THE SHORTEST MONTH IN THE YEAR

I came across my Mother’s diary today. I should say “one of her diaries” because she filled in several a year, not, as you can imagine, for dates and happenings, but to write in her favourite sayings.

She gathered these from all over the  place, favourite cuttings from newspapers, words of wisdom from current stars of radio, screen or stage, snatches of poetry remembered from childhood, quotations from her favourite playwrights, authors or even from people she knew.

To read one of her diaries, was to take a trip back in time, to see her again, in the mind’s eye, bent over this little book when the day’s work was done.  She loved it, and to read what she once wrote down so lovingly in days gone by, brought her close.

In my mind, I could hear her soft Irish voice as she read out bits to us, see her face crease up with laughter at some absurdity that she had captured when quoting from the words of some star of radio or television. I looked at her writing – no computers then – and I was filled with love and yes, wonder.  How did she manage to write all that? It was not an orderly account of anything, just random jottings that came to her as she sat by the fire in the evenings. But to read it now, brought back all the life, the vibrancy, the colour that was my mother.

To have had a mother like her was a gift I can never repay.  She was intelligent, funny, wise, sensitive and energetic with a mind that, like Autolycus in Shakespeare’s “Winter’s Tale”, made her “a snapper up of unconsidered trifles.”  She had an eye for kindness, for wisdom, for absurdity and for what I can only call faith. She never learned theology as such, but her love of the Scriptures shone out from her, and she always said to us, “Remember this saying: ‘Prayer is the golden chain that binds us to the feet of God’" -  I think that is Tennyson. She loved him. Prayer for her was just talking to God, inviting Our Lady to sit opposite her in a chair, and then having a loving conversation together.  Our Lady was her best friend. So often I see my mother’s hands slipping the beads through her fingers – she said all the mysteries of the Rosary each day.

And like the mother in “The Boree Log” every prayer she said was answered. You remember that old lady who came from Ireland to Australia in the beginning of the 20^th century? She prayed for “every hurted hand, and every hurted heart” (or words to that effect!) and everything came right. So did my mother’s prayers.

But I started this blog by calling it “The Shortest Month in the Year.”  That is, I think, February.  My mother loved February because it was the brink month, when Spring was waiting to burst out in all its splendour.

I once said to her “I hate November and February, they are so dull!” and she was so cross with me. “Never say any day or month is horrible, it is God’s gift to you," she replied. 

“No matter what it looks like, try to see the goodness in each day, and the promise in each month,” was her advice.  I couldn’t see it at the time, but now I can.  We have bad floods and terrible weather at the moment in many parts of this country, and throughout the world.  We can be tempted to be despairing, but, as my mother pointed out, there will be better times if we keep our hopes up.

History has largely proved her right.

February was one of my mother’s favourite months.  She loved the tiny lengthening
of the evenings, calling it “a cock’s step” of added light.  She could smell the earth quickening, and see, in her mind’s eye, the riot of Spring flowers that were soon to grace her little patch of garden.

February, for her was “brink month, young month, which unlocks the gate to Spring. It is always on the brink of something wonderful.”  That is what I am reading in her diary just now. It was her philosophy. She believed that the shortest month of our year was indeed the threshold of “something wonderful.”  She died on the 15^th February, just as the flowers were beginning to poke up cautious green stalks through the as yet, unwarmed earth.  She knew she too was on the brink of something wonderful. That year, her Spring was with God, and I know she would have exclaimed with delight at the unbelievable colours of Heaven, and the “something wonderful” was life with him in his eternal Springtime.

“I will plant,” she said to me,   “Stocks, phlox, cosmos, nemesia, Sweet William, daffodils, wallflowers and pinks this February.  They will be lovely!”

Have a good brink month.  God bless each of you and may “something wonderful” be yours.

 

Walking with Francis

Pope Francis I is a man of energy and enthusiasm. He may be in his late seventies, but he is, in spirit, still in his youth.  The youth of the Spirit. He has the same gift of enthusiasm that the early Christians had.

When we read the Acts of the Apostles, we cannot but be enthused ourselves.  We are amazed each time  we read anew about the account of those men, women and children who took the Gospel message across the world as they knew it then.  Their courage, joy, steadfastness and sheer vitality catch at our hearts and make us feel good. What other qualities did they have that made them so memorable?

Well courage for a start;  then we could add openness to the work of the Spirit, faithfulness, integrity, humility, truthfulness, justice,  a love of prayer.  The list could go on....

 

Looking at what Pope Francis is saying and doing since his inauguration as Supreme Pontiff, we can see the same qualities surfacing in him.  As our leader, he is following the example of all our previous popes in his desire for a renewed Pentecost in our time. It was Pope John XXIII who, at the age of 78, started the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago by saying:

 

"Renew in us, Lord, the wonders of the First Pentecost"

 

and Paul V1th, his successor who declared "we need the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit" on our

world today.  Succeeding Popes have urged us to open our minds, our hearts and our lives to the power of the living God.  We now have Pope Benedict's Year of Faith in order to help us to do just that.

Francis has opened up a new window on the world, on the Church, on us all from the Vatican.  He strides through the byways of Vatican City and its environs with a new energy, a wide smile and with what has been called by journalists the "elan" of a Jesuit!  Let's look at some of his recent sayings:

"What a joy it is for me to announce this message: CHRIST IS RISEN!" 

 I would like to go out to every house, and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons...

 

Most of all I would like to enter every heart, for it is there that God wants to sow this GOOD NEWS.

Jesus is risen!! There is hope for you, you are no longer in the power of sin, of evil!

LOVE has triumphed, mercy has been victorious! The mercy of God ALWAYS triumphs!"

"Don't look at the Gospel purely through the intellect, without regard for love or beauty" he advised the employees of the Vatican printing press and newspapers.  "When ideology enters into our understanding of the Gospel, we understand NOTHING. Ideologies falsify the Gospel. The path of love, the way of the Gospel is simple. It is the road of conversion, the road the saints understood,  the road of humility, the road of love, of the heart:  the way of beauty. The Gospel is so beautiful, it makes us beautiful with the beauty of HOLINESS."

"Don't leave the Church out, you cannot follow Jesus, love Jesus, without the Church! You cannot find him.  It is the Church which gives us Jesus, gives us IDENTITY"

"You must announce Jesus with your LIFE, with your WITNESS and with your WORDS!"

"Don't be afraid to swim against the tide," he told the young people he was about to confirm. "it is good for your heart!"

And to ten young men on their ordination day.  "proclaim the Gospel with JOY and don't forget to thank your parents, your grandmothers, your catechists, for passing on the faith to you!"

 He himself was very influenced by his grandmother, who was his mentor throughout this life.

Finally, he said, wistfully, at the beginning of his pontificate.  

"How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor!"

The fresh breath of the Spirit is forming us into a new pentecostal community.  So let's pray together:

"Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us, on our hopes and dreams, on our mistakes, on our loved ones, on those who walk other paths.  Make us all into a world-wide community of love and hope and friendship! " We ask this with faith in the power of your Spirit.  Amen.

Have a lovely Pentecost!

Feast of Epiphany: A cold coming we had of it...

That is how T.S.Eliot opens his story of the Journey of the Magi.  It was cold, long, miserable, difficult and alien.  But they persevered, and eventually found the Infant Christ in Bethlehem.  Most people who know about journeys at that time, and the distance between the Arabian countries the Kings lived in and the inhospitable hills of Judea, would say that it must have taken the best part of a year for these Eastern kings to arrive at their destination.  Months of hardship, months of missing their homes and the comforts of civilised living, months of putting up with strange customs, and even stranger languages.  A whole year of wanting to turn back, thinking they must have been mistaken!! 

Not our image is it?  We usually put the Kings beside the Crib, picturing them as waiting with their exotic presents, surrounded by their camel boys and their charges, those rather strange-looking animals with their humped backs and long, narrow aristocratic faces which seem to disdain human beings.  We see the silken coverings the kings wore, the splendour and uniqueness of the presents of gold, francincense and myrrh the servants carried for them, the  colourful turbans, the gleaming white teeth in the dark faces...  It is all so exciting and so different.

But the reality?  It would seem to be more in tune with Thomas Stearn Eliot's view than with our own,  more romanticised one.  Look at the familiar lines of the opening stanzas:

A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year for a journey, and what a journey!

The ways deep, and the weather sharp.

the very dead of Winter.

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

lying down in the melting snow.

There were times when we regretted

the Summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

and the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men, cursing and grumbling

and running away, and wanting their liquour and their women

 And the night fires going out,  and the lack of shelters.

and the cities hostile, and the towns unfriendly.

and the villages dirty, and charging high prices.

A hard time we had of it.

So the quest to find the King of Judea was not an easy one.  Is it ever?  If we look at the journey of the Magi, then we have to say that, like all of us, they set out in hope and a certain excitement to follow this unusual star that had appeared in the East, but, as the journey progressed and reality bit in, they almost gave up.  They were obviously intelligent and gently-nurtured men who were not used to the rigours of such a journey.  They missed their homeland, and the comforts it offered them.  That of course is natural, but what is remarkable about their journey is that they were faithful to the inner prompting that made them go on when they were dog tired, cold, hungry and disillusioned  That is courage.

Their courage was rewarded by the  sight of the star stopping over, of all things, a stable.  What an exercise of faith that was required of these three royals! They went in and saw the child Jesus with his Mother, and they offered their gifts, the best that their country had to offer, to her for the support of this refugee family.  It must have been a wonderful experience for them, the fulfillment of all their hopes and dreams.  When they got back to their old country, according to the poem, they "were no longer at ease in the old dispensations". In other words, they were so changed by meeting Jesus in the flesh that they realised that the things they had believed in before meeeting him were no longer of  use to them.

 

They saw their own people through new eyes, as "an alien people clutching their gods".

Isn't that part of our journey too?  Aren't we so touched by Jesus and his teachings that, to quote the New Testament account of the Transfiguration , we too "see no one but only Jesus." The following of our star is also our conversion experience.  At the end of it, we are led to the beginning, the coming of our Saviour to meet us and to bring us to his world.  Then our journey is complete.

Until then, we have to go through the rigours of the journey, searching for signs of his presence in our lives.  We see them in the most unexpected places, and in the most surprising people.  Jesus isn't fussy where he lives - he speaks to us all the time, but especially in the poor, the lonely, the disenfranchised, the ones who, to use Liverpool parlance "aren't much cop."  They are of no account in our world, but Jesus loves to show them the way to him, so that we can, in turn, be evangelised by them.  Try it some day!  


In the meantime, have a lovely Epiphany and remember to follow that star, no matter where it leads. Wise men did so and look what they found.  Wise people still do so, and they too have found Jesus with his mother Mary . Not forgetting the wise and gentle Joseph.

So with the three Kings, now enjoying the delights of Heaven, we pray: 

"Guide us to thy wondrous light! "

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light

                                                           

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light...

So Isaiah Chapter 9 starts.  Does that passage lift your heart?  If not, try again!!   Imagine a people, poor, lowly, dispirited, living in darkness – the darkness of fear, of bereavement, of lack of peace, and look around you.  Yes, we see these people all the time, every day at some time or other, and, unfortunately we get used to seeing them, used to their pain and hopelessness, so that we don’t try to do anything about it.  Isn’t that true?

This word-picture in Isaiah goes further.  Isaiah says that they “have seen a great light.”  Not a small, bobbing light that gives no relief from the surrounding darkness, but a great light , a light that will never go out, the light of the risen Christ shining on our shadowed world, lighting up the darkness, so that we can see clearly, reaching out to those still sitting in the darkness of despair, and lifting them out of it with our prayer.   This is an Advent experience.  Advent is all about hope.

“You have made their gladness greater” the prophet goes on to say, “you have made their joy increase”.   Advent is also about joy.

Yesterday morning at Mass in our local Church,  there was a chill in the air.  The Church wasn’t adequately heated, and it was very frosty and cold outside.  People were rubbing their hands and putting gloves back on, and shrugging into thick heavy coats.  Not at first a particularly joyful atmosphere for the first Sunday of Advent.  Then one of the altar servers, a young girl, picked up a taper, lighted it and went over to the newly-created Advent wreath.  She lighted the first candle and everyone in the Church craned their necks to have a look.  A flickering candle, getting stronger, the first of four lighting up the greenery around it, and picking out the purple, pink and white candles  still unlighted in the circle of time.   Most smiled.  The first Sunday of Advent!  A sign of hope.   A bit of warmth in a cold Church,  the beginning of a journey of faith – another Christmas on the way.  You could almost read the thoughts of the Congregation as they looked at that lone candle.  The symbol of hope, peace and gladness.  We all knew what it meant to us.

Advent is about a shared journey of faith which is lighted up by the light of Christ’s coming which started all those years ago in that little town of Bethlehem.

It demands something of us, as all journeys do.  What did Isaiah say as he continued the theme of his prophecy?

For (we) rejoice in his presence as people do at harvest time,  when they are happy  dividing the spoils.  For the yoke that was weighing on him,  the bar across his shoulders, the rod of his oppressor, these you break as on the day of Midian.

Why?

Advent is about laying down burdens,  and freedom from oppression because Jesus promised us that he had been anointed “to bring good news to the poor,  to bind up hearts that are broken, and to  proclaim liberty to captives and those burdened”  (Isaiah 61).  His mission was to give hope to those made poor.  It is our challenge now in this Advent.

Further, he challenges us:

For all the footgear of battle, every cloak rolled in blood is burnt  and consumed by fire.

Advent is about refraining from enmity, hatred, aggression.

Again, why?

"For there is a Child born to us, a Son given to us, and dominion is laid upon his shoulders,

And this is the name they will give him:

WONDER -  COUNSELLOR,  MIGHTY GOD,  ETERNAL FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE.....”

Advent is about the coming of the eternal, co-existent,   all-powerful God who is “other” to our world in order to forge human and divine links which makes him one of us, imminent, enfleshed in our humanity, part of our pain and our joy.  It is about a love that will not let go, a love that invites us to hold on to those tiny hands that became the healing, out-reaching hands of the Man God of Nazareth.  It is an invitation to change our stony hearts to hearts of flesh so that he can love us the way he wants to love us.

Read the passage from Isaiah just quoted again and again, and make it your own this Advent.  It is beautiful, awe-inspiring and challenging, as are all the Advent readings.

Have a lovely Advent.  We will meet again next week, hopefully, when you have walked a few steps on the journey.  As a famous anthem of a Northern football team would sing:

When you walk through the dark, hold your head up high,

And don’t be afraid of the dark,

At the end of the road is a golden sun and the sweet-silver sound of the lark.

WALK ON, WALK ON WITH HOPE IN YOUR HEART AND YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE!

 

For we, the people who walked in darkness have seen a GREAT LIGHT.  Praise him!

 

Drawings courtesy of P Macaulay (c) 2012
Photos courtesy of BML and AK (c) 2012
Clip Art courtesy of BMcC
 

 

Living in the Power of the Spirit

In the early days of the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI, said that one of the main purposes of the Council was to ensure that the fresh breath of the Spirit swept through the Church.   He wanted families to be renewed, old quarrels mended,  nations to be at peace with one another.  It was a dream, and like all dreams part of it faded into the darkness of reality.  Yet the hope remained.

That was in 1963, 49 years ago.  Look at the world around you. Has this dream faded into antiquity?  No. Has it survived intact?  As a hope, yes! As a reality in our lives? Only partly so.  Why is this? Well we don’t have to look beyond ourselves.  We have been baptized, confirmed, educated in the faith for many years perhaps, and yet we still remain unfulfilled, static even.  Is that the fault of the Holy Spirit?  Emphatically “No!”  We know very well that the fault lies with us.  We lack that spark, that passion, that intense desire to bring about, in our time, a new Pentecost which will transform our world, transform our Church, transform ourselves, so that we become communities of faith, reaching out to one another through our prayer, through our lives.

The First Christians seemed so happy, so alive.  Didn’t  they? They shared their goods, they prayed together each day, they lived lives of honesty, integrity and joy. But reading between the lines of the Book of Acts we see the struggles they had – the differences of opinion between the apostles themselves with regard to the work they had been given to do, and much more.  We see Paul, that loose cannon, thrown among them by the Damascus event, allowing the Jewish converts to keep their food laws, his implacability when opposing Peter, their leader, when he clearly believed him to be wrong.  We see the greed of some of the converts,  Ananias and Sapphira, for example, who wanted to defraud the community of part of the money they had promised them.  It couldn’t have been easy for those First Century Christians, even though they had received the Holy Spirit in a blistering, never-to-be-forgotten way through huge globules of fire that rested over each of their heads.   Is anything that is worth-while easy?

We know it isn’t. But those Early Christians never forgot the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit.  They clung on to it through thick and thin, and passed its wonders and its effect, on to their children and their grandchildren.  It became a reality for them.  A transforming reality that made others say in amazement: “Look how the Christians love one another!”   Acts, Chapter 2: 42-47 give us a picture of the transforming power of the Spirit:

They remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood (and sisterhood!), to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone.

The faithful all lived together, and owned all things in common: they sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves, according to what each one needed.

They went as a body to the Temple every day, but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously.

They praised God, and were looked up to by everyone.

Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.

(Acts 2: 42-47)

So now we know what we have to do. It won’t be easy, but it will be transforming, alive, joyful, enriching, and life-giving.  We could go on, but it isn’t necessary.  God will do the same for us, if we let him.  There’s the rub, as Shakespeare would say.  We have to give ourselves to him generously, openly, courageously, and he will transform the world through us.  It is as simple as that.  Maybe not in our lifetime, maybe in years to come, but he will do it.

This Pentecost, which is on 27^th May this year, is an opportunity for us to give ourselves again to God, so that the fresh breath of the Spirit may blow on us again and wake us up from our stupor. Let’s start on the 18^th  May and say this prayer as a novena prayer each day.

Come Spirit, who is our light, shine among us;  warm and transform our hearts.

Come Spirit, who makes a home in us, change our way of thinking and acting

Come Spirit, our comforter and consoler, heal our woundedness, soothe our anxieties

Console all those who grieve and ache.

Come Spirit who energises us, keep us from the distraction of fleeting pleasures,

and lead us to moments of prayer and silence.

Come Spirit, consuming fire of love, fill us with enthusiasm for your vision,

That the desire for truth may be vibrant in us always.

Come Spirit, joy of our souls; teach us to dance your dance of love

among the wounded, the lost, the lonely.

Come Spirit, heart and centre of our world, warm the hearts of those grown cold,

and launch us into life!

Have a lovely Pentecost.  We will be praying for you.

Click on the picture for a song on the Holy Spirit

Follow Me!

Yesterday we were asked to put a special emphasis on what it means to be called by Christ to live fully.  That doesn’t mean what many people think it does, for example, what we sometimes call ‘living it up’ – having a good time while the money lasts, having as much fun as we can.  At least what we call fun until the headache kicks in! 

What Jesus meant was to live a meaningful Christian life, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our choices in life, being in touch with ourselves through prayer and the sacraments, reaching out to the poor and the disenfranchised, taking each day as a gift rather than a burden to be endured.  That was how he himself lived.

Remember the Gospel passages when the first disciples met Jesus?  They are so simple, and yet so inspiring.  Let’s look at John Chapter 1 v. 29 - -34

The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said: ”Look, there is the lamb of God.”  Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus.  Jesus turned round, saw them following, and said “What do you want?”  They answered “Rabbi” – which means teacher – “ where do you live?” “Come and see”! he replied.  So they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day.

So begins the story of the calling of the first two apostles. What did they do?  They spent time with Jesus, got to know him a little, loved it and immediately told their friends about it.  One of them was called Andrew and we know that he rushed out and told his brother Simon Peter, not in words we might have expected him to use like “We stayed with that preacher called Jesus – you remember him – he comes from Nazareth – and it was great. He really has something!”  but simply “we have found the Messiah”.  Then he took his big brother to meet Jesus.  The rest of the story is history....

See yourself watching that scene – the early morning sun shining down on the sea of Galilee, the fishing nets drying on the shore nearby, the small fishing boats dotted around, John the Baptist pointing out Jesus as he passed and the two disciples following him to where he was living at the time...   See Jesus turn and smile at you, including you in that invitation, “Come and see!” You follow him, perhaps a little hesitatingly, and he encourages you, asking you to tell him about yourself.  He seems so interested as if you were the only one in the world, not just a number but a person whom he loves and who matters to him.  Feel your own eagerness to talk to him and to tell him what you have been doing with your life and what your hopes and dreams are, and see his smile of encouragement.  Receive his blessing before you part company, and then realise that he is with you on the way back home, he is with you always even though you can no longer see him.

Ask yourself: “What does Jesus really want me to do with my life?”  After all you only have one life, so it is a serious matter how you spend it. Perhaps he wants you to marry and bring up a family – perhaps he wants you to find him in your work, by staying unmarried so that you can witness through your single status to what St. Paul  calls “ an undivided attention to the Lord’s affairs.”

Perhaps Jesus is calling you to be a priest or a Sister – that could be as he always calls us  in different ways to serve the Church and to build it up in love.  Pray earnestly that you find out your particular path and then, when you have an idea of what it might be, follow it up by asking the right people about it, by “coming and seeing” as Jesus put it.  It may turn out to be what he wants of you, or it may not.  You’ll never know if you ignore it, or try to follow what you want and not what he wants for you.  They are two different things!!

Let’s resolve to pray not only for ourselves but for others that the Church may be “one whole Christ loving the Father.”   That was Jesus’ dream.  It comes at a cost. 

Meditate on this wonderful hymn and see if you can answer the questions he asks.

Here are the words of The Summons (Will You Come and Follow Me) :

WILL YOU COME AND FOLLOW ME

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known
Will you let my life be grown in you, and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you, and you in me?

 Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen

and admit to what I mean in you, and you in me?

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside, and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to re-shape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound in you, and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you, and you in me!
John Bell and Graham Maule.

God bless each of you. We will remember you in our prayers.

The Resurrection

A happy Easter to all of you!  We have journeyed through Lent, and experienced the loneliness and the fear of the Passion, as well as the heart-warming act of Jesus as Servant, washing the feet of his disciples, and then giving us the wonderful gift of the Eucharist.  I suppose many of you celebrated the Seder meal, and became part of the first New Testament Seder, picturing Jesus going out into the darkness towards Gethsemane with the beautiful sound of the Hallel psalms ringing in his ears, yet knowing he was betrayed and soon would be captured and disowned.  But now we are warming ourselves, not at the brazier of Peter which just took away for a time the cold winds of fear and guilt, but the great sun of the Resurrected world.  Alleluia!

May I share with you another Resurrection?  I’m sure you have many of your own, which I would love to hear, but I’ve always been captivated by this one. Please send in your own stories of hope after despair.  Jesus offers us the fruits of his rising from the dead all the time. 

Here is my contribution:

An old man shuffled painfully along the cobbled streets of London.  He was stooped, awkward and obviously in pain. His face was pale and there were lines of pain etched deeply on his cheeks.  People passed him by, avoiding his eyes which seemed bitter and hard.  His name was George Frederic Handel.  The great musician of the 18^th century.  He had suffered a stroke some months before, and doctors held out little hope of his survival. “I am finished!” he said to himself. “I can no longer compose music.  I cannot hear those wonderful melodies in my head.  Point and counterpoint harmony no longer have any meaning for me.  I might as well die!”  Despondently he shuffled back to his lodgings.

When he got there he found a thick wad of paper rolled in a parcel standing on the hall table.  “Not another MS”, he muttered. “Will they never realise that I am no longer a musician?”  Listlessly he picked it up.  It was from his friend who had always supported him, so, listlessly he tore open the paper.  It was the story of the life of Christ.   He read on, without much interest, until he saw this:

“.. the crowds were appalled at seeing him, so disfigured did he look, that he seemed no longer human,… “   “Like a sapling he grew up in front of us, like a root in arid ground. Without beauty, without majesty we saw him no looks to attract our eyes, a thing despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. A man to make people screen their faces. He was despised, and we took no account of him.”   Fourth Servant Song:  Isaiah 52: 11 – 15.

“Why, that’s me!” he cried, “I am despised and of no account too!”  So, fascinated, he read on.

Afterwards he was to say:  “I saw the heavens open and I heard the most beautiful music.  Words poured into my mind.  “He was despised and rejected yet by his wounds we are healed.  I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH” he cried exultingly at the four walls of his hallway.  ALLELUIA!  For ten days he never came out of his room, refusing to eat or drink.  But he gave us The Messiah.  His greatest work.  The most famous oratorio in the world. 

London refused to put it on, as they thought he was finished.  So he went to Dublin, and they gave us “Oh thou who bringest good tidings to Sion”  “He was despised”  “I know that my redeemer liveth”  and of course the famous Alleluia chorus.  And so many more.... Handel lived on for some years after this, and became the most feted musician of the time.  Everywhere he went, he brought the portfolio of The Messiah.  It was his Resurrection. 

What are your experiences of Resurrection?  Thank God for them today, and go about humming “Alleluia, alleluia, alle- luia!"  Enjoy this wonderful time - the Springtime of the Church and ours too.

God bless.

ALLELUIA

THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE. LET US BE GLAD, AND REJOICE IN IT.

Why look among the dead for someone who is alive?  (Luke 25:5)

When you think of Easter what image do you see?
The hint of longer, lighter days to come...
the hills bursting with new-born lambs...
the scramble for the hidden, coloured eggs in garden, house or field...
the Easter bunnies, or the dark-coated ribboned eggs decorating the sideboard?

All these perhaps, yet each is but a faint, far-off image of what it is to us as Easter people.

Our song is ever and always the alleluia of the angels as they look on him whom sin has pierced and love has healed... now risen and glorious, standing triumphant against all that would demean or limit us and offering without price the promise of a life that holds eternal joy.

Praise him!

"I wish you all a Happy Easter, full of graces; graces of renewal of spirit, of fresh strength and energy in our Lord's service."
(Mother Magdalen)

After the Easter Vigil, we should be full of joy and hope. 
So we pray:

Come, Risen Lord Jesus
Easter in us,
Be a day-spring to the dimness of us today,
and always that we may bring glory to you. (Joyce Huggett)

If you have the energy, get up at dawn to see the sunrise and pray... If not, just enjoy the day and sing "alleluia" in your heart.

Happy Easter!

International Woman's Day

A happy day to all women throughout the world! We are proud to unite in prayer, in love, in friendship no matter what our nationality, age, status or religion.

We reach out with love and gratitude to all those women out there who are making a difference by using the gifts God gave to them to make life better for others.

We reach out in solidarity and compassion to all those women who are abused, ill-treated, regarded as of no account  They are our sisters, and we pray that their situation will change for the better through other women who will help them.

We reach out in prayer today to all women whose lives of dedication and usefulness are an inspiration to us all.  May God unite us, heal us and breathe his Spirit into us, so that, together, we may become women of hope at the service of life.




On this special day, you may like to reflect on this:



A WOMAN'S CREDO

I believe in the woman of hope that lies within me.
I believe in her strength, drawn from the depth of her being.
I believe in the power fired from that great depth of compassion and love.
I believe in the gentleness of her strength.
I believe she is a woman of dignity, reaching out to touch and be touched at depth.
I believe in the centre from which moves, and trust it fully.
I honour the wisdom and stillness she offers me in my life's journey.

Anonymous.

And this prayer:

PRAYER OF AN AFRICAN WOMAN

I am a woman, created in the image of God
with dignity and virtue;
formed by the very hands of God,
given life by God's breath.

I am a woman - farmer, cook, housewife and neighbour;
I work from morning till late at night
sow and reap under a burning sun;
go off with heavy burdens,
and return home to feed my family.

I am a woman, the heart of the family.
I am loved, and yet oppressed.
held in esteem, and still considered inferior.
caressed. and yet beaten;
indispensable, and still overlooked.

I am a woman,
Lord, you created me and you know me;
you know me by my name.
you listen to me when the world
refuses to understand me.
You know all my worries,
you see my tears, and hear my sighs.
You are everything to me.
With you, Lord, there is hope.
In you, always, I want to put my trust
-  as a woman.

Grace Eneme.

Have a good day!