Search Page

We need not worry if we have so many duties to fulfil that we cannot name every individual whom we hold up before God in prayer. If we intercede for them all at once, we can be sure that as we hold them before God it's as if we are bringing them into the sunlight. God's warm love falls upon each one, with graces according to their needs, because of the merits of Christ, and our faithful intercession.

All who love Christ, and trust in His love as they pray before Him Who is Present in the tabernacle, receive many graces. He is our Divine Saviour, Sacramentally Present; and He cannot be out-done in generosity. If we show reverence and love towards Him, how can He fail to reward us?

It is unfortunate that many Catholic school-children are led to practice acts of charity which always attract attention, draw applause, make those acting feel virtuous. Where are the instructions to engage in works of charity, simply for the love of God: to do good, and develop humility?

If we have faith in Christ, and a fervent spiritual life, we can become like the healthy mustard-plant that Christ described, in which 'the birds of the air can rest'; but if we have very little faith in Him, and are full of self-pity about our difficulties, resentful of the crosses we carry, and prickly towards our neighbour, we are like a thorn bush amidst all the beauty and life that is seen around us.

It can seem as though our life's arrangements and relationships are destroyed in a moment, like a bombed out city from which we flee. But sometimes our crises have been permitted by God so that we can flee all that was worldly and sinful. Then we are freed to 'build' a new life of holiness and peace.

It is wrong, in God's sight, for us to deny God, in an attempt to be tolerant. A Government of a Christian country has a duty to tell people who wish to become citizens that the Christian Faith is the foundation of our country's institutions at large, that the greater proportion of the citizens claim to be Christian, and they they are expected to respect what is Christian, though no-one forces newcomers to become Christian.

Some good souls cannot go straight to Heaven. It is common to hear people say, with a smile, that they will have to go to Purgatory, that they know they are not saints. Yet it is a tragedy, in their eyes, when they arrive, to be held captive there, as they see at last what lack of love for God, or laziness, kept them from achieving real holiness. What remorse they feel there, when they see that they could have become worthy to leap straight from earthly life into the embrace of their Saviour, Jesus.

God is all holiness, purity, goodness and radiance. When we die, shall we be sufficiently like Him to be able to reach out to Him with joy, or to do so after some preparation? If our immediate reaction will be complete rejection of God there will be no place to go except down, away from Him into the Abyss.

The problem at the heart of many modern tragedies is that a person refuses to love his neighbour. This is true, whether soldiers burn the crops of terrified people, or healthy people treat the sick as a nuisance, or someone sets out with deliberate plans to make a person miserable. People who do such things ignore God's wishes. We need to examine our true intentions.

Priests should set an example of holiness and purity, neither giving up nor watering down the Faith, nor developing a worldly spirit in order to be popular. They will do little good if they are disloyal to the Saviour, Who asks them to imitate Him, and keep people safe from Hell.

We act like wise 'children of God', if we go to Mary, our Blessed Mother, seeking her help in approaching the Father through Christ, in prayer. She can help us to purify our intention, to clarify our thoughts, and to prepare a Gift for the Lord, the gift being the thoughts, words, offerings we offer each day, perhaps with a special degree of hope, patience, or long-suffering.

Christ's own people found it difficult to recognise, in a Person suffering pain and humiliation, the King or warrior they awaited as a Saviour. But in His Resurrection Christ performed a marvel greater than any achieved in a throne-room or a battlefield. Truly, He and God the Father are One, as Christ said.

People walk toward Christ and Our Lady when they approach the Grotto at Lourdes; and whenever people approach Christ and His Mother - through the Blessed Sacrament, or at Mass, or at a shrine, or in private prayer - they are 'walking in the right direction'.

When a fellow pilgrim is shrieking as if possessed, it is not surprising if we are distracted from our prayer, wondering who this is. If we heard a train crash when we were driving nearby it would not be unnatural to look, and wonder, and then pray.

When we are praying the Gloria at Mass, or when the priest prays the Eucharistic prayer; it's as if the skies split open, to reveal the great company of Saints who also praise the Father. We are united with the whole Church, through Christ our Head.

It pleases Christ when we examine our conscience, daily, recognise our faults, confess them and to try to change, by His grace. Whoever confesses sins should do so with confidence in Christ's love, and in His power to help and save.

Christ is deeply touched whenever we show devotion to Him in the Blessed Sacrament - and especially when we search out the tabernacle whenever we enter a Catholic church away from home, and cannot see our way to it. Christ would like to show us more delight and gratitude, but would completely overwhelm us.

Christ is pleased to see that some churches are adorned with images or statues of Angels, interiorly or exteriorly. These are worthwhile reminders of the beautiful spirits who are our Heavenly companions, and who have served God in every age of history - helping God's friends in Old Testament times, and still doing so today.

We are right to put prayer first - to put Christ first - no matter how busy our day. Whether we are religious sisters or mothers looking after sick children, we will do our work better and more cheerfully if it is underpinned with prayer. Blessed Mother Teresa insisted that her busy sisters had an hour's adoration each day.

It is always worthwhile to pray for people who are apparently being swept away on a tide of sinful practices. By our intercessions, in Christ, we make it more likely that they will recognise the truth, that they are in danger of spiritual ruin.