A message from Fr John

Dear Friends

Good morning - they’re promising some warm weather today - let’s see!

Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew 16: 24 - 28 when Jesus says to his disciples, ‘If any one wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me’. He really doesn’t make it easy for us, does he? Jesus doesn’t minimise the cost of discipleship; he tells us that there is, beneath all of our goodness, kindness and generosity, there remains that which is stubborn and even hard-hearted - still needful of conversion.

Fridays were traditionally days of abstinence, days when we might not eat meat. This was to remind ourselves of the sacrifice of Good Friday: that Easter joy is only possible because of that sacrifice of Jesus on his cross. These days many of us are not great meat eaters, some have taken the option of vegetarianism or veganism, and so the giving up of meat is not a great penance. Our eating habits might have changed but we still need to remind ourselves of the sacrifice of Jesus and of our need to be ever more conformed to his heart.

Remembering the people of Beirut, those refugees in Cox’s Bazaar, Christians persecuted across the Middle East and Africa - all those adrift with nowhere to lay their heads, might we think of a little penance for ourselves today and forgo a little something, a small penance that will help us remember who we are, where we are, and who it is that gives us all that really matters.

And so … as if to confirm it ...

The mole says, ‘Isn’t it odd. We can only see our outsides, but nearly everything happens on the inside’.

St Joseph, pray for us

Every blessing

Fr John