"Brothers and sisters, since early days followers of Christ have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting. By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord. I invite you, therefore, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.

Ash Wednesday is one of the most profound days in the church’s year. It is a day when we are called together as a community to recognize our frailty and dependence on God and upon each other, and to search our hearts and minds for all that separates us from God and from each other.

Lent is about:

• Getting lives on earth in order, in preparation for what comes next.
• Taking a good hard look at how we are living our lives.
• Where we need to make changes and changes that begin in our heart and that heart is focused on Christ.
• Lent is about change.

The next 40 days we will focus our eyes, hearts and minds on the cross and what journey Jesus took to the Cross on our behalf really meant to us. It is our time for Spiritual renewal and of getting rid of the bad behaviors that are holding us back and keeping us from living lives that are pleasing to God. This is also the time for our own spiritual journey with Jesus to the Cross, a journey we will act out through our life in the church activities-prayer-fasting-receiving communion-hymns and reading Holy Scripture and other spiritual books.

This Lent seek:

• To be reconciled to God and to one another.
• Spend some time with the Lord and do serious reflection on your life
• Search for things that burden you and get rid of them.

Ashes that will be placed on our foreheads are a reminder that we are all sinners. However, we have a powerful example in the person of Christ. Look to Him and Him alone and He will show us the way to eternal life.

Lent begins in our hearts, Hearts ready to be transformed by the power of the Cross."

A powerful message for this Lent.

Granted the first time I watched the stage production was back in 1994 (aged 11) and the second was 1996 (13), then the subsequent three times were in 1999 (16), 2002 (18) and 2003 (19). So I was relatively young, and hadn't fully embraced my Catholic Faith. It was really in my twenties that I fully understood that I needed to live out my Catholic Faith, not just merely attend mass on a Sunday. Perhaps, this was the key into finally noticing, what I had overlooked in my youth, how deeply Catholic 'Les Mis' truly is.

Les Misérables portray's France in the days of poverty, extreme class differences and moral injustice. The central characters live through tremendous suffering , wrongful condemnation and internal guilt. However,  'Les Mis' is ultimately a beautiful love song about Redemption, Forgiveness and Grace.

Without giving too much away, the central character Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a misjudged convict (he stole a loaf of bread to feed his sisters hungry son), was imprisoned for twenty years of hard labour, and when paroled was branded an outcast. Without shelter, food, water and a job, Valjean became desperate, and stole from Bishop Myriel, a kind and generous soul. However from this moment Bishop Myriel tells Valjean to "promise" to use the silver to become an honest man, withdrawing from evil and surrendering his life to God. Valjean sings (almost prayer like):

"Yet why did I allow that man, to touch my soul and teach me love? He treated me like any other, he gave me his trust, he called me brother, my life he claims for God above, can such things be? For I had come to hate the world, this world that always hated me."

Valjean, does promise to change his life and transforms into a compassionate, caring and well loved and respected man. A man of Faith. He takes into his charge a young orphan, Cosette and goes through another transformation. "There is a duty I must heed, there is a promise I have made, for I was blind to one in need, I did not see what stood before me." 

His journey is one of true redemption and love, but it is not without guilt and suffering. When Valjean is faced with death, Fantine (Cosette's mum) intercedes for his soul: "Come with me where chains will never bind you. All your grief, at last, at last behind you. Lord in Heaven, look down on him in mercy."

Valjean himself, also confesses all his sins and sounds like an ending prayer: "Forgive me all my trespasses and take me to your glory. Take my hand and lead me to salvation. Take my love, for love is everlasting and remember the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God."

Never did that phrase ever strike me, "To Love another person is to see the face of God." Perhaps it is because now, aged 30, my Faith has grown and matured. That truly I am starting to understand God's Grace, Mercy and ultimately Love.

One thing I love about being Catholic is the consistency of the mass. Universally, despite language differences, it is always the same rituals. You know when to stand, sit and kneel. Not saying that Dundonians speak another language, but a mere thought when I go travelling to different countries! As I enter a different church, I am always intrigued by how the interior's are designed, (maybe a bias as I have an architecture degree), but St Andrews Cathedral in Dundee, is very pretty and quaint, but it is relatively small to be called a Cathedral.

I am a great believer that God provides wisdom in moments you don't expect. He unintentionally makes opportunities for you, so that He can find ways to speak to you or even offer insights. Three key "ah ha" moments lit up for me during this mass. The first was a short article in the newsletter titled: "Faith in Focus: On Medicine for Life," which I will share in this blog. The second and third epiphanies pertain to our upcoming Ministry of Seekers retreat on 'Vocation in Daily Life,' which I will talk about generally, but want to save to share on our retreat.

I always wondered in order to receive the Eucharist, should one attend confession first before  receiving the Body of Christ or like what my mum always taught me, no matter how unworthy you may feel, and if you can't get to confession, still receive the Eucharist. It is healing and one should not miss the opportunity to relieve the Body of Christ into your lives.

In following on from what my mum taught, this article I found spoke about this dilemma:

"There can be nothing sadder than listening to someone who believes that they are not good enough to go to communion. They feel that they are unworthy and they simply stay put in their seat when the rest of the congregation gets up to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ during the celebration of Mass.

Of course none of us is good enough. That's why we say 'Lord, I am not worthy...' just before we approach the altar. We realize that we mere human beings cannot presume to receive such a gift without acknowledging our unworthiness. But beneath this idea of unworthiness there lies a fatal error.

Communion is not for good people. It's not for saints. It's for people who are not very good, who are sinners but who want to get better. Our feast of the the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus et Sanguis Christi) teaches us that communion is not a reward but a medicine.

When we eat and drink (both!) Christ's body and blood we are signing up to be better. Some of the Church's early hymn-writers used a lovely phrase to describe the Eucharist: they called it food for the journey. An ancient hymn (o, Esca Viatorium: O, Food of Travellers) makes it clear that the Eucharist is not some celebratory picnic on the journey but is the survival rations, the staff of life.

At the Last Supper when Jesus instituted the Eucharist he commanded us to eat and drink and to do this in memory of his death and resurrection. God has made an agreement (a covenant) with us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He will be our God and we will be his people by ratifying the covenant: by eating and drinking in memory of Jesus.

The Eucharist is our way of signing-up again and again to the promises of God, showing our renewed commitment and gratefully receiving God's gift. Saint Ignatius of Antioch called the Eucharist 'the medicine of immortality, the antidote which prevents us from dying so we can live forever in Jesus Christ.' On the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ we share in communion here on earth, and we pray that one day we may be found rejoicing together at the everlasting meal of heaven.'

I found this tremendously profound and hope that it inspires you to constantly receive the Eucharist no matter how unworthy you may feel.

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER:  (Year B - 2012)

The experience of innocent suffering destroys the faith of many people.  We had it on a massive scale after the tsunami disaster at Christmas 2004 and a year later in the horrible Pakistan earthquake.  Later again in Haiti and elsewhere.  It never ends. If God is all goodness as we Christians say he is, why does he tolerate innocent suffering? Why are young children deprived of their parents in death?  Why are young lives crippled or destroyed in road accidents? Why? Why? Why?  If I could answer this question to everyone's satisfaction I could be a very rich man.   Over the centuries wise men and preachers have offered various answers - some of them very unsatisfactory.

For example, the Old Testament suggests that bad things only happen to bad people.  We imply the same when we ask: "Why me?  I have always done my religious duties."  When trouble comes, others think "I must have done something wrong."  God is punishing me - I must have done something wrong because bad things should only happen to bad people.  If that were the case, then Jesus must have been a very bad person.  And anyhow, the FACTS do not support this.  Good people and children were slaughtered by the Nazis, by Anders Breivik last July in Norway, by terrorists the world over, by thugs and vandals, by suicide bombers and by earthquakes and floods.

Or we say, suffering ennobles us, makes us better people (they say it's like surgery:  it looks like butchery but ultimately does us good.) Of course, sometimes suffering can ennoble us.  Through patient endurance of suffering some mystics have penetrated the mysteries of heaven. But often suffering doesn't ennoble us.  Sadly, it can destroy lives and break up marriages.  I think it is wrong to glorify suffering - to pretend it is not the evil it is.

Or again it is said that suffering makes our friends more caring and less selfish.  Of course it can.  We see that happening every day.  But, would it be a just God who arbitrarily crippled me to make my friends more compassionate?

And there are other explanations.  All of them presume that God causes us to suffer, that he sends us suffering; and we are trying to defend him; we are trying to find some excuse which won't make him look so bad.  In fact, for me at least, these excuses often make God look more cruel and arbitrary.

As I see it, suffering is simply a part of being human and limited.  It is just part of human life. Why that has to be I don't know.  Could God have designed a different world, a better world - a world without sickness, without death, without hurricanes or earthquakes or volcanoes or moving tectonic plates?  I don't know.  I read recently that life could not exist on planet earth without moving tectonic plates - therefore without earthquakes and volcanoes. Could God have designed a world without animals that maul and kill, without fowl that spread avian flu, without sexual abuse, without drugs, without alcohol, without polluting cars, without change - a world without freedom?  I don't know.  Would you like him to?  We'd all be born somehow without any pain to  our mothers,  there'd be no sibling rivalries, no disagreements, instant education to genius standard, infallible choice of the perfect spouse;  all would live to 70 or 80 without arthritic pain or gout or strokes or bereavement and then be spirited over to eternal bliss.

Could God have taken away all innocent suffering?  I don't know.  What I do know is this:  He shared it.  The Son of God took on our human condition and accepted completely all that it brought him - pain, doubt, betrayal by friends, suffering for his poor mother, physical torture and a criminal's merciless execution in his early thirties.   He didn't blame God for it.  In fact, like us, he asked God to free him but God was silent.  He didn't blame his enemies - rather he asked God to forgive them and made excuses for them.

Jesus, the totally innocent one, fully accepted his human condition with all its limitations, and in doing so, gave a creature's complete glory to his Creator.  In doing so, he also pointed the way to us.  I was 35 when I developed the heart trouble that had killed an older brother at 35 and debilitated another brother at 35.  As I lay in hospital I found myself wondering, like many another, why me?  Then one day my eyes rested on the crucifix and I found myself saying, why NOT me?

As we heard in the gospel, after his resurrection Jesus appeared to his followers on the road to Emmaus and again in Jerusalem;  he went to great pains to explain to them how it was part of God's plan that the Christ should take on this suffering and so enter his glory.

Without the example of Jesus, innocent suffering would be meaningless. That day in hospital I decided that what was good enough for Jesus was good enough for me.  Like Jesus, I would pray for healing for myself and others;   and I would unite whatever suffering life threw at me with the redemptive sufferings of Christ for as St. Paul says:    "By means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the Church." (Col. 1:24) - only may God grant me the faith and courage always to be as good as my aspirations. As it was for Christ, so for us:  the ultimate explanation for innocent human suffering will only come after death.

This implies that everyone is at risk. Vulnerability is an uncomfortable and unnecessary situation. As Christian's we learn that we must treat others the way you want to be treated. Put yourself in the other persons shoes, in treating someone with contempt , think first, would you like to be treated that way?

This is an adversity we must constantly face everyday. If we put God in the forefront He could say to us: "My Child, everything which I allow in your life is something for which you can thank Me. You can take full advantage of the opportunities in each situation." This can be difficult, especially during negative situations that were not your fault. However, if we view life as a journey and God as our guide, He could say to us: "To find your joy in Me in all situations must be learned quickly. At times of great uncertainty be especially sure of My activity for you."

In our recent Seeker event, representatives of the L'Arche community shared that Jean Vanier and his Spiritual Director, Pere Thomas were alienated from their Catholic community. However, because God was their centre, the emergence of the L'Arche community grew. From its humble beginnings in France with the simple message, that disabled and abled people live in commune, there are now 137 communities in 40 different countries on every continent.

"Let the world see in you the patience and cheerfulness of the heart which looks to Me for everything; let it see what My victory over evil has achieved. All the things after which men strive are not worthy to be set beside possessing Me."

Lets us all find strength through God.

The problem is complex and has many dimensions grounded in different levels of social and personal life. One of the dimensions, in my opinion, has to do with what we know about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Scriptures and their relationship with our lives.

The Catholic Church, at least as far as I have seen and read, provides general religious education in preparation of the different sacraments. With the exception of marriage, most of this formation is experienced when we are very young. If somebody attended a religious school or was part of a Parish group they may have received further formation, but even this ends when schooling ends. The consequence of this situation is that most of what we know about God was learnt while we were children, explained to us in terms we could understand at that point. And sometimes we have even misunderstood some points, with no opportunity to be corrected.

What people call “our Image of God” is in many cases grounded in concepts acquired in childhood. In addition, it is not very common to learn about God on our own and the demand and supply of serious religious formation courses, besides formal programs in universities, seems to be lower than the demand and supply of learning about yoga, dances or martial arts.

Young adulthood is a complex period in life. For many of us it is a period of intellectual development through our higher education. It is also a period of emotional development thanks to our first serious love relationships, break ups, disappointments and the experience of new relationships. For many of us, demographically speaking is also the moment of life in which we lose our first beloved people. It is also a moment of important decisions that define what is going to happen in our future. And for many of us, is also the moment of life in which we meet and become close to people from very different background and beliefs from ours.

So the question is obvious: How can a childish concept of God, Faith and their relationship with our lives survive through all these changes of our age? In my opinion, the childish concept will hardly survive, it has to grow up and mature with us. This probably did not occur for our current non religious but former Christian friends.

Faith is a gift, but it is a gift that we have to take care of. This care has many dimensions as well, but one of them has to do with learning more about God, Christ and Their message.

For example, pain is probably one of the hardest challenges to Faith. Many people ask “Why does God allow this to happen?” A person, who believes that the love of God consists of protecting him or her from every problem if he or she prays for it, can easily lose his or her faith if the problem persists. Actually, many of the criticism to Faith by atheists are grounded in the same concept: “He prayed and nothing happened”.

This “problem solver if I behave and pray” image of God is a very common case of a non mature and not well understood relationship with God, just like the “punisher God”, the “God who limits our freedom”, and many other ideas that create a false distance between people and God.

Thus, it is important to understand, not only know, in a deeper way the meaning of our Faith and how it is related to our lives. By reading the Holy Scriptures, talking to people, going to talks, reading outreach or spiritual books among other ways, we are making our Faith stronger. We need to put in our own effort, which is always better with the help of others. As Christ told us, we have to build our Faith over solid rock. If it is built over rock, is going to resist all the storms of our lives, and we will keep on being his witnesses in the world.

In addition, lack of knowledge is usually one of the dimensions involved in lack of lay people participation in the Church. An incomplete understanding of our Sacraments, our beliefs and our history creates the danger of a purely formalistic and/or passive Christian life, which may not be very strong. A deeper understanding may allow us to live our Sacraments in a different way, to explain and make sense of our beliefs, and better understand our role as Christians. It may also help us to awake in some of our friends and relatives some of the emotions and ideas about God that they believed at some time of their life.

Note: Probably none of these ideas are mine. They are based on lectures, readings and conversations with current and future priests and sisters and other “spiritual people”, as St Ignatius would say.

It mentions that a group the Barna group based in California has spent the last five years researching in America why young adults leave church. It revealed that most leave after the age 15 not to return until maybe when they marry again. However, if those who do return, tend to sway towards the evangelical churches.

The survey also revealed six key reasons:

Churches seem overprotective: Teens and young adults want their faith to connect to the world, but one quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds said that Christians “demonize everything outside the church,” that the church ignores the problems of the real world (22 percent) and that “my church is too concerned that movies, music and video games are harmful” (18 percent).

Teens’ and young adults’ experience of Christianity is shallow: Many said something was lacking in their church experience: “it’s boring”; “it’s not relevant to my career or interests”; “the Bible is not taught clearly or often enough” and “God seems missing from my church experience.”

Churches come across as antagonistic to science: Three out of 10 young adults said “churches are out of step with the scientific world” and “Christianity is anti-science” and 23 percent said they have been turned off by the creation versus evolution debate.

Their church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic and judgmental: Many young adults struggle with how to live up to the church’s expectations of chastity and sexual purity in this culture. Research indicates that most young Christians are as sexually active as their non-Christian peers. Among Catholics, 40 percent of young adults said the church’s “teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date.”

They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity: Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance, and they want to find common ground with people who are different from themselves. Three out of 10 young Christians said “churches are afraid of the beliefs of other faiths,” and 22 percent said the “church is like a country club, only for insiders.”

The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt: Young Christian adults say the church does not allow them to express doubts. This includes “not being able to ask my most pressing life questions in church” (36 percent) and having “significant intellectual doubts about my faith” (23 percent).

Do you relate to any of them? If so lets change things through the Ministry of Seekers, so that more young adults can either remain faithful to the church or lets bring some of them back!

'Real' fellowship is Biblical fellowship. 'God’s method for the outworking of His will through the church.' Fellowship is not just about being together, it is doing together, but doing God's will together.

For this reason we should stop thinking of Christian fellowship as just doing things such as social dinners or watching a DVD. These have their place but they are only fellowship to the extent that rest, exercise, and eating are doing the work of the Lord. Fellowship involves actively doing God’s will. The things we usually think of as fellowship are certainly not the primary meaning of the word!

We can say that: “Fellowship is the relationship of inner harmony among believers that expresses itself in outward co-participation with Christ and one another in accomplishing God’s will on earth.”

At the Ministry of Seekers our events are a mixture of socials, discussions and prayers. If we remember that as we come together in fellowship, we are offering ourselves the opportunity to grow and discover how to 'fellowship' in the true sense of its Biblical meaning.

Our small but growing Ministry has seen how one focus, offering Haiti hope can really bond people together. Through each and everyone person we encountered in spreading our mission of helping the people of Haiti, God's graces shines through, in the warmth and generosity of all our supporters.

This encouragement gives rise and meaning in progressing Seekers Initiatives, in its bid to become a charitable trust. Through the love from the parishioners of St Patrick's Church and our newly acquired backing from the Council of Churches Together in Trinity and Goldenacre, an ecumenical group of local congregations, our realization of giving something back to Haiti directly, is becoming a reality.

You may well think that you are just an individual without influence but as shown by Mother Teresa and the founders of Bethany Christian Trust amongst others, you can realize how one person can make a difference to many people.

I leave you with a Haitian proverb, 'Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou,' translated as 'Many Hands make the load lighter.'

This was soon made clear that this tradition was not only for monks but is especially relevant in today's Modern society. He saw it as a way for the renewal of the church and the world.

In our Lenten meditation series this year, we heard a recorded talk by John Main OSB about our commitment to reality, the reality he talks about is to leave 'self,' to leave our thoughts and analysis behind and to be grounded in God. Through meditation we can discover a stillness and a silence where we learn to accept who we are.

Unfortunately he says "the real tragedy of our time is that we are so filled with the desire for happiness, for success, for wealth for power or whatever it may be, that we are always imagining ourselves as we might be, rarely do we accept ourselves as we are and our present position."

So why not take the time out to become still and learn to appreciate who we are, to be rooted in God who is the ground of our being.

Meditation is simple and practical. It is about experience rather than theory: a way of being rather than a way of thinking. Because of the profound effect meditation has on one's life it is even more than a method of prayer; it is a way of life, a way of living from the deep centre of one's being in every situation.