The month of May, brings with it great beauty and certainly uplifts our spirits. As we begin this new month, take time to enjoy the colour, life and rich energy this “season of new life and growth”.
I’m very conscious also of students as they soon approach their exams. I pray every blessing of peace and confidence to bless all students at this time.
I recently found the following story an inspiring one. ‘A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbour hanging the washing outside.
“That laundry is not very clean; he doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps he needs better laundry soap.”
Her husband looks on, remaining silent. Every time her neighbour hangs his wash to dry, the young woman makes the same comments.
A month later, the woman is surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and says to her husband: “Look, he’s finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught him this?”
The husband replies, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”
And so it is with life….. what we see when watching others depends on the clarity of the window through which we look.’
Faith and hope contained within our hearts to carry us further, over the hill, and far beyond, further than our eyes can see.
Faith is an active virtue. Sometimes we use the wrong senses to deepen it. We try to make faith an academic question, as if having the right answers all the time increases our faith.
The right answer might make us smarter, but it doesn’t always deepen faith. It is the heart that pushes us out of our chair into the pain and heartache of another human being, and intensifies the awareness of God in our lives.
It is also our heart that allows us to experience and support the encouragement of family and friends who remind us we are not alone.
Faith and hope can be the driving force behind everything we do. It determines how we live and what we do.
It’s the power that motivates our whole approach to life. It determines whether or not we treat, with reverence and respect, the people we like, or dislike, or who dislike us.
Faith is God’s gift to us. It’s amazing how easily we forget this. It’s a gift I seem to have had from my earliest years, and I am grateful for it, even though I haven’t always lived up to it.
Gift
A gift is only a gift when we accept it and make it part of our lives. Like any gift, faith has to be cultivated, or else we lose it. If it is not nourished, it will die. If it is not practiced, it can be lost.
It sounds simple. Pope Francis recently challenged a group of Pilgrims “See the light of Goodness in all people. If you can’t be active in turning that light on!!”
May the Month of May be a time of rich blessing in all our lives. This is a most splendid month when life is so abundant and fresh. I love this simple prayer of gratitude for life….
Father and maker of all; you adorn all creation with splendour and beauty, and fashion human lives in your image and likeness.
Awaken in every heart, reverence for the work of your hands, and renew among your people a readiness to nurture and sustain your precious gift of life.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen
SEE ALSO – Fr Paddy: A time to vote No
