Scottish Catholic Observer

Our Faith, like our bodies, and ourselves is alive. It is constantly changing; it needs to be nurtured, cared for and exercised! As we emerge from the dark days of January, Lent is upon us quickly this year. Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. If worldly New Year’s Resolutions have long since faded, or passed you by entirely, then why not steel your spiritual resolve in your Lenten promise?

Like our Faith, our Church is constantly evolving; bringing us new opportunities to learn and grow. In this The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, we have the opportunity of rising to a very simple yet oh so demanding challenge: To find Mercy within ourselves, within our families, within our communities, and bring it to the wider world. The inability and unwillingness to understand, to forgive, to rebuild bridges is essentially what keeps us from a closer relationship with one another, and with God.

Truly God is calling us all. He makes the first move, we must answer. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia this week spoke strongly in his Catholic Education Week message to the Catholic teachers of today and tomorrow. Bishop Joseph Toal, president of SCIAF, and his brother bishops also called to Scotland’s Catholics this week—this time to support this year’s annual SCIAF Wee Box appeal, featuring Ethiopia. The total raised will once again be doubled through UK Government fund matching, presenting another marvellous opportunity to double your donations to the 2016 campaign.

The Year of Consecrated Life has come to an end but vocations remain upper most in our thoughts and prayers. Again we are all being called in different ways. Not all of us are being called to dramatic changes. As the monks at Pluscarden Abbey highlight this week: “Of course, in our 21st century with its information technology, virtual reality, instant media, and the like, any sense of permanence is at least under-valued, if even seen at all. Human beings capacity for day-dreaming, ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ mentality, has become natural, bordering on infinite. Some of this is not new. The escape from stability has always been there.

“Stability, in practical terms, is being where we should be at each moment.”