Category: My Column

Bumper Christmas Edition – my Column

Leave a comment

Observer Logo

The bumper Christmas and New Year edition of The Scottish Catholic Observer is out today. It carries my final column of this series – looking back at the Year of Faith. But, this is a bumber edition and also has columns from Peter Kearney, Hugh McLoughlin, John Deighan, Fr. Eddie McGhee, Gerald Warner, Kevin McKenna, Richard Purden, Mary McGinty, Andreas Wolff, John Newton, Joe Bradley and SCIAF. There is a story from Cath Docherty and a pullout section – “2013 A Reflection”.

All that for £2 – who can afford to miss that? If you do then you will find the full text of my column here next week. But, don’t wait – get your copy this weekend.

My November Column Full Text – What Faith Does For You

Leave a comment
The Year of Faith - a Voyage of Discovery

The Year of Faith – a Voyage of Discovery

This year I’ve been considering the Year of Faith and what we are called to do for the Faith. This month I’d like to have a look at the benefits the Faith brings to us. I’ve heard people talk of the obligations that faith places on us and how it restricts their lives. Their lives would be freer and happier without these restrictions. I must confess that I’ve never felt that way but I know others who have abandoned their faith in search of something better.

It set me thinking about how faith can be a benefit rather than a handicap. Can faith free us rather than restrict us? What evidence is there of this? Now, looking for evidence is a scientific technique and that reminded me of the supposed conflict between science and religion. That is where I find my first bit of evidence.

Science, as we know it, began with pioneers such as Nicolaus Copernicus and Isaac Newton. Copernicus declared that all the planets, including the Earth, revolved sound the Sun. At that time it was assumed that the Earth was at the centre and everything revolved round it. Copernicus’ ideas were not welcomed. The prevailing ideas satisfied the needs of farmers in predicting seasonal changes; why change? Copernicus was more interested in getting a better understanding of creation and the God who was responsible for it. His ideas proved to be correct. Today we talk of the Solar System, planets held in orbit round the Sun.

Newton set out to explain the working of the solar system. He gave a mathematical proof of his theory explaining how bodies move. Both of these men were contradicting accepted wisdom. They contradicted theories that worked well. They were driven by their belief in a God who created everything; a God who made it possible for us to understand what He had done. They were driven by faith to understand God’s creation. This drive resulted in the beginning of Science as we know it.

Their faith freed them to think beyond generally accepted ideas and ultimately changed the way we all think. Rather than restrict us, faith brought about the means for us to understand more.

That’s ok as a general thing, but what benefits can I see on a personal level? This year I have had an experience that gave me an insight into how faith can shape the way we see things and enable us to live life differently. My sister was diagnosed with cancer. This is probably the worst thing anybody wants to hear. It can sound like a death sentence to some, but not my sister.

She accepted the news bravely and faced surgery with a calmness that surprised us all. After the surgery she faced a programme of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. I was lucky enough to accompany her for some of the therapy sessions. I say lucky because it gave me the chance to see people dealing with an extremely difficult situation.

I have to say that I did see some people who were very worried. They faced a threatening situation and medicine, despite all its advances, can never promise everlasting life. My sister took it all in her stride. Losing hair presented no problem, in fact it ended up with three sisters in uncontrollable laughter. Why was this? The simple answer is that her faith gives her an understanding of life beyond the here and now. She knows that life is a gift from a loving God who will not abandon her.

Her faith enables her to live a normal life in the face of extreme danger. She has been a wonderful example of the benefits of our faith.

To see life through the window of God’s love allows us to deal with the changes in our lives. This time last year I was a carefree young man in his sixties. Today I am a grandfather of three boys. What a change! No more clubbing for me. But what a great gift they are. I was apprehensive about the recent birth of two boys, identical twins. They were born more than seven weeks premature. One of the boys had been lying in a position that restricted his growth and that prompted the early delivery.

To see two small boys, still not fully developed, in their incubators brought home to me the nature of this gift of life. Despite the difficulties they faced and with the wonderful help of the NHS professionals they are growing well. Human life is no accident. All our children are a gift to us. They are the future of humanity. Each one has been created by God and each one has a purpose.

What has that to do with faith? Well, we live in a society that increasingly chooses to disregard God’s purpose in creating us. Our faith shows us God’s hand in creation. Absence of faith in God leaves the purpose of each human being with a question mark. Why should a child with a serious disability be allowed to live? Why should old or seriously ill people be allowed to suffer?

In our society we hear of thousands of abortions being carried out. We hear reports of abuse of old people in care homes. We know of people travelling abroad to places where they can legally commit suicide. I hear that another bill has been presented before the Scottish Parliament to change the law here in that respect. Respect for life seems to be an old concept, out of place in our society.

This seems to me to be the great example of the difference that the faith brings. When we have faith in God we see things through His teaching. We know that God has a purpose in creation and even if we don’t fully understand that purpose we feel sure that it is right. Lack of faith leaves an emptiness in us where there is nothing to point us in the right direction. With no purpose in life we don’t see the value of life.

How can we react to current trends? Our response must be to reaffirm the value of each life. Our response will be seen in how we react to threats to life. The recent Typhoon in the Philippines brought a great response from people all over our country. Charities gathered in millions of pounds in a few days. People saw the threat to lives and responded as best they could.

These were not threats to their next door neighbour, but to people at the other end of the world. When we see the worth of complete strangers we are seeing the world as God sees it. We must continue to ask ourselves how we see the needs of others. How do we react to asylum seekers? Do we welcome them or do we see them as a threat? How do we respond to human trafficking, where people are moved around and treated as commodities? Do we see this as modern slavery or are we happy to be able to get cheap goods and services?

As Christians we have been given the gift of faith that enables us to see more clearly the hand of God in our lives. We must make that plain to the world.

Joseph McGrath

My November Column – What Does Faith Do For You?

Leave a comment

My November column is published in The Scottish Catholic Observer today. At the end of this Year of Faith I’m considering what our faith does for us personally.

Get your copy today. The full text will appear here next week – but why wait? The Observer is available in your parish this weekend.

My October Column – Full Text – The Power of Faith

Leave a comment

This article appeared in the Scottish Catholic Observer on Friday 25th October 2013.

So far in this series I have looked at Faith in various ways – how I learned my Faith, how I grew in Faith and how my Faith might put me at odds with the world. I have looked at life as a journey of Faith, taking me from childhood into a more mature understanding of my relationship with God.

In this month’s article I want to take a look at Faith from a slightly different perspective. I have looked at the strength of faith and strengthening my faith. The other day I found that Jesus used a different idea. He spoke of the size of our Faith.

In the parable of the mustard seed He says that if your faith was the size of a mustard seed you could command a tree to uproot itself and walk. Now we can take that statement on many levels. Obviously I am not able to command a tree to do that so my faith must be really small. It can be taken as a simple comparison.

On the other hand it is saying something about Faith. Jesus is saying that Faith gives us power. In another place he tells us that faith can move mountains. He is telling us that we have the power to do things that we think are beyond our capabilities.

Now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the Gospel, just to check. In Luke 8; 43 – 48 we hear of a woman who is suffering from a condition that has been dragging her down for twelve years. She believes that Jesus has the power to heal her. One day she pushes through the crowd and touches the hem of his garment, She feels the power that cures her that instant. Jesus feels it too. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

Everyone denied it but Jesus said,

 “Somebody touched me. I felt that power had gone out from me.”

The woman came forward and confessed to touching Him and said she had been cured. Jesus said,

 “My daughter, your faith has restored you to health; go in peace.”

He didn’t say that He had cured her because of her faith. In fact the woman felt the miracle happen before Jesus was aware of her.

Jesus frequently refers to the power of Faith. On visiting Nazareth, his home town, the people would not accept Him. He was still the carpenter’s son. In Mark 6; 4-6  we learn,

“And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and He could work no miracles there, though He cured a few sick people by laying hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of Faith.”

The gospels make it clear that when we have Faith we have power to do good. We have power beyond our imagining. We have power to carry out the work that Jesus has set us to do. We know that, but do we really believe it?

My faith is certainly much smaller than that mustard seed and I’m sure many of us don’t feel we have the power to do marvellous things. However if we all have a small faith we can join together and in coming together our Faith can become much bigger. It is as though all our little mustard seeds come together to make something much bigger. I believe that is why it is important that we come together in prayer. We worship together because the Faith is stronger then.

Who has been to a procession in Lourdes, with thousands of believers singing and praying together and has not felt the effects. For that time our faith is magnified and we can feel it. I belong to a small choir and we work hard at our hymns. Recently we attended a couple of workshops in Motherwell Diocese. There were participants from across the area. When we all sang together we were lifted by the other voices. The sound was wonderful and it was not just more noise, we all felt inspired and sang better than our usual attempts.

As a community of Faith we are a power for good. There are, however, things we can’t do. In Mark’s gospel we hear of Jesus casting out a demon from a boy. The boy’s father asks Jesus to help him. Jesus casts out the spirit and the boy is cured. His disciples asked why they had been unable to cure the boy. Jesus answered,

“This is the kind that can only be driven out by prayer.”

Mark 9; 29

There we have our answer. It is through prayer that great things are done. When we are united in prayer we are most effective. Sometimes people tell us that they don’t need to go to Mass because they can pray at home or on the bus. While it is certainly true that we can pray anywhere and at any time, it is when we come together as a community of prayer that we are truly united. When we are united in the Eucharist then our prayers are truly powerful.

I recall being at a meeting of priests on a mission in Liberia. This was after the troubles there. Someone asked the priest who had run the Catholic radio station, Radio Veritas, to explain his escape from a fire there. The station had been broadcasting news of the atrocities Charles Taylor’s army had been carrying out. One night he was seized and locked in the inner studio of the station and the building set on fire. He was soon overcome by fumes, flames surrounding his studio.

He woke up on someone’s kitchen floor. Nobody knew how he had arrived there. His explanation was simple – he didn’t know how he got out, only that he had been saved by people’s prayers.

It is evident, then that Faith is not an individual thing. It works best in community, the bigger the community the better. Faith demands to be shared. There is a temptation for us to be smug in our religion. We could easily feel that we are chosen by God and other people may not get to Heaven but we will be ok. I don’t think it really works like that. Jesus calls all men (and women – I’m not looking to start a fight). As Christians we are called to help others to come to Christ. If we sit back thinking “I’m all right Jack.” Then we might be in for a rude awakening when the time comes.

I believe that it is vital that all Christians come together and show, by example, how Christ’s message of love can transform us. Only by being united in Christ can we persuade non – Christians to turn to the gospel. In sharing our Faith we will make it bigger and more effective in dealing with the problems of our world.

This Year of Faith has given me a timely reminder that the Faith I have taken for granted is not something to leave in the drawer and bring out on a Sunday. It has to be the guiding force in my life. I wonder where it will lead me?

Is Your Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed?

Leave a comment

My October column is published in the Scottish Catholic Observer today.

How big is your faith?

How powerful is your faith?

How do you measure up?

Check out my column today. The full text is here next week, but don’t wait for that – get your copy this weekend.

My September Column – False Gods

Leave a comment

Last month I quoted His Holiness, Pope Francis I, telling us to build the Church. We must be the evangelists spreading the Faith. That sounds exciting and really scary all at the same time. It’s exciting because it places us in the forefront of building the Kingdom of God on earth. It is scary because we don’t really know how to go about it.

A few years ago I was in Liberia with Father Gary Jenkins, an SMA missionary. I was learning about how a mission works, looking at the school, the clinics and the people working there. He was a very experienced missionary and was working in remote villages, bringing the Gospel to people who had never heard the Word.

At that time Liberia was emerging from a disastrous civil war and people were returning to devastated villages to try to pick up the threads of normal life again. I asked Father Gary how he went about introducing people to the Gospel. How do you get them interested? His answer was quite simple. The culture in those African communities was an oral one. Most people could not read and write so everything was in the spoken word. Their culture was passed down through the generations in stories. Father Gary told stories.

His stories were the stories of the Bible. He visited villages and told his stories to generate an understanding of what Christianity was about. He told me that Missionaries did not bring God to Africa. God was already there. The Holy Spirit moved in Africa before the white man and created a thirst for knowledge of God. What was new to Africa was Jesus.

This seemed logical but it all seemed a bit too simple. Father Gary agreed and offered to take me on a visit he was making to a village in the forest where he had started a small Christian group. The village was not too far away but was not easy to reach. We drove off the road and down tracks through the forest until we reached a river. There we were met by a boatman in his dugout canoe.

There were only two men who were allowed to ferry people across the river. He came back and forth until the whole party was across. We found ourselves on the edge of the village and walked in to a great welcome. We celebrated Mass in a hut in the centre of the village before sharing a meal there.

As darkness fell we were treated to a spectacular dance display where Magongo, a forest spirit danced through fire, displaying his power over that element. The boys from the mission who accompanied us stayed close to us in fear. The old religion still carried sway. Magongo is really a man in a suit of grass, not exactly what you would wear to dance through a roaring fire but that’s why it is so impressive.

I wondered what it was about Father Gary that impressed the villagers more than Magongo. It turned out that Magongo is a spirit dedicated to Father Gary and he bowed down before the priest after the dance. Now I was really puzzled. Father Gary eventually told me the story.

He had gone to the village, telling his stories and building a community but there was another group there, an Evangelical group who opposed his presence. They disrupted his attempts to have a Mass in the village and he eventually gave up. He explained to the village chief that the people did not seem to want him there.

That would have been the end of the story but for the start of a new war. The civil war was, as I have said, disastrous for the people. Many fled into displacement camps, seeking safety but often finding very difficult conditions. Father Gary stayed in his post throughout the war and did his best to alleviate the condition of the people and sought aid from many people in the UK. Many of you will have helped him via SIR and Mary’s Meals.

When the war finished and the people were returning a messenger came from the village. The chief wanted Father Gary to come back. He went to the village and asked the chief why he had sent for him. He had tried before but the people had preferred a different group. Why would things be different now?

The chief agreed that the people had been drawn to a different Christian group who had offered prosperity in this life. When the war came that group left. Father Gary had stayed and had continued to work to alleviate their difficult conditions. The people had realised that Father Gary brought more than promises; he brought himself. By his selflessness and good works he had shown them the true meaning of the Gospel message.

It seems to me that it’s not the telling of the story that is important. If we are to build the Church we must be prepared to give ourselves to be used. Evangelisation is the work of the Holy Spirit. We must allow the Spirit to use us to influence other people. We can be an influence by behaving like true Christians in the way we go about our daily lives and in the way we treat others.

Telling the story of Magongo dancing through the fire made me think back to the boys who were afraid of the forest spirit. At the time I was both puzzled and amused. These boys had been boy soldiers in the civil war and had seen dreadful things. They were Christians, firmly believing in one God and yet they still feared this other god.

The apparent weakness of their faith made me think of my own faith in one true god. Do I really have no other gods in my life? If that is the case then why did I make sure I had a lottery ticket last night? If my Faith was strong I would understand that money will not bring me happiness or satisfaction. I tell myself that money is useful and could be used to change the lives of so many poor people. It could do a lot of good.

I’m deluding myself. Millions could be put to good use, but the Gospel message is not about using easy money. It is about the hard reality of sharing the little we have, not the surplus we can’t think how to spend. If I won the lottery would I help the poor before or after buying myself a shiny red sports car?

Yes, there are still some false gods in my life and I need to recognise them for what they are. Only then can I live a life that truly teaches by example. Only then will I be able to live up to the task Christ set for all Christians; to lead the world to Him.

Now I’m not so sure of myself than I was when I started writing this. I need to go off and seek out those other false gods that might be lurking there, somewhere in the back of my mind.

You will find him there. Are there any false gods lurking in your background? They might not be dancing through fire but they could be hiding in that lottery ticket or that bottle of red. Oops, that might be another of mine.

To see the video in YouTube click here

My September Post – Journey of Faith 9

Leave a comment

My September column is published today (Friday 27th September) in the Scottish Catholic Observer. This month I look into how missionaries share the Faith. I talk about an African village and Magongo – a forest spirit. See the video below.

Get the paper this weekend for the full story.

My August Column – A Guide on Our Journey of Faith

Leave a comment

A Guide on Our Journey of Faith

In this series of articles we are walking on our journey of Faith. We are taking the opportunity of the Year of Faith to examine the roots of our faith and look at how we can develop and grow it. The Journey of Faith is not a simple straight road. There are many bends and forks in the road. Sometimes we can go off the path and find ourselves lost. It is then that we see the value of having a good guide.

At this point on our journey I thought it might be a good idea to find a guide. Fortunately, our guide arrived in the person of the Holy Father. Pope Francis travelled to Brazil for World Youth Day to bring his message and guidance to the young people of the world. His words are freely available to guide us on our journey.

Now, there may be some readers out there who are thinking that I am no longer a youth. They may say that the Holy Father’s words are not for me. I disagree on two grounds. First I have to point out that we are called to eternal life and that even those who have reached the age of one hundred are mere infants in the scope of eternity. We are all children. Secondly, having looked at what Pope Francis said, I can see that he actually addressed the whole Church with a focus on the youth.

So, what was his message? It was simple, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” We have heard that before. Jesus said that to the apostles, but the message was not just for the twelve, it was to all of us. We have been given the gift of faith and to make it grow within us we must give it away to others. Trying to keep it for ourselves, hidden away from the world will cause it to wither. We are urged to bring our faith out into the streets.

Now the image of standing on street corners with a megaphone, broadcasting to the shoppers and passers-by fills me with horror. I can’t imagine anything worse. Telling everyone how to live and what to believe, correcting the errors in their lives on Main Street, telling the world that they are wrong, just seems ineffective.

The Pope is encouraging us to become missionaries in our lives in a proactive way, showing how to live rather than telling others. His words in Rio were;

“Go and make disciples of all nations”. With these words, Jesus is speaking to each one of us, saying: “It was wonderful to take part in World Youth Day, to live the faith together with young people from the four corners of the earth, but now you must go, now you must pass on this experience to others.” Jesus is calling you to be a disciple with a mission! Today, in the light of the word of God that we have heard, what is the Lord saying to us? What is the Lord saying to us? Three simple ideas: Go, do not be afraid, and serve.

Now I was not in Rio and did not have that experience to pass on but the message is not to be avoided. If my faith is to grow then I must share it. The Holy Father said;

Faith is a flame that grows stronger the more it is shared and passed on, so that everyone may know, love and confess Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and history (cf. Rom 10:9).

Careful, though! Jesus did not say: “go, if you would like to, if you have the time”, but he said: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Sharing the experience of faith, bearing witness to the faith, proclaiming the Gospel: this is a command that the Lord entrusts to the whole Church, and that includes you;

How are we to bear witness to the faith? In his talks to the pilgrims and others Pope Francis continually uses the word “Solidarity”. He urges us to look outwards to the poor, the sick and the excluded. In his visit to St. Francis Of Assisi Of The Providence Of God Hospital he said;

As Jesus says to us: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

The Holy Father is calling us back to the very basics of the Church, to the examples Christ gave us. We are called to rebuild the Church. As individuals we can become set in our ways and the same is true of the Church. We can become bogged down in the minutia of daily life and miss the big picture. Then it is easy to wander off the path. He talked of the Church as a building made of stones, living stones and the part we play.

each one of us is a living stone, a small part of the edifice; when the rain comes, if this piece is missing, there are leaks and water comes in. Don’t build a little chapel which holds only a small group of persons. Jesus asks us to make his living Church so large that it can hold all of humanity, that it can be a home for everyone!

This is no invitation to join a small faith-sharing group. This is a challenge to grasp the faith and follow where it leads. We are challenged to take on the injustice in the world and expose it for what it is. We are expected to identify what is wrong in our world, and in our Church and make changes. This is not a ‘happy clappy’ church we are being invited to. We are called to work for the coming of the Kingdom.

When I really was a youth the priest brought the sacraments to us and we received them. We were passive. The reality of the Church is that we are called to be active. Some of us may find that exciting. Other might be frightened off. How can we do this on our own? Well, as the Holy Father reminded the pilgrims in Rio, we are not on our own.

“Do not be afraid!” When we go to proclaim Christ, it is he himself who goes before us and guides us. When he sent his disciples on mission, he promised: “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20). And this is also true for us! Jesus never leaves anyone alone! He always accompanies us .

I stop and think about this challenge. It seems immense. I don’t even know where to begin. Pope Francis was there before me. To the pilgrims at his Mass on the beach at Copacabana he said;

Some people once asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta what needed to change in the Church, and which wall should they start with? They asked her, where is the starting point? And she replied, you and I are the starting point!

There was so much more in the Holy Fathers talks in Rio. I have tried to convey something of what he said that will guide us in our journey but it is worth reading all of what he said. The whole text is available on the internet, on the Vatican website. You will find a link to it here.

So, you and I are the starting point. Let’s get out there and grow the faith.

Joseph McGrath

My Latest Column Out Today

Leave a comment

My latest column on this year’s theme of Journey of Faith is published today (Friday 23rd August 2013) in the Scottish Catholic Observer. In this issue I look at some of the things Pope Francis I said about Faith on his recent visit to World Youth Day in Rio.

Have a look and tell me what you think. If you miss this issue the full text will appear here next week.

My July Column

Leave a comment

My July column in the Scottish Catholic Observer has been out for more than a week now.

The full text is shown below. My theme this year has been “A Journey of Faith”. I’m examining how we get the Faith and how it grows. This month I looked at doubt.

Faith and Doubt

I’m writing this article on the feast of Saint Thomas, Doubting Thomas. Doubt is often thought of as the opposite of faith. Parents tend to panic when their children express doubts about Catholic belief. Sometimes we have doubts and wonder why God allows doubts to creep into our heads. Is it the Devil putting these thoughts in my head?  Is doubt so bad? If so, what about Thomas? Was he less of an apostle than the others because he doubted? Perhaps he was the one who voiced the thoughts that some of the others had but were afraid to say.

Doubt is not the same as refusal to believe. When Thomas expressed doubt about the identity of the risen Lord he was being cautious. He was not willing to accept everything he was told. He gave Jesus the opportunity to show the proof of His identity. He gave us a good example to follow. The Church is cautious. Reports of miracles and apparitions are not accepted readily. Only after close examination of the evidence will the Church eventually recognise such incidents. When someone is canonised it is the last stage of exhaustive examination. Thank God I’ll never be canonised; imagine having every aspect of your life scrutinised.

I visited the tomb of Saint Thomas in India and saw the spear head that reputedly killed him. There was some doubt about this. Some claimed that this was a different Thomas but Pope John Paul II had been there before me, so I thought it must be ok. My visit was just after the Tsunami that made the headlines here. The tomb is in a basilica in Chennai. At the time of the tsunami the water came up into the town, causing a great deal of damage but stopped at the Basilica. That banished the doubts of many people about this being the tomb of the saint.

So, what role does doubt play in developing our Faith? When doubts creep in we are forced to think seriously about our Faith. Edward DeBono, a writer on educational psychology, declared that we only think when we don’t know. For example, we can do long division without thinking about it because we know how it’s done. If we are asked to do a long division in roman numerals, that’s a different story. We have to think about that. Having doubts can make us think more deeply about our Faith and make it stronger because we have deepened our understanding.

When I was growing up we were taught about mysteries of faith. As one teacher, I remember, put it “That’s a mystery and you’ll never understand it.” That seemed too simple to me. If we just accept things without trying to understand then faith does not grow. Why would God give us the ability to recognise a problem without giving us the ability to learn from it? It is in recognising our doubts for what they are and trying to solve them that we deepen in faith.

But, what if we can’t solve the problem? Is that our faith declining? I don’t think so. It’s just the same as any other problem, if I can’t sort it out myself I ask for help. Turn to someone who has some expertise. We are lucky to have priests who are well trained and know what they are about. Being asked for help with a doubt that bothers me will be a welcome change from some of the questions priest are asked.

Priests can have their doubts too. A few years ago I was visiting Ecuador (I wasn’t looking for political asylum) and staying with a missionary order there. One of the priests told me about a problem he had recently encountered. Their cook had a little boy who became seriously ill. She could not afford medical treatment so the priests arranged for him to go to hospital. Despite the best medical care he was getting worse and the doctors offered no hope.

The founder of the order had been recently canonised and this priest found himself in the little chapel, praying for the boy’s recovery. He looked up at the statue of the founder and, in a fit of anger, said “How could you let this happen? Ach I never believed you were a saint anyway. If you really were a saint you would do something about this.”

Next day the word came that the boy was sitting up in his bed; on his way back to full health. Now the priest never really understood how that had come about but he felt that his problem with doubt had sparked some action.

So how should we handle the situation when our children express doubts? We could just tell them that they are wrong and they should put aside their doubts and believe. I don’t think that will do much good. Perhaps we are better to see this as opportunity to get them to think more deeply about questions of faith. When we don’t really understand ourselves, we should be honest and admit that. Encouraging them to find help to get the solution might help them to see that our Faith is not blind faith. It is through engaging with questions of faith that we can grow in Faith.

Sometimes I think God could have come up with an easier way for us to deepen our understanding of our faith. Why do we have to suffer the anxiety that doubts bring? Could there not be an easier way? Perhaps there could, but it seems to me to be the story of our lives. Nothing comes easy. I was watching my wee grandson via the computer link from Vancouver the other day (I know, I’m too young to be a grandpa). He was dribbling away and shoving his hand in his mouth. He has just cut his first tooth and others are on the way. His sore mouth is just a symptom of growing.

Our anxieties about doubts are just symptoms of our growing in Faith. If we look at it that way then we should be happy when we are in doubt. That is evidence that we are still in a process of growing in Faith. If we had sunny days all year and no rain the garden would dry up and there would be no growth. If we see our doubts as a challenge from God rather than temptation from the Devil then we can happily get on with deepening our understanding and strengthening our Faith.

Joseph McGrath