". . . But with their patience worn out by the journey the people complained against God and Moses . . ."

Our Lenten journey’s end is in sight and like the Israelites we’ve probably moaned at times about the struggle of it along the way. Maybe now we’re looking forward to taking up the things we gave up. It's easy to fool ourselves that by observing Lent – denying ourselves particular pleasures, and making fine-sounding resolutions – God is more concerned with what we shouldn’t do than what we should. Deep down we know that Lent should be more than this: a time of prayer and reflection, for self-examination and renewed commitment. There is a very real place for self-denial but it is also a place for affirming and celebrating life in all its fullness.

This springtime season of Lent is a time to examine ourselves; to assess the health of our faith and to nurture it. These forty days give us the opportunity to consider our baptismal calling; to reflect upon our discipleship, to know God and ourselves better, to seek God’s will, to strengthen our commitment to serve God more effectively.

Every day, not just in Lent, we are presented with choices; between right and wrong, good and evil, life and death. We know the way we ought to take. If we take the time to listen to God rather than the voices that surround us, we can respond with courage and truth to face the choices life brings.

While there’s time left this Lent make more room for God, 

so that He can work in our lives and enrich our experience of

His Love.

John Biggins

Strategic Development Officer – Catholic Youth Ministry Federation (CYMFed) 

NO it’s YES!

In today’s culture the practice of lent can be looked down upon as a meaningless deprivation, exterior piety or yet another restricted group of religious people. Sometimes they are right if our emphasis is on what we give up and what we say NO to, of course then it does look this way.

However each resisted temptation is another opportunity to throw figurative flowers to Jesus and declare our love for him who loved us first. Lent is a spiritual gem, all of a sudden the lack of a chocolate biscuit raises the heart and mind towards God... This is far from meaningless! The church at its heart is not a NO but a resounding YES and the only time it says NO is to another NO. (An American bishop) for example - The NO to life in abortion or the NO to true happiness in sex before marriage. The emphasis of lent should be put back on who we have said YES to rather than what we are saying NO to. Our YES however goes way beyond a superficial choice between two things, our YES must mirror Mary’s YES as was pointed out so beautifully earlier in the blog, an abandonment to our own will so that our very soul magnifies the lord (Luke 1:46) but also it must mirror Christ’s yes, who though he was God, emptied himself taking the form of a slave (Philippians 2:6-7) 

Our YES must lead us in to this emptying of self.

Our spiritual heights are not a YES that leads us to be good people and nice men and women rather a YES that empties us to respond to a privileged call to perfection (Matthew 5:48). Not to be obsessed with crossing I’s and dotting T’s but to empty ourselves of ourselves, so that the light of Christ might shine perfectly in us and illuminate our true selves - 

“Saints of the third millennium”

John Paul the second said life is found in a sincere gift of self. As we approach holy week and contemplate on the ultimate gift of self in Jesus I want to reflect on the words of Pope Benedict: “Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person.” 

As Jason evert a Chastity speaker once said; what good is our YES if we cannot say NO.  So people are right, lent is a NO - a NO that refines our YES!

Paschal Uche, 21,

Studying Pharmacy at Nottingham University,

From the Diocese of Westminster. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->

                                                               

Reflecting the love of God...

In scripture Jesus tells us to 'love your neighbour as yourself' (Matthew 22:39)

In reality, in our everyday lives, how can we do this?

If we do not fully accept the love that Jesus has for us and truly believe that we are made in his beauty and image. How can we outwardly display the love we have for ourselves to our neighbours? For surly before we love our neighbours, we must firstly love ourselves. Shouldn't we ?

However loving oneself for who we are isn't always that easy in our society. As we are constantly bombarded with ideas, images and statements, suggesting how we should look. And from this we may think we are not pretty, handsome or popular enough to love ourselves, or occasionally believe we should despise who we are and what we appear like, if we don't fit into these categories.

But we are made in the image and likeness of God. Perfectly crafted and created in the saviours hands out of sheer love.

For the Father thinks each and everyone of us is beautiful, no matter what. As each of us are created to represent an aspect of him, and what could be more beautiful than representing an aspect of Our Saviour?

So for the rest of lent, we are approaching that time when we remember how love was given to us which was unconditional and amazing. It was for the sake of each and everyone of us. Each morning wake up and either tell yourself you're wonderfully beautiful as you are made in the image and likeness of God and nothing can be more perfect than this. Or make yourself a sign and put it somewhere where you can always see it. To remind yourself beauty isn't about fitting into stereotypes or boxes, but an expression of who you truly are and created to be.

When we fully accept Gods love for us, it is then we can truly love our neighbours as we love ourselves and reflect that love of God to them and into their lives

Helen Currie, 21,

Archdiocese of Liverpool,

 

“Oh, come to the water, all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come!” (Isaiah 55:1)

We are all aware of three important things to remember during this joyful season of Lent – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. However, I believe that there is another, equally important element to Lent that may often go unrecognised or misunderstood – recreation.

Often, we think of recreation simply as “having a laugh” or enjoying ourselves. However, if you look closely, you discover the true meaning behind the word. Recreation means (literally) to be re-created: to be made anew, to have life breathed into you once again.

I like to think of recreation as similar to going to a well. We go to the well when we are thirsty, when we need to renew our strength. If we don’t, we shrivel up, and our lives become dry and barren. We sit at the well and patiently draw up the water from deep within. When we receive the water, our thirst is quenched, and we are recreated: life literally flows into us once again.

We each have our own wells in our lives. God has placed them there: 

“For I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people” (Isaiah 43:20). 

I remember the last time I went to the well. I was feeling pretty stressed and anxious about life. I had many things on my mind. So I walked over to Wollaton Park, a lovely park very close to my university. It was a beautiful spring day. I walked around the lake and sat on a bench, watching people feed the ducks. I went into the forest and sat down at the foot of a tree. I wrote a bit in my journal and spoke to my mum on the phone. I didn’t really do much that day. But that was the beauty of it – I had time to simply be. When I eventually went home, my worries and anxieties hadn’t magically disappeared. However, I felt like I was more able to face up to them. I felt refreshed, re-created.

 We have reached the half-way stage in Lent. I know that, for me, Lent hasn’t been as reflective or as peaceful as I had hoped (quite the opposite!). I haven’t been to the well as often as I might have wished. However, as has already been said, it’s important to keep looking forward. We can only live in the present moment we are given; we cannot live in a past full of regrets or a future full of fears. If, like me, Lent hasn’t been going exactly as you’d planned, do not worry. Lent begins again each day.

If I had to give one piece of advice for the rest of this Lenten season, and for life in general actually, it would be this: take time to go to the well. 

“With joy you draw will water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3)

I hope and pray that this will be true for each of us.

“Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life.” 

(John 4:13-14)

Conor Gaffey

20 years young

From Chingford, London

Studying Theology at the University of Nottingham.

“He who lives in love lives in God, because ‘God is love”

Before Holy Mass one Sunday I pondered these words from John, then as I went up for Holy Communion I prayed to myself saying:

“I am nothing in the sight of He who is everything and He who is everything gives me everything, thus making me worth everything. I thank and praise you Lord, God. I am not worthy but Your compassion knows no bounds”.

After Holy Mass, just as I was leaving a man from my parish gave me this old picture. Every Lent I gaze at it seeing more and more.

Christ centred in the middle of the picture (or the universe), Crucified for the world (bottom of the picture). He gives us the Holy Spirit (the Dove beneath Christ, which descends upon the world). As he dies His head drops and with His arms open high and wide His body appears to make what looks like a chalice/cup: “Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many’.” (Mark 14:23-24). Then as the picture continues you can see above the Eucharist (His body), which has been raised from the dead.

When in private prayer, especially during Lent, I gaze at this image of our Lord, pondering over the love that our God has for us – It is mind blowing.

When we realise the immensity of God’s unconditional love for us we can only respond with love, gratitude and praise. 

Its so easy to see the many problems and trials that life throws our way, but if we allow the love of God to flow through us in the works we do for our neighbours, we would be showing how much we are truly grateful to God. 

Padre Pio once said (before deciding to build a modern hospital): “Love is the spark of God in man’s soul; it is the very essence of God personified in the Holy Spirit… to God we owe all our love”.

Perhaps as you reflect on this image (or any image of the Crucifixion) you could ponder on how much Christ’s love for us lead him to willingly surrender His life in excruciating pain. Maybe you could think of someone who needs to see Christ’s love through you.

Eamonn Hyde

Seminarian for the Brentwood Diocese

Royal English College, Spain

‘It is steadfast love, not sacrifice, that God desires’

‘What?!?’ 

That was the first reaction I had to these words from Psalm 50 when I read them on the 3^rd Saturday of Lent. That’s right, the THIRD Saturday of Lent is when the scriptures say God doesn’t want sacrifice but steadfast love.

‘So what have I been doing these last few weeks with the whole fasting thing?!?’ That was my second reaction to these words. Why are we sacrificing something for this time of Lent if that’s not what God wants. I already love God so I don’t need to give up anything, what a waste of time.

‘Wait, let’s think about this for a minute’ That was my third reaction to these words. I’ve never thought of myself as any good at interpreting scripture and usually stay out of any theological debates here at Lowe House, but I do quietly think about it, and especially when planning community prayer. So what were these words actually trying to say, have we all fallen for an early April Fool’s from God and we’ve starved ourselves of biscuits, tea, coffee, crisps, TV etc. for no reason. In a word, no. We’ve just gone about the steadfast love in a different way.

Lots of the reflections on here have spoken of love and that’s because that is what our faith is, love of God, love of each other and love of the world he gave us. It’s easy for us to sometimes forget the amazing world God gave us. I recently planned a retreat for a year 8 group based around stewardship. We explored these ideas of love and how we live them out in our lives. And just for some light relief in the middle of this reflection I thought you could watch the clip I showed them:

A bit different maybe, but a reminder that we have a God that loves us so much he gave us a world full of everything we could ever want or need and said ‘I love this world and I love you so much I want to give it to you, please take care of it, take care of yourselves, and each other!’ Okay that last bit was Jerry Springer but you get the point. This is where the steadfast love comes in. We show steadfast love to God by showing steadfast love to all of his creation - the whole world, everything and everyone in it. So what has sacrifice got to do with it I hear you say? Okay I bet none of you were thinking that because I’ve sort of gone away from the point, buuuut…we sacrifice something during Lent to remember the love God has for us and try and show some back. It’s no coincidence that the Psalm the following day was:

‘The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want’ Ps 23

The Lord has shown his love to us by giving us all we could ever need and yet we spend most of our lives just wanting more and more. Even when we try and give something up, we can end up just wanting it even more and sometimes we even slip up and give in to that ‘want‘. The other week I flicked onto BBC 1 and watched most of Comic Relief. Although the Church doesn’t completely endorse all that the Comic Relief money goes on, those bits that come in between the comedy, where we see those people who have so many ‘needs’ before they can think of any ‘wants’, really hits home what our role is in the world. The love of our neighbour, that can make so much of a difference. Giving up our ‘wants’ during Lent to simply give others their ‘needs’ is how we can show steadfast love to God and show His steadfast love to our fellow brothers and sisters. It’s not just people across the world in those clips but those on our very doorstep who can have ‘needs’ which we take for granted because we already have them. When we give up our time to listen to someone, when we let someone else have the last teabag, when we don’t start an argument about what’s on TV and let someone else choose, when we give that person on the street the pennies in our pocket without presuming what it is going to be spent on, AND we do these things out of love and not thinking of it as a sacrifice on our part. That…is when we show steadfast love to God. As the psalm says, he doesn’t want our sacrifices, just our love.

‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ Matt 25:40

I finish by asking you to enter into a time of prayer through song (one of my favourite ways to pray). If you’re anything like me, you may have to admit that you haven’t always been in the right frame of mind reading this blog and so haven’t always treated it as the prayer that it could be each day. So here’s what I want you to do, simply click play on the following link and make yourself comfortable: sitting, lying, standing, eyes open, eyes closed, hands together, hands open, hands up high, whatever feels right for you. Let the words be your prayer to ask God to help us to feel the power of His everlasting love for us, and to be able to be that love to the world.

Rick Netherwood (aka Woody)

South Londoner up in the North for the 7^th year (almost a quarter of my life)

Age 25

Team Leader of Animate Youth Ministries (Archdiocese of Liverpool Youth Ministry Team)

Salesian all the way!

“Set your hearts on the most important gifts…faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:13)

Chapter 13 of St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has to be my favourite scripture passage, having an impact on me since I was 15 years of age, which was essentially when my faith began to matter to me.

I was on a school retreat at Brettargh Holt in the Lake District, and as part of our final prayer, we each received a “text from God”, were mine said,

St. Paul writes: Sarah Beatty, “set your heart on the most important gifts… the greatest of these is love.”

As I read my text, I caught the eye of my chaplain, Sarah, who smiled and said “that one’s very apt for you!”

I think the quote is very apt for the seasons of Lent and Easter as well. At the very beginning of Lent, we are told to fast, to pray and to give to those in need – these three things are at the core of our faith, along with love.

In today’s Gospel from Mark, we are reminded of the greatest commandments – to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

But where is hope? Lent is the time to prepare for the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for all humankind, by dying on the cross, shedding his blood, and taking on all our sins so that we could be reconciled with God – and that is where we find our hope. The hope that by his death, we are reconciled with our Father in Heaven, and by Jesus rising again on the third day and then entering into Gods kingdom, we have hope that we too will enter into eternal life with Him in Heaven.

The symbols used for faith, hope and love are another thing that I value, having them displayed on my charm bracelet, which only has certain meaningful charms on it. And they also remind us of our Lenten journey.

Cross – The symbol of our faith and a constant reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made on Good Friday.

Heart – In his teachings, Jesus was constantly reminding us to love God and love one another, and everything that he did, was for love.

Anchor – We find our hope in Jesus when we put our trust in him, and when we do that, He becomes the anchor rooting us to our faith.

So for the rest of Lent, let us set our hearts on the most important gifts – faith, hope and love.

Sarah Beatty, 22

Volunteer at Animate Youth Ministries

Archdiocese of Liverpool

Truly Catholic - Radically Inclusive?

When sitting down to write this spiritual morsel, I was tempted to take the easy way out and simply talk about today’s saint, The patron saint of the Internet and computers today, St Isidore of Seville. Very appropiate for a blog -

http://catholicism.org/patron-saint-for-the-internet-isidore-of-seville.html

But we should always first be fed by the Word of God and so I will instead reflect on the readings we are given for today.

The word that comes out of the word of God, I think, is a word that has been haunting me all of this lent: Inclusion. 

Radical inclusion is Jesus’ way and seems to be central to the whole of Jesus’ message. So how could we, the Church, the Body of Christ, the People of God, have been getting it so wrong for so long? 

We love our exclusive systems, we create groups, the "in" groups and the "out" groups.  And we in the West seem to love them even more!  Yet all of Jesus’ messages seem to be aimed at those who are outside of the supposed "in" group. 

Throughout the Gospel it is more often the outsiders of the religious "in" Group who get Jesus' message first. The religious elite and those disciples chosen by Jesus Himself often seem the slowest to understand His message.  So being in the "in group" does not seem like much of an advantage and could even be seen as a positive disadvantage. 

This all sounds just a bit too radical for my sensibilities and yet that is what we have today.  We have one of the few examples of non-local healing in Jesus’ ministry.  There is no mention of any checklist of beliefs, no asking of whether the royal official is obeying moral laws, or even if he is in a first marriage. And there is certainly no hinting of if he has made a good confession of his sins or not.  It all seems rather irresponsible of Jesus.

But this message is continually repeated in Jesus’ ministry and is a message that I continue to hear spoken in many forms and yet do we truly listen?  I even heard it the other day in a Lady Gaga anthem for the outcast, her latest single:

I'm beautiful in my way

'cause god makes no mistakes

Whether life's disabilities

Left you outcast, bullied, or teased

Rejoice and love yourself today

'cause baby you were born this way

And each person in the world was born their way, and is just as much a child of God as we are, so deserves equal respect as we do.  I wonder how we managed to make such a radical message of inclusivity into such an exclusionary system of that which religion has become. We should consider that the vast majority of Jesus' healings and followers seem to be for, and come from, the excluded ones and maybe even the unworthy ones.

The problem with being an insider seems to be that we fight over the smaller truths that in the great scheme of God don’t matter that much, and we miss the bigger more universal truths.  But if we are to help bring about the ‘new earth’ of Isaiah, or truly live out being the Catholic Church (Catholic meaning Universal), we have to enact and fight for this radical inclusivity of Jesus in all aspects of our lives and in all aspects of society.  So I leave you with a number of questions that trouble and challenge me (for as a wise person said, ‘Jesus came to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable'.

Are there any more comfortable people than us in the supposed 1^st world?

Who do I exclude in my life, with my actions or words?

Can we call our society Christian and ourselves Catholic if we support any movement that excludes others, be they of a different faith, or immigrants, or different culture or any other group that we or others define?

For in the end who are we to judge who is worthy or not? 

The fact that someone has been made in God’s image gives them all the value they need to deserve my utmost and complete respect and love.

Happy reflecting.

Fr. Dominic Curran, Not completely ancient

Based at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Mary did not say YES... She said so much more...

 "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you"

The Annunciation of the Lord to Mary written in Matthews Gospel, is something quite unique in how that visit from the angel Gabriel played out.

I want to now reflect on that piece of scripture and show the relevance to this Lenten period and quite openly talk about a subject that makes people blush, scared and apprenhensive – VOCATION!

Vocation is an individual calling from God whispered to you at Baptism. The call is both unique and has its own charism.

In the Annuciation we hear how Mary is visited by an angel and asked to be the Mother of Jesus, she agrees after a bit of a pep talk and goes to tell her cousin Elizabeth all about what happened.

Simple – I think not!

Our own vocation will be quite different but non the less it is still a vocation! We won´t (im almost sure of) have an angel visit us but God will speak to us, inviting us to be in a relationship with Him in a special way. God speaks directly to us and calls us by our name.

Mary´s response to the invitation from God to be The Mother of Jesus was not YES!

Mary gave so much more than a yes. A yes is a response to something you want, "do you want an ice cream?" or how you feel: "are you ok?". However Mary said "I am the handmaid of the Lord be it done unto me according to Your Word".

Wow - complete and utter abandoment to God´s will and providence. Submission, not to neglect her own free will, but to bask in God´s munificence. Mary went on to say:

"God looks on me in my nothingness". Exclaiming her complete unworthiness, and yet God chose her, just as he chooses you!

In 2008 i was involved in delivering an RCIA programme along side the parish priest. The two ladies who were going through the RCIA programme were struggling with prayer. I brought it to prayer and was completely moved with Mary´s response, so much so that i made a suggestion that has changed my life since. I asked the two ladies to set an alarm on their phones at 3pm and when the alarm went off to simply say a Hail Mary. I said I would join them in that prayer. I mentioned it to various friends and family members who took on the initiative which has now spread to over 100 people, a Carmelite order, a School as well as priests and laity home and abroad.

So i invite you to join in that prayer each day at 3pm, praying for any intention remembering that it was Our Lady who stood by the cross whilst Her Son died, and it was Her Son, Jesus, who speaks to us saying: "Here is your Mother".

So join me in this prayer today and a Hail Mary each day at 3pm. 

Mary Our beloved mother,

May you lead us by the hand to you Son Jesus

May our united prayers never fail to

Convert, cure, comfort and help

Our brothers and sisters

Who benefit from Gods love and mercy.

Gavin Landers

19 + 6 (nearly 7)

Seminarian for the Diocese of Salford,

Currently studying in Valladolid (Spain)

Nobody's Fool!

April Fool’s Day you are here once again, and every year you manage to catch me out either because I forget you exist or just because I am quite possibly the most gullible person you will meet. It’s the special BBC News story that you always seem to get me on. Those smiling trustworthy faces of the news reporters that keep us so well informed of the goings on around the world, manage for one day to lead us into a false sense of security and as part of a worldwide ‘in’ joke, and lie to the whole nation. This year I have seen you coming, I’m prepared and I won’t fall into your clever traps!

It is no surprise though that so many of us do stumble into the beginning of April in a confused and humiliated daze, we put our trust in people, giving them the benefit of the doubt. In this modern era we are use to being told from external pressures such things as what the ‘must buys’ are, how we should dress and what we are expected to act like. Somehow so many people believe that all of these things will make you a better person. Somehow so many people believe that this is true.

How often do we open our own eyes to the actual truth? How often do we put down the makeup and believe that we are beautiful the way God made us? How often do we find ourselves engrossed in the practical side of life, the stresses, the jobs, the deadlines, and praise God for the gifts or opportunities he has given to us through them?

Even as Christians it is so easy to find ourselves walking alongside every other member of society as the days, weeks, years pass by, subconsciously adhering to and being influenced by what they believe to be the truth. Sometimes we can find ourselves genuinely believing them to be true too.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

(John 3:16)

Now that is a stunning truth. We are loved so much that not only did God give us life, as well as everything we needed as a means to live, but he sacrificed for us something so precious to Him that would give us the chance to be able to spend eternal life with Him - His own son.

Somehow all of those small and insignificant “truths” seem to just fade away don’t they?

A big part of being a Christian is to defy expectations that we naturally and humanly feel compelled to do or that we feel is expected of us in society. We are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, to not roll with our impulses and temptations but remain dedicated to the Bibles teachings, and to have a faith in God that much of the modern world challenges us to abandon.

By praying to our Father, fasting, and giving alms, Lent allows us to focus on what is really true, and Jesus couldn’t have made it any clearer:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life”

John 14:6

We should follow Jesus’ example and not desire things selfishly or take the gifts that God has given us for granted. Above all we should not to keep ourselves from having a living breathing relationship with the one who made us, gave us everything, and did everything in his power to give us the chance to be with him for eternity.

So keep your eyes open, stay dedicated and spend some quality time with our Father this Lent. Constantly keep learning from him. Allow yourself to be challenged by him as well as everything that life throws at you, you might just surprise yourself.

Don’t be fooled but hold onto what you know to be really true, forever keep looking to the cross and take this time of Lent to be the opportunity to delve even deeper into your faith and the love of God.

Ruth Eaves, 21

From York. Studying Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Nottingham