol – is the cross. For the first four centuries Christian art did not picture the crucifixion; it
was too graphic, too explicit a reminder of a common and cruel instrument of execution in the Roman
Empire. But we cannot escape the truth that this was the way Jesus died, that he accepted this degrading
and excruciating death as a consequence of his total and unconditional love for each and every person on
this earth. He was killed by those who could not accept his refusal to limit God’s love to the worthy,
the religious or the good. The cross represents a love too enormous (and costly) to be ignored.
In today’s gospel Jesus foretells his approaching death and resurrection. But even before that ominous
prediction is revealed in the stark reality of Good Friday, he invites his would-be disciples to follow
the same path. Indeed, he makes it clear: unless we accept the suffering of the cross in our own lives,
we cannot be his disciples. Our own reaction, like Peter’s, is quite human – if we’ve got to follow you,
then don’t go that way, Lord! Try something less difficult!
But for us, it’s too late. Already we have been baptised into his death, and keep making the sign of the
cross to remind us we accept its consequences every day. When suffering comes, when the dark and messy
parts of our life threaten to limit our vision and the possibility of God loving us, it is all too
tempting to want to explain it, to rationalise it, to make sense of it. But ultimately we can’t. We only
know that God in Christ has entered into the heart of suffering not to explain it but to show us how to
live with it. And to rise again with him to new life.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK - 6th September 2009
One of the best-kept secrets of the Catholic Church in this country is
that there are some significant changes to the English translation of the Mass about to be sprung on us.
Familiar texts such as the I confess, Gloria and the Nicene Creed will be modified, some heavily, and so
will some of the responses. For example, to the priest’s invitation The Lord be with you, the
congregation will reply And with your spirit. All the Eucharistic Prayers will read differently. While
some parts are attractive, much of it is stilted and archaic, in my opinion. It’s as if it is only
half-translated, and is yet to be rendered in clear English.
The present translation of the Roman Missal has been familiar to us since its publication in 1975. At
that time it was intended as a short-term version while a more thorough and more elegant translation was
being prepared – a mammoth task, since it had to be agreed by the Bishops’ Conference of every
English-speaking country in the world. In 1995 the final text was submitted to Rome for approval, and
there it sat gathering dust until 2001, when a totally new set of guidelines for translation were
decreed by Rome. Years of painstaking work was scrapped and the English-speaking hierarchies were told
to start again.
At last the new edition is nearing completion and will possibly be published next year (I overheard a
conversation in a London Catholic bookshop between an Australian cardinal and a British publisher a few
weeks ago, so I know!). In America they are already publishing details of the new version to prepare
their people (see www.usccb.org/romanmissal). But there’s not a squeak out of the bishops of England and
Wales. You heard it here first!
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK - 30th August 2009
One of the consequences of an aggressive individualism is the loss of a common moral code of behaviour.
The one who makes Frank Sinatra’s song “I Did It My Way” their anthem is not interested in anybody
else’s way unless it fits with theirs. Even the laws that have been introduced to regulate a society
that has lost a moral compass are flouted or ignored. An amoral society is well on the way to becoming
an anarchic one.
Yet there are signs that we not only want to restore order but even regain a moral compass. The pendulum
is beginning to swing back the other way. The reaction to the Scottish Justice Minister’s decision to
return the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to Libya on compassionate grounds is instructive.
Compassion is a central Christian virtue which appeals not just to legal technicalities or even moral
codes, but to the heart. What at heart do we really want for this man? I believe the reaction has
revealed the divisions and conflicts in the heart of each of us. I want to be forgiving and
compassionate, but what about justice? How do I reconcile the anger and violence welling up in my heart
with the love and forgiveness preached by Jesus?
To placate our troubled minds we suppress these feelings and try to live on the surface, like the
Pharisees in today’s gospel who insist on legal observance but don’t want to question their motives.
What’s going on in your heart? What are the unconscious motivations which colour your judgements? Jesus
challenges us, like the Pharisees, to examine the intentions of our hearts. We may not like what we see,
but self-awareness is the first step to freedom and growth, and a step nearer the wisdom of compassion.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK -
23rd August 2009
GK Chesterton famously wrote: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been
found difficult, and left untried.” When Jesus said “Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink of his blood, you cannot have life in you”, the reaction of his hearers was repulsion at what
sounded like cannibalism. “This is intolerable language. Who can accept it?” Many of his followers left
him. Did he run after them and say: “I didn’t mean it like that. Let me try and explain it in more
acceptable language”? No. He even expected that his closest friends might leave too, and gave them
permission. But Peter on their behalf said: “Without you there is nowhere else to go.”
Much of what we are asked to believe and live by defies explanation. But that doesn’t lessen its
importance or impact. Many of our contemporaries shun religion and mock any belief in God. What is it
that keeps us going? Perhaps, like Peter, we can tell Jesus that he’s the best we’ve got as far as we
can see! But Peter went on more positively to say: “We believe, we know you are the Holy One of God.”
St Paul in today’s reading from Ephesians compares the relationship between Christ and us his Church to
the relationship between husband and wife. Marriage is another mystery that has often been found
difficult and left untried. But when it is tried and lived, the spouses are a living sign of Christ’s
faithfulness to us and our loving commitment to him. We too often forget that it is never achievable by
our own human effort alone. Only by allowing God’s grace to work in us can we surrender to him and say:
“Lord, who else but you? We believe you are the Holy One of God.”
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY - 16th August 2009
The Assumption is the major feast of our Lady in the Church’s year. Most saints’ days commemorate the
day of their death, the day their earthly work was done and the reward of heaven was to follow. In
Mary’s case, an ancient tradition of the Church says that after her death she did not decay but was
taken body and soul to heaven, to share the same place as her Son whose body she had formed in her womb.
In the Eastern Church the feast is still known by its original name, the Dormition or “falling asleep”
of our Lady. You can still visit the church of our Lady near Gethsemane in Jerusalem, where the empty
tomb of Mary is venerated. The first time I visited it in 1976, it was at the end of an Orthodox
Eucharist, and people were coming out as we entered, handing us pieces of blessed bread (called the
antidoron) as a sign of peace. In my ignorance I thought they were sharing Holy Communion, but I now
know better.
Whether we refer to the Dormition (falling asleep) or the Assumption (taking up into heaven) we are
simply talking about two stages of the same reality. Like her Son, she too really died. She too was laid
in a tomb. But she had no power to rise again like Jesus. Only God could take her to the glory of
heaven. Although the Assumption has been part of Church teaching since the fifth century, it was never
formally declared until 1950 when Pope Pius XII publically honoured the Mother of God with the solemn
pronouncement of the dogma.
We who worship in a church dedicated to our Lady have a special joy in celebrating this feast.
May God bless you and yours.
Fr John
SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL 28th June 2009While these two great apostles are commemorated together, it is
appropriate, at the closing of the Year of St Paul, to concentrate on the latter. Both saints stand out
from the pages of the New Testament. Of the 27 books of the New Testament, 13 were written by or
ascribed to Paul, and another (the Acts of the Apostles) features Paul as a central character from
chapter 9. Although he came from a classical Jewish background (he was a Pharisee who studied the Law
under the great Gamaliel in Jerusalem) he was brought up in Tarsus (in modern Turkey) as a Roman citizen
speaking Greek. He was well placed, after his dramatic conversion to Christ on the road to Damascus, to
preach the Gospel to the Gentile world.
What comes across in the three extensive missionary journeys recorded in the Acts of the Apostles is
Paul’s energy and single-minded commitment to sharing his faith in Jesus Christ. One might almost say he
is obsessed with Christ: “I live not now with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me”
(Galatians 2:20) and “All I want is to know Christ” (Philippians 3:10) are two examples. Along with this
prodigious enthusiasm Paul was gifted with a brilliant intellect. Not only did he dispense guidance and
pastoral advice through his letters to the Christian communities he founded, he also developed a
theology of Christ and the Church, of salvation and justification by faith, which forms the foundation
of the Church’s teaching today. In that sense he is probably the most original mind in the history of
Christianity.
But supremely it is his experience of Christ and his life of prayer and service which counts the most.
If we do not have a personal relationship with God in Jesus there is no foundation for a Christian life,
however well meaning our intentions and actions.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK 21st June 2009
Climate change has led us to look seriously at the way we as human beings
are exercising our stewardship of the earth. While there have been periods in the earth’s history when
the overall temperature has risen or fallen, the scale and speed of the present “global warming” is
alarming. But when we see that human greed and misuse of the earth’s resources is the major cause, there
are important moral and theological consequences. Not only do we have to change our lifestyle and accept
responsibility for the harm done (what we Christians call repentance and conversion) but to recognise
the prophetic voice of God in these climate changes, because as the psalmist says: “The Lord’s is the
earth and its fullness”.
With the melting of the polar ice and the consequent rise in sea levels, more and more of the low-lying
land masses will disappear beneath the waves. The story of Noah and the Flood is no longer an ancient
fable; it holds a lesson for today. How do we cope with powers beyond our control, especially when we
have unleashed them ourselves?
“The waves were breaking into the boat,” St Mark’s gospel tells us today, “so that it was almost
swamped.” The disciples on board, hardy fishermen well used to handling boats in bad weather, were
unable to cope and feared the worst. Where was Jesus? Asleep in the stern – where the tiller was. And it
wasn’t the storm that woke him, it was the disciples! Like us, they wanted to be in control, but when
they weren’t, they wanted God to restore their control. But Jesus teaches us that only when God is in
charge that things work out for good.
Do you trust God? Or do you try to manipulate him?
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST 14th June 2009
Today’s feast was instituted by the Church in the Middle Ages and is
still known by its Latin name Corpus Christi, which means the Body of Christ. At that time people were
going to communion less often, and the practice of receiving from the chalice had become restricted to
the priest. It was felt that the laity should only rarely receive communion at the Holy Sacrifice
offered by the priest, so as a substitute it was common practice to be present at the Consecration –
when the priest elevated the Host – to look at the Lord. The present excellent practice of Exposition
and Benediction grew from this desire to gaze on what could not be received.
Since the time of Pope St Pius X a hundred years ago, the Church has strongly urged us to receive
communion more frequently, reminding us that all of us, not just the priest who acts in our name, offer
the Sacrifice of the Mass with him. And for the last thirty years we have been encouraged to receive the
Lord under both forms of bread and wine, a fuller response to the Lord’s explicit words at the Last
Supper: “Take and eat.... take and drink”.
As we can see from today’s first reading, the blood of an animal sacrifice represented the offering of a
life. The animal had to die before its blood could be taken. In the same way Jesus died on the cross
before his blood was poured out for us. On the night before he died he took a cup of wine and said:
“This is my blood, the blood of the covenant which is poured out for you.” When we are privileged to
drink from the chalice, we are not only recalling Christ’s gift of his lifeblood but also pledging our
willingness to give of our lives in his service.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
TRINITY SUNDAY 7th June 2009
At the time of going to press the local and European elections were under way and the outcome is
uncertain; national government is in disarray and political leadership teeters on the edge of anarchy.
The field is ripe for extremists to make serious inroads. An angry and bewildered public flounders
around looking for scapegoats to blame, and clutches at any would-be saviour.
Surely the serene contemplation of the Trinity at a moment like this seems so remote as to be absurd.
Yet the mystery of God’s being in whose image and likeness we are fashioned lies at the heart of any
healing of our human dysfunction. Indeed it was to restore the true dignity of our human nature that the
second Person of the Trinity assumed our flesh and identified completely with our human condition,
reconciling us with God and with each other through his death on the cross. The dynamic relationship
between the Persons of the Trinity is the model of our human relationships; we are social beings because
God is a family, not a lone individual.
If we live in a world that destroys or rejects its most vulnerable people – whether by abortion,
euthanasia, ethnic cleansing, racism, etc – then we are destroying ourselves. The measure of our love
and care for the weakest is the measure of our self-worth. No wonder we have lost a sense of direction
and leadership if our selfishness has set us on a course of self-destruction. To counter it, we have to
build a community of love, forgiveness, tolerance and generosity of spirit, which can only happen if
there is a change of attitude, sacrifice and commitment. That is exactly what the Christian gospel is
programmed to do. And we are committed to this programme through our baptism in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
PENTECOST SUNDAY 31st May 2009
Who is the Holy Spirit? There is a perception that, unlike the Father and
the Son, whose names immediately invoke concrete relationships, the Spirit is vague, ethereal and
frankly spooky (as in the use of the old English name “Holy Ghost”). In practice, however, the Holy
Spirit is anything but vague. When Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit when he ascended into heaven, he
wasn’t sending a poor substitute for himself. As the fourth Eucharistic Prayer says, “so that we may
live no longer for ourselves but for him, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, to complete his
work on earth and bring us the fullness of grace.” Jesus’ work cannot be completed without the Spirit.
And neither can ours. The fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians (5:22-24) show that the Spirit active
in us produces practical results: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
gentleness and self-control, for example. The Rev Tom Smail used to say that the gifts of the Spirit are
not things, but people, which means the number of spiritual gifts is past counting. Each one of us is a
gift of the Spirit endowed with spiritual gifts. Each one of us is expected to use our gifts to produce
the fruits of love, joy, peace, etc.
Like the apostles at Pentecost, like those being confirmed today, we can do nothing without the power
the Holy Spirit gives us. Perhaps this prayer, composed by the late Sister Josephine Payne OSU
(Brentwood Ursuline) might help:
Lord, graft me so deeply on to you that the life of your Spirit may flow through me, through every fibre
of my being. Possess me utterly and completely, Lord Jesus, so that I may become a flame burning before
you, burning with your life and love, and enkindling all who come in contact with me. Take from me all
wrangling and jealousy, all unkindness and pride, and fill me instead with your joy and peace, your
patience and love, your goodness and kindness and self-control, so that the new life you have offered me
may not be in vain, but may grow and blossom as long as I live. Amen.
Alleluia!
Fr John
THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD 24th May 20093>
The city of Florence in Tuscany is so full of works of art, in galleries,
churches and open spaces, that there is only so much one can take in before experiencing cultural
indigestion. Six priests of our diocese had only three days there this week, so we had to be selective.
The danger is to rush around glimpsing everything but looking at nothing. With visual art I like to
focus on one or two pictures and spend time letting them tell me their story.
Some subjects are immediately arresting; others take time before they yield their riches. Among the many
scenes from the gospel the Ascension is not as well represented as the Assumption of Our Lady, possibly
because the latter subject celebrates the triumph of our human nature – Mary has made it to heaven, but
her Son was going there anyway! But the picture which touched me was Botticelli’s Annunciation. The
angel reaches out to Mary, inviting her by the gesture of his hand to become the spouse of the Holy
Spirit. She in turn is at first fearful (one hand drawn back) then accepting, as her other hand mirrors
the gesture of the angel.
Isn’t that familiar? We are anxious, fearful or uncertain about what God asks of us, but at the same
time we realise it is only by accepting God’s will on his terms, not ours, that our doubts and fears can
be resolved. As we prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, may all of us, especially our
confirmation candidates, say our Yes to God as Mary did, without knowing all the answers.
Alleluia! The Lord is risen on high.
Fr John
SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
17th May 2009
The word “love” appears in the second reading and the gospel today no less than eighteen times. You get
the impression God is trying to tell us something. There is an apocryphal story about St John in his old
age clambering into the pulpit every Sunday to say: “My dear people, let us love another”, then sitting
down again. Sunday after Sunday it was the same message. One of the newer members of the congregation
nudged his neighbour and asked: “Why does he keep saying ‘Let us love one another?’ to which she
replied, ‘Because we’re not doing it yet’.
The second reading contains the shortest description of God in the Bible: “God is love”. Short it may
be, but simple it ain’t! We spend a lifetime learning to love, and no doubt we continue our lessons in
heaven. God has revealed the meaning of love not in a philosophy or guide book, but in Jesus. God wants
there to be no mistaking that love is lived out at the centre of our human lives, and has given his Son
to us as a model, and his Spirit as the Enabler: Jesus shows us how to love, and the Spirit gives us the
power to do it.
Love is the key to healing the malaise of sadness and general gloom that permeates our society at the
moment. Without God there is no hope; without hope the incentive to love is undermined. Jesus says the
greatest love we can have is to lay down our lives for our friends, like the good shepherd who lays down
his life for his sheep. The love we have for each other is the measure of how much we love God.
Alleluia! The Lord is risen.
Fr John
ON THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, 10th May 2009
Let’s begin with your answer to a simple question: do you go to Mass every Sunday (or Saturday evening)?
If your answer is an unequivocal YES, there’s no need to read further. If you are a Catholic and your
straight answer is NO, I would want to ask, in all sincerity, why not? Maybe you are ill, housebound or
dependent on someone to bring you to church; if we do not know of your incapacity and are not already
bringing you Holy Communion, please let us know. If you cannot come to church, we will endeavour to
bring the church to you. Or perhaps you feel alienated from the Church through some tragedy or breakdown
of relationship, whether through your own fault or through the hurt of others; or your problem may be
with the Church’s perceived attitude or teaching which is difficult to accept.
Your answer, however, may be YES, BUT... or NO, BUT... The “but” can imply the tension between the
demands of the Church and of the world. Which of these two definitions of a Christian applies to you:
one who lives in the world and goes to church, or one who lives in the Church and goes out to the world?
Today’s life-style is competitive and divisive, leading to individualism, selfishness and loneliness. It
takes hard work to maintain a sense of family, community and generosity of spirit.
St Paul compares the Church to a body: Christ is the head, and we are the members. In today’s gospel
Jesus says: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” We cannot survive cut off from the vine; we need
Christ, and we need each other. Our love for each other, as the second reading tells us, “is not to be
words or mere talk, but something real and active.” I find I need to go to Mass to give me the strength
to live in love.
Alleluia! The Lord is risen.
Fr John
ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER, 26th April 2009
The various accounts of Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection have one thing in common – he is not
expected to appear. There is the element of surprise, and part of the surprise is that he seems quite
normal! It’s almost comical, the way Jesus creates consternation at his arrival yet chides his disciples
for reacting so fearfully. “Aren’t you glad to see me?” he seems to say to the apostles in today’s
gospel from St Luke. Well, yes – but they don’t quite know what to make of him now. Is he the real Jesus
they knew before his death, or a new Jesus, a sort of Superman, or even (as many early Christians were
tempted to believe) really God pretending to look like a real being? “A ghost!” was their first
reaction, but Jesus says, “Have you ever seen a ghost eating grilled fish?” The temptation of our human
nature is to categorise Jesus as either a very special human being or a very humble divine being, just
as we still tend to split ourselves into “body” and “soul”. Where’s the boundary between the two? Do we
not experience ourselves as one person, and is not a split personality a disorder?
The bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth has spotlighted the old conflict between science and religion,
a conflict the Church once perpetrated in Galileo’s time but now heartily opposes. Atheists love to
isolate religion from life, and try to show it as irrelevant, on the margins of human existence. If we
deny the spiritual nature of the universe and focus only on the material, we are impoverishing
ourselves, diminishing our human nature. The risen Christ is God continuing to surprise us with his
ordinariness.
Christ is risen. Alleluia!
Fr John
ON EASTER SUNDAY, 12th April 2009
During my trip to Syria in February a number of my fellow travellers were not sympathetic to the
Christian faith, and in voicing their concerns or criticism it became clear that what they objected to
was not what I would recognise as the Christian gospel, but a caricature or distortion of it. One
conversation, for instance, was about Christian festivals. The word Easter derives from eostre, a Saxon
word meaning “sheepfold”, from a pagan spring festival. “So Easter is really pagan, not Christian,” ran
their objection. Yes, the name and date of a pagan feast was indeed adopted by Christianity – but it
took on a new and deeper meaning. It’s not just about bunnies and eggs – it’s about the resurrection of
Christ symbolised by bunnies (new life) and eggs (the chick breaking from the shell reminds us of Christ
breaking from the tomb).
We live too much on the surface of our lives to ponder meanings. There is so much pain and uncertainty
in our world today we prefer to keep busy and not think about it. But if we are to meet the risen Christ
and find hope and sustenance for living, we have to stop and ask the crucial questions. We think that by
doing so we will end in a crumpled heap on the floor of despair – or, in Christian terminology, nailed
to a cross. Christ did not rise from a bed of roses but from a dark tomb. When finally we face the
darkness of our own lives, the death of our hopes and dreams, we are looking into an empty tomb where we
are told: “Jesus is not here. He is risen. He goes before you on your journey of faith. Walk out of the
darkness into his light. He is with you always, to the end of time.”
Alleluia! The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Fr John
PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD
5th April 2009
The G20 conference this week was a bold attempt to bring world leaders
together in the face of a global financial crisis. Until the credit crunch, each nation, each financial
institution, had been working in competition with each other, trying to grab more and more money for
their cause, oblivious of the fact that there is only so much money to grab. It has been a game of
Monopoly for real, except that playing with people’s lives and savings is not a game. It is the poorest
in the world who have suffered most, and their voice is barely heard. Suddenly we are beginning to hear from politicians and world leaders that we need to work together, to
cooperate, to rediscover a sense of community and solidarity. Such a complete reversal of policy is
welcome. This is good traditional Catholic teaching. May these not be empty words but a real sign of
hope. Throwing money at the problem is of course only part of the solution. Far more important is a
change of attitude, of heart and mind; what is needed are the virtues of compassion, forgiveness,
encouragement, sacrifice and generosity. Christians during Lent have a word for this change of heart:
repentance. We begin Holy Week, which commemorates the most profoundly life-changing events in all human history,
with the awareness that the way of the cross, the way Jesus dealt with the crisis of a broken selfish
sinful world, enfolds everything that matters. He has paid the price of our redemption - not a mere
three trillion dollars, but his lifeblood. This week we are called not merely to commemorate a past
event but to enter into what Christ has done for us, and apply it to our world today by our sacrifices,
love and generosity.
Fr John
ON THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT
29th March 2009
Naturally enough, it was Philip and Andrew, apostles with Greek names, who were approached by some
Greeks with the request: "We should like to see Jesus." Like Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to catch a
glimpse of Jesus passing by, these Greeks weren¹t just doing a bit of celebrity spotting, so they could
tell their friends they¹d met the famous Jesus. What they had heard and seen of him attracted and
fascinated them. They wanted to know more, like Andrew himself at the beginning of John¹s gospel, where
Jesus turns round to see him following and asks: "What do you want?" Andrew¹s reply, "Where do you
live?" expresses the desire to know more, to experience living with Jesus, not just paying him an
occasional visit.
By now you will have realised that the journey of Lent is far more than about paying Jesus a few
extra visits. At this late stage, as Holy Week looms closer, there is no room for half-disciples or
part-time Christians.
We¹re in it all the way or we walk away sad. Jade Goodey may not have led the most exemplary life,
but she did die an exemplary death. Anyone who can teach us how to die well is exemplifying Jesus'
words: "Anyone who loves their life loses it." We cannot afford to wait till our deathbed to learn how
to die; we have to practise letting go of all that leads us away from God every day of our lives.
Otherwise, paradoxically, we will never live.
The control freak of the ego will cling on for dear life and all we will reap is a living death. We
cannot rise again unless we are first dead.
There is no Easter Sunday before Good Friday.
What is preventing you from letting go of your fears and trusting totally in God?
Happy Lent!
Fr John
ON THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
Mothering Sunday 22nd March 2009
One of the distinctive characteristics of the English temperament (and maybe the British one too) used to be a sense of
fair play, and a soft spot for the underdog. But in recent years there has grown a hardness in our British society, a
less tolerant spirit, quick to find fault and less forgiving. The incidence of road rage is a typical example; another
might be the “trial by television”, when news bulletins report on the trials of serial killers, paedophiles, fraudsters
and the rest, inviting us indirectly to make our own judgements and condemnations. I am not for a moment condoning the
crimes committed or excusing those who commit them. But perhaps we have forgotten that only God knows the heart of each
one of us, saint and sinner alike; as St James says: “Who are you to give a verdict on your neighbour?” (5:12).
Sadly even we Christians have been sucked into this insidious way of thinking and abandoned our gospel values of
compassion and forgiveness in favour of pagan values like vengeance and retaliation. The first reading today describes
the consistent infidelity of generations of the Israelite nation, but nevertheless God sends a pagan monarch to show
them the mercy they did not deserve; and all this occurred before Christ came. The words of St John’s gospel today are
among the most famous summaries of the whole Christian message: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world, not
to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.”
God is the only One who knows our hearts, and has every right to condemn us, but doesn’t. Instead he gives us the life
of his innocent Son to save us and restore us to grace. If only we knew how much we are loved and have been forgiven, we
would die of amazement or fall over each other in the rush to love and forgive each other.
Happy Lent!
Fr John
ON THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
15th March 2009In a recent lecture at Westminster Cathedral, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O¹Connor who is shortly to retire said that to be
human is "to be deeply tempted to be good". So often popular wisdom equates being human with being sinful. But sin makes
us less human, not more. Sin diminishes us. So, the Cardinal goes on, "we need to encourage and affirm the good in each
person, rather than simply naming the bad."
One of my favourite sayings of our own Bishop Thomas is: "If you speak to the good in a person, you will always get a
response." When we judge, criticise or condemn the only response we are likely to get, if at all, is a negative one. A
positive constructive dialogue opens up the way to growth; a negative approach closes down any dialogue and it is much
more difficult to move things forward. Note that the Cardinal wants us to be deeply tempted to be good. He did not say,
to be right. Good people don¹t always get it right, but their basic intention is sound.
The Ten Commandments which constitute today¹s first reading have for the last three thousand years or more provided a
foundation for goodness, not just rightness. Law, by itself, doesn¹t make us good; it only provides a framework to
contain our behaviour. The Ten Commandments are not laws like those of the land; they are based on a living committed
relationship to God and our neighbour, the result of a covenant or agreement. It is this relationship which ultimately
deeply tempts us to be good.
The gospel today tells us that many believed in Jesus, but he did not trust himself to them because he knew what they
were really like. May this Lent be a time when we can entrust our lives to God, knowing he loves us as we are. Don¹t
close the link!
Happy Lent.
Fr John
ON THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
8th March 2009The Golan Heights, which Israel annexed from Syria
in 1973, mark the politically sensitive border where Israel,
Syria and Lebanon meet. The mountain which dominates this area
is Mount Hermon, which most biblical scholars agree is the site
of the Transfiguration narrated in today's gospel. I have
admired its snow-capped peak from the Sea of Galilee while in
Israel, and recently glimpsed it again in Syria, on the road
south of Damascus, tantalisingly close but always just out of
reach.
The transfiguration of Jesus is a moment of joy and hope on the
road to Easter. Suddenly he is revealed in glory; suddenly his
three closest friends realise who he really is, and everything
becomes wonderfully clear. But then the cloud descends, and they
can see nothing; all they hear is a voice declaring that Jesus
is God?s Beloved Son and that they must listen to him. Then they
look around; the cloud has gone, and so has the light. All
that?s left is the same old Jesus.
The Christian life is like that, Lent no less so. There are
moments when our life of faith makes blindingly clear sense,
when prayer is a joy, and we want to love everyone. But they
usually don?t last very long. There?s always the danger we will
think we are in control of our lives, including the God bit.
When the cloud of God?s presence covers us, we think we?ve lost
him and he?s deserted us, when he is in fact tantalisingly close
and just out of reach. If we can hang on in the darkness,
believing and trusting only what we hear (God?s word), then we
will find Jesus is with us all the time, looking as ordinary as
Monday morning but the real Jesus.
Happy Lent!
Fr John
ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT
1st
March 2009
Perhaps there is no coincidence that the first Sunday in Lent
this year falls on the feast of St David, Patron of Wales. Lent
conjures up images of austerity, deprivation and penance, at
which the early Celtic monks were adept: one of David's
favourite pastimes was standing up to his neck in freezing water
to make sure he didn't sleep during prayer! The Celtic monks had
inherited this bizarre enthusiasm for asceticism from the desert
fathers and mothers, the hermits of early Christian Egypt and
the Middle East. While in Syria last week I visited the church
of St Simeon, a hermit who lived on top of a pillar twenty feet
high for thirty-six years - the stump of the pillar is still
there!
No, I'm not suggesting we imitate their practices, but we might
catch something of their dedication. Their attempts to become
holy might be extreme, but their desire to come closer to God
was real enough. Do we want to come closer to God? Is our desire
only hampered by not knowing how to go about it, or thinking
that we are too far away from God to even try?
The three practical tools of Lent Jesus refers to in Ash
Wednesday's gospel are prayer, fasting and almsgiving
(generosity and mercy). If we make only a token effort to use
them, they won't work; but if we genuinely want to grow in faith
they are not only effective but essential. So give time to
listen to God in prayer; make space for the things that matter
by removing the clutter; and make room in your life for others,
especially the poor and needy.
Happy Lent!
Fr John
ON THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF MARK
15th February 2009
In Jesus' day lepers were the outcasts; perhaps
today's outcasts are bankers. Indeed part of the effect of the global recession
is to make everyone feel alienated - will it be my turn next to lose my job or
my home? I had a phone call this week from a friend in the USA whose business is
going under and was on the edge of a breakdown - multiply that a few million
times and you have a picture of a troubled world. But it is worth remembering
that what we used to call the Third World has always been suffering poverty, far
worse than what we are experiencing. A little taste of that may put things in
perspective.
One of the dangers of feeling alienated and disorientated is to
find ourselves cut off from others, and loneliness and depression sets in. We
need each other more than ever, and the support of family, community and Church
is vital. But we must have the courage and humility to ask for help, and also
the generosity and love to reach out to those in need. Never before has the need
for true community been greater; the individualism and self-seeking of the last
thirty years has almost destroyed it. We must rebuild and resurrect our society
with the precious gift of our Christian faith through the Church.
By reaching out and touching the leper in his need, Jesus not
only identified with the marginalised but in the process became alienated
himself. No more graphic picture of that truth can be portrayed than the cross -
the place of death of a criminal and a slave. It was in that place Jesus
redeemed the world. Like the leper, we can say to him from our desperation and
fear: "If you want to, you can cure me!" Of course he wants to. But are we
prepared to let him, and face the consequences of living a new life in him, a
life he wants us to share with others?
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
ON THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR OF
MARK,
8th February 2009,
One of the effects of the "Big Freeze" in the
UK, this week, was to slow everyone down. Road, rail and
air transport was severely curtailed or cancelled, and
businesses and schools were closed. Many of the things we
planned to do last week never happened.
Martin Luther
used to say that if you are a busy person, you should spend one
hour a day in prayer. When someone protested they couldn't
find that much time in the day, Luther retorted: "If you're a
very
busy person, you should spend two hours a day!" In other words,
if you're too busy to pray, you're too busy.
The gospel today describes twenty-four hours in the
ministry of Jesus. After a heavy day preaching and
healing, he returns home to Peter's house to cure Peter's
mother-in-law and minister healing way into the night as "the
whole town came crowding round the door". Yet after that,
he doesn't get much sleep. "Long before dawn" he is up and
off alone to pray. If Jesus the Son of God needed to pray,
why do we think we lesser mortals don't need it so much?
Our busyness can often be a smoke-screen keeping us from
being still and listening to the voice of God. There are
aspects of our lives we don't want to face. But Jesus
needed to know his Father's will in order to direct his life
aright. However impossible our situation may look, the
prayer of St Ignatius gives us courage: "Lord, help me to remember that there is nothing in this world
that you and I cannot handle together."
God bless you and yours.
Fr John
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