Going to Mass on holiday

There's something really great about going to Mass in a completely different church, especially when you're on holiday. We walked into the beautifully named 'Mater Amabilis' (loving mother, when we googled it) at 9 20 am on that particular Sunday morning in late July.

Two men (in their 50s or 60s, I'd say) welcomed us all and introduced the visiting priest who was covering for the parish priest, away on his holidays. They, together with a lady singer, accompanied the lovely and well-known hymns with their guitars and everyone joined in with gusto.

As we began 'Morning has broken', I felt really moved and uplifted to be a part of such a wonderful family of people, probably numbering over 200, none of whom we knew, but with whom we shared this great gift of faith.

The priest had a pronounced limp, was very bowed and elderly, (over 80, as he told us in his homily) and very funny. Before Mass began, he placed a glass of water on the altar and turned away to go to the sacristy, muttering some aside which I didn't catch. Everyone's laughter caused me to ask the lady next to me what he'd said, which turned out to be, "You think it's water; it's gin!"

The Mass was beautiful and amazing. Father spoke about the readings in such a real, honest and merciful way, that he throughly endeared himself to us. He was overwhelmed by there being so many young families present, many of whom would have been on holiday, like us, having sought out the nearest church. (Another aside was to the effect of his usual parish being in 'geriatrica', causing another laugh!)

At the end of the Mass, he forsook the usual prayers and came off the altar to speak to a family of mum, dad and three sons, late teens, I'd say. He addressed the parents and said, "You've got a HELL of a job on in these times of ...... (mentioning many of the current dificulties of our times)."

He then spoke to the young men directly and, amongst other things which I can't remember now (this having taken me so long to get round to finishing), said, "Just look around you and see this lot (casting his arm in the direction of us older folk). They've borne the heat and the toil of the day and they're still here, hanging on (or words to that effect). Learn from them."

It was so moving. I had tears in my eyes right through the last hymn. (And so did H!") At the cuppa afterwards, I told him off for making me cry! He talked about having been pensioned off and I said perhaps it was because of his limp to which he retorted that it was from rugby. I laughed and said, "Well, you've only got yourself to blame then, Father." And we both laughed.

H = husband

Prayers 5 Prayers to Jesus

In the Catholic Church, many people have a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is the symbol of his infinite love for all people, his family on earth. I use this as a vehicle for some of my prayers to Jesus.

O Sacred heart of Jesus, I implore
that I may love and trust you,
daily, more and more.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, help me to trust you always.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, help me to trust you always.
O Sacred Heart of jesus, help me to trust you always.

O Jesus, gentle and humble of heart,
make our hearts like unto thine,
especially mine.

O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary,
help me to pray and work for you this day,
for all the intentions of your divine heart,
which holds all those of ours
and of the whole world.

Blessed Redeemer,
may we see you more clearly,
love you more dearly
and follow you more nearly,
day by day.

Prayers 4 Prayers to The Holy Spirit and to the Blessed Trinity and prayers of thanksgiving, sorrow and love

I usually pray to Jesus next but will save that until I can explain a little bit more.

Need and Intercession (continued)

Holy Spirit of God,
please fill our minds with your wisdom,
our hearts with your love
and our spirits with your strength,
that we may know and do the will of our Father,
for the sake of his Son, 
by the power of your Holy Spirit -
and comfort us when we get it wrong.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
may we know, love and serve you,
by serving with love, all those we know;
trusting the past to your mercy,
the present to your love 
and the future to your providence. Amen

Thanksgiving

Please help us to be aware of and truly grateful for all your goodness to us;
for the love of family and friends,
for health of mind and body
and for the blessings and joys,
comforts and securities of our lives

Sorrow

and to be aware of and truly sorry for our failings and failures in loving 
and allow your grace to help us overcome and avoid them all during this day.
Amen

Adoration and Love

and help me to love, honour, adore, worship, glorify and praise you, all this day long;
in your Divinity, 
all-knowing, loving and giving God;
and in your Creativity;
for all creation is Father from, Son for and Holy Spirit through you.
I will try before you,
to worship and adore you,
as Father, loving Creator and Sustainer,
Jesus, constant Companion and Saviour
and Holy Spirit, wise Counsellor and Consoler.
Amen

Prayers 3 Prayer to the Blessed Trinity and to God our Father

Having said the introductory prayers, I move onto these:

I pray in your name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 
that my mind and heart may be filled with ever-lasting prayers 
of Love, Adoration, Sorrow, Thanksgiving, Intercession, Need and Glory.

Glory

May all glory be given to you Father, and to you Son, and to you Holy Spirit, 
as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, 
world without end. Amen

Need and Intercession

And I bring our needs in these intercessions, through you Holy spirit, with you Jesus, to you
Our Father in heaven,
may your holy name be honoured.
May your knigdom come and your will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
For you give us today our daily bread
and forgive us our offences as we forgive those who offend against us.
Please keep us from temptation and free us from evil,
and may we act justly, 
love tenderly 
and walk humbly 
with you through this day. Amen

Prayers 2 My introductory morning prayers (Take 2)

These prayers are a conglomeration of my own words with little bits and bobs from other prayers and from the Bible, which have found their way in because I like them and they seem to fit. Here goes then. (Take 2!! Oops, put things in the wrong place; left things out. That's what comes from writing too late at night!)

Oh God, at the beginning of this new day,
please help me to be aware of your presence,
to think of you,
to thank you for this new day,
to count my blessings.
Thank you for all the blessings of yesterday,
(At this point, I run through the previous day, trying to remember what I need to thank God for. This should have been done the night before but often, I just fall asleep or have other things on my mind, which is a shame because it's so easy to become side-tracked in the memories and mithers of yesterday!!)
for the gift of sleep, 
and for bringing us safely and peacefully through the night and into this new day.
Thank you for our family and friends,
for health and strength,
for our home and for every good thing in our lives.
Thank you for being with us all throughout this day, 
but especially for being with those who are suffering or struggling in any way 
or in need of any kind. 
Thank you for helping us all to be what we should be and do what we should do,
for you, Father, with you, Jesus, through you, Holy Spirit.
Amen

For you, God, are the Supreme Being,
who alone exists of yourself and is infinite in all goodness.
In you, we live and move and have our being,
for you are in everything
and everything is in you.
I am in you and you are in me.
Please help me to hear you say today, "Be still and know that I am God";
"I am the Lord your God, who led you out of the land of Egypt".
Lord, you brought us to this our promised land;
you are merciful to us your children
and, for you, Lord, sufficient unto this day are all our needs.
(At this point, I usually run through our day and ask for specific help for what lies ahead, before moving on to the more set (even if adapted) prayers. This can be a mistake too, because there's so much scope for the mind to wander before the 'list' is finished! Like everything in life, it's all still a work in progress.))
Amen

Recommending three articles from the Catholic Herald Sept 1 2017

• Notebook  by HARRY MOUNT
• Charterhouse  by JAMES JEFFREY
• The last word  by FR RONALD ROLHEISER

(This last contains the great line, "You aren't stuck in traffic. You ARE the traffic!")

About God, free will and choosing between right and wrong

Ask parents if they are able to help, make, or even influence, their grown-up children to do what they, the parents, really think, feel and believe is in their best interests, and most, if not all, will say an emphatic NO.

Our offspring will, when they are or should be responsible for their own actions, mostly go their own way, right or wrong, and we have to let them.

So it is with God and us. Let us pray for the wisdom to make the right choices in life, to give thanks when we do and to make amends when we don't.

About the Reformation

'Reformation Myths' by Rodney Stark sounds interesting.

See review by Michael Duggan, Catholic Herald, August 25 2017

Footnote: I'm not on commission from this magazine but we receive it weekly, and although I don't agree with everything, there are some really good columns, articles, reviews and regular contributions that I always want to share with someone, so why not here, I think.

About the difference between hope in God and conviction that there is a God

The concept of hope, in a religious sense, has long been a struggle for me because I have had always the conviction that a) there is a God, b) there is a heaven and c) I'm going there when I die.

This is not because I'm 'good' enough but because God is. I've tried to be and do my best, and, even though I've failed many, many times, for which I am truly sorry, I believe that this is all that God asks from us.

Being brought up with very good values of what was right and wrong and being shown, by word and example, how to behave towards others was also an amazing benefit. So, believing that this is the best way to be happy in this world, it's been worth the effort.

(On a 'personal anxiety' level, I freely admit that I am also scared of 'being in the wrong' and of 'being told off', but not by God, of whom I've never been afraid, but by people. Also, I bother far too much about what people think of me so do want to be seen to be doing the 'right' thing.)

As I grew up and became aware of the anguish and suffering in the world, I used to think I couldn't bear it if I didn't believe that all this would be put right or made up for somehow, if not in this world, then in the next.

Recently though, I'm beginning to see why hope could be so important for people who don't have the certainty that I have (through no conscious effort on my part, but as a pure gift from my life's circumstances, I imagine).

If what I believe in is true, then every grief and sorrow, all struggles and sufferings, in fact "every tear", WILL be wiped away. Consolation will be given TO, and justice done FOR, everyone who has suffered. At the same time, justice WILL be done TO all who have caused suffering, in ways that our human minds cannot comprehend.

Surely it is worth hoping that this might be true. Isn't this better than closing our eyes and shutting down our hearts to the pain of the world or becoming hardened and teaching ourselves not to care.

I do hope so. If I never wrote another word, this is what I'd want my life's message to be.

Prayers 1 About 'praying' and 'saying prayers'

For a long time now, I have felt that I would like to write about praying and share my prayer pattern in case it might be of help to someone else so here goes.

How many words have been written on this subject before?! Countless, I'm sure is the answer to that. Why should that be? Well, if there is a God who has made us and loves us then communication would seem to be high up on the list of imperatives in our relationship with our Maker.

As young people at school, we were given the pnemonic 'ACTS' as an aid to prayer, the letters standing for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Suppplication. I was never particularly happy with this and, over the years, have come up with my own, which is as follows: Love, Adoration, Sorrow, Thanksgiving, Intercession, Need and Glory, giving the word 'LASTING'.

I actually end up praying in the opposite order of the letters. I also believe that it is important for us to pray in our own words in our personal prayer so you will find my best efforts to be as true to the accepted language of our traditional prayers as I understand it and as it makes sense to me.

The order is very much based on the Trinity which is the fundamental picture I have of the God with whom I am trying to communicate. So first of all, I address God the Father, then Jesus, his Son and then, the Holy Spirit.

As this has turned into quite a long introduction, I will start another post to give the actual prayers.

Thoughts about two sad situations brought to mind whilst out shopping today

The post below was written in September 2017 and has been in draft ever since but still holds good for me today.

In Tesco today, we bumped into a couple we know who have a son with learning and physical disabilities. He goes to the same day placement as our son and is a lovely lad.

In the course of our conversation, not having seen them for a while, we found out that they are really struggling to get the appropriate care package for their son and respite for themselves.

Both of them have had very serious illnesses and they have one daughter who tries to help them as much as she can but has her own family and also has real health problems at the moment. It is so unjust and upsetting and breaks our hearts for them.

As we drove home, talking about how wrong it all was, we spotted one of our neighbours walking down the road. Since a dreadful bike accident when he was a young lad, every step he takes is painful to watch. He walks with a very pronounced limp and has had to have a hip operation at quite a young age for an adult.

There seems no easy answer to either of these situations which could be replicated throughout the world, to a greater and lesser extent, wherever you look.

My only consolation is to hang on to the absolute conviction that in the next world, all this grief will be assuaged and the injustice dealt with and righted. Again, I say to myself, without that belief, how can anyone live in a world with so much sorrow.