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We need God's help to conquer our fears. It can seem as though a troubled person is in an 'isolation cell', separating himself from ordinary society by his troubles. Yet when the worst problems are solved, but he refuses to attend to ordinary human interactions, it's as if a prison door has opened, but he refuses to come out.

It is part of being faithful to Christ: expecting ourselves sometimes to be mocked or betrayed, since even He suffered scorn and betrayal in His life-time. But our suffering is not fruitless, if we offer it up, in union with Him.

None of our unavoidable sufferings or humiliations need be wasted. By our intercessory prayers, and the patient 'offering-up' of our sufferings, in union with Christ, we cause an outpouring of His grace to fall upon someone in danger of falling into mortal sin, or falling into Hell. Christ gives us the privilege of joining in His saving work, even though we are imperfect, as long as we live in a state of grace.

Every Mass is a triumph of grace, no matter how weak we are. When we unite our thanks and praises, our sorrow-for-sin, and our petitions and intercessions, with Christ's great sacrificial prayer in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we can be confident that our prayer is successful, for it is Christ Himself, from our altar, Who lifts up our prayer, with His, and presents them to our all-holy Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

People who are in grave sin, engrossed in their evil ways, are spiritually dead - though only God can judge souls and know who these are. Yet for as long as people persist in such sins they resemble dead people, walking, making their way, bit by bit, underground, on the road that ends in Hell.

Heroic people in England and Wales have defended the truths of the Catholic Faith, throughout fifteen hundred years - St. Thomas More and St. Margaret Clitheroe amongst them. In our day, brave witness is necessary if people are to realise that it is wrong to kill unborn babies, and that marriage requires a man and a woman to keep their vows, and live together in charity, open to life, in an exclusive relationship which is life-long.

There are no human rights, if the right to life is denied. It is an admirable thing, to substitute friendship for racism, housing for destitution, justice for lynch-law, education for child labour, and freedom, for slavery; yet what use are such human rights to someone whose very right to life, in its very eartly stages, had been denied, in the merciless act of direct abortion?

Each of the powerful politicians who has voted to increase the number of abortions permitted is like an unjust judge, condemning innocent babies to death. One day, he or she will meet the Just Judge, his Creator, Who will ask: "What have you done with all your power?" Those abortion-upholders who die unrepentant risk being themselves condemned, by God.

Whenever a politician dies, he or she appears before the great Lord Who creates all creatures, and judges all people: the holy One, Who will say: "What have you done with all your power? Have you helped your fellow creatures, and saved lives? Or have you extinguished helpless innocent human lives through supporting or extending evil laws about abortion?" Every politician will have to account for his sins, as we all must.

Only because Christ suffered and died, as man, to conquer sin and death by rising up from the grave, has He made it possible for us sinners to follow in His Way. We who trust in Him, and go into the 'tomb' in our Baptism, and renounce sin, and carry our sufferings in patience, like crosses, know that our prayers are heard, and that Heaven awaits all who remain faithful.

When Christ washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper, He set us an example; and He is pleased, and grateful, whenever He sees us show out practical, compassionate love in our care of the needy: whether the members of our own families in everyday life, or people in our wider community,

On the evening of Holy Thursday, when we have gathered to celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper, Christ becomes Present amongst us; and He is touched to the heart by our devotion. We were not forced to attend; but we are aware of what He once suffered in His Passion, for our sakes. He is pleased that we prove our love by coming to be with Him in this special way.

Christ looks upon the faithful people who have come to the 'Mass of the Lord's Supper' on Holy Thursday: people only there because they love Him, Who suffered to save us. We touch His heart by our devotion, right up to the stripping of the altar, when we prepare to accompany Christ to Gethsemane.

Just as our Saviour, Christ, was pushed towards the man who would pronounce the death sentence on Him, though He had done no wrong, so a beautiful, unborn baby is pushed - inside its mother - along a hospital corridor towards the surgeon who is willing to carry out its execution, though the child has done no wrong.

Just as Christ was left half-dead, after a cruel scourging, and was about to die on the Cross of Calvary, so it frequently happens that an aborted baby is left half-dead on a work-top, unwanted and untended, left to die solely because the child is unwanted. It is a monstrous sin, in God's sight, to kill the innocent.

Christians should ask for the grace to be charitable; but this does not mean that we must fail to speak necessary truths in order to spare people's feelings. Charity without truth is merely flattery, or leads us to placate those who need help in order to change. We should be as simple and straightforward as Christ, in our speech: kind and gentle, but unafraid to offer unpopular truths.

We need to pray for all people in Government. No Government is wise, which forgets that it rules under God. No Government in a Christian country can flourish if it takes no account of Christian feast-days, and undermines the moral teachings of the Church. Those of us who can, should speak out against anti-life and anti-Christian legislation.

The 'quality control' exercised towards humans, denying life, is loathsome to God. God wants every woman to know the truth about the gift of life. It is a gift from God, even if circumstances are not what a woman would want. He wants every woman to know that there is a fork in the road, ahead. When a mother decides to rid herself of her unborn child, and have it aborted, she is taking the road away from God and Heaven, by her cruelty, and the taking of innocent life.

One sin leads so easily to another; for example, when a woman idolises the man she loves, co-habits with him, pursues a career to be a glittering partner to him, rather that have a family, and then finds she is pregnant, she slides more easily into the grave sin of abortion than a woman who has already been prayerful and disciplined for God's sake, in a loving marriage begun in Church: a woman not ashamed to carry our ordinary domestic tasks, and who sees every baby as a gift from God to her and to her husband.

It is Christ who is as work in us, and Christ Who deserves the praise, when He enables us to be charitable towards everyone and in every circumstance, whether praying for the dead and the bereaved, caring for the sick, celebrating other peoples' joy, or offering gentle words to someone who has been hurtful.