Friday, October 04, 2013

The answer: Jesus Christ, fasting and prayer

Listening to the news this morning, the accounts of the deaths of those immigrants off the coast of Lampedusa, the death Hamzah Khan, the little boy who was starved to death by his addicted mother in Bradford, on a lesser level the sheer nastiness of the Mail on Sunday's reporting on Miliband's dad, there is something serious wrong at the heart of our society.
As with everything else I know the answer is 'Jesus Christ', what the question is I am not sure, nor how we lead people find the answer.
It is the same with the Church, the confusion, the hurt that so many feel as Pope Francis changes the gearing in the engine of the Church; what the questions are, we are not sure, we know the the answer is 'Jesus Christ'.
Join me in a day of prayer and fasting for the Pope's intention. When Christians see confusion, or are frightened or can't see a way forward then is a time for more prayer and more fasting, to come closer to the crucified.

12 comments:

Ches said...

Joining with you today, Father Ray. Let's hope all our fears are reduced to dust.

Delia said...

Ditto Ches. Don't do Facebook, though.

Pelerin said...

Ditto Ches.

Those who can follow French may be interested in a programme on kto (the French Catholic tv channel available on the internet)tomorrow Saturday 5th October at 19.40 here in Britain.

There will be an interview with Cardinal Vingt-trois in which 'we will try and understand what Pope Francis is telling the world and what he wishes for the Church today.'

As usual the programme will be available for watching later as a video on the kto website.

Long-Skirts said...

MOTHER'S SON

Deformed
Love
Is applauded

Misguided
Sentiment
The rage.

Child-like
Innocence
Marauded

Mother's rape
Has weakened
Her gauge.

But somewhere
There are
Fields of clover

Hearth fires
Glow...glassed
In red

And cliffs
Where souls
Climb over and over

Still reach
The hill
Where Mother's Son bled.

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

'Gaudium et Spes...' they removed the finish, 'grief and anxiety'. Christ's optimum, 'let not your hearts be troubled'; yet Christ wept in empathy with others, bled for the strain of all poisoned and fallen souls in Gethsemne, and grieved for His torturers on the way to and on the Cross. In the Stations of the Cross - 'the Lord speaks, 'I fall through physical weariness, yet you fall through sin.' Once the apostles came to Our Lord and said, 'we could not cast out that demon in your name'; His reply was that only prayer and fasting (personal sacrfice -taking up one's cross) could overcome that sort of evil. In a world that doesn't acknowledge sin, and in 'Church' culture that only acknowledges a sin called lack of charity - that is not restraining oneself from warning against sin; against 'freedom' above reason; against a worldly ideology that promotes self-delusion above Truth. Pray, fast and sacrifice. Somewhere in Europe recently a woman, who became a man, with all the physical and psychological violence 'necessary', was at forty- four years of age, 'euthanized' (put down) because of the irreparable psychological distress she/he was left in. Pray and sacrifice. Lord have mercy. If only the Church believed in Her mission, and didn't shy away from calling the world fallen, a place with built-in grief and anxiety because we and our primal parents chose/choose 'autonomy' (Godlessness). The Church seems to frown on devotion, mission, solemnity, a zeal for the House of God, a hunger for Our Lord - these things are too 'Catholic' ...but social justice has been enthroned...and 'human rights' set on a pillar blasting human dignity where ever it comes into sight.

Unknown said...

A wise man told me that the word Beelzebub has its root in the ancient Hebrew word for confusion?

Prayer and fasting, our last line of defence.

Just another mad Catholic said...

The problem Father is that my prayers seem to be as effective as a cat-flap in an elephant house. I go to adoration every day during my lunch hour but God doesn't seem to listen.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Jack.
My problem too!
Maybe we both have to learn to listen to him talking to us more than ourselves talking to him.
It is really hard - why does he listen when I say, 'my will be done in heaven as I am doing it earth'?

Just another mad Catholic said...

Father If you'd been knocked about the way I have then 'thy will be done' is not something you trust in totally ala Therese happy clappy of Liseaux.

TLMWx said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Milliband's dad? Solzhenitsyn taught us some pretty nasty things about the USSR. I think a good argument for Christianity now is the evil of what happened there and in China, and what happens if we put our faith in nice Communists. What's fascinating is how quickly things change, at any time. It's wonderful that the churches have reopened in the Ukraine and elsewhere. You can hear the bells on Youtube. AMDG

Frederick Jones said...

It was the Mail's headline that was objectionable not the attack on Miliband Snrs opinions. Read his book "Parliamentary Socialism". In addition to being thoroughly boring it is a defence of the doctrine of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.He may not have "hated Britain"(indeed it is difficult to see how as a refugee He could have)but he certainly objected to its system of government.

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