Tag: Scottish Catholic Observer

My December Column – Full Text

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Well, that was the Year of Faith. It’s over now and we can move on. Before we do I’d like to just look back on the year to see what it did for me, and possibly you. The Year of Faith was launched with some fanfare and lots of resources were set in place for us, much of that online. There were events and celebrations before it all went into the background.

So, when I look back, did it help me in my personal journey of faith? I looked into where my faith came from. That was easy; it came from my parents, my grandparents and the faith community I was born into. The faith was passed down to me, a bit like an Olympic torch (or should I say a Commonwealth Games Baton?). Now it’s up to me as a parent and, was a while ago, as a teacher to pass that same torch, that flame of faith on to others.

I found lots of resources online. I got a daily email from Read the Catechism in a Year’ and ‘Daily Catholic Quotes’. Between the avalanche of stuff that poured through my computer screen and the coverage in the Scottish Catholic Observer I was well resourced.

I found that faith was not just about believing in God but it was much more. My faith is a power in my life and it is up to me to be open to this wonderful gift. It is something that I have to nurture and grow for my good and for the community of faith as a whole. I need to see if I can get my faith to be as big as a mustard seed. Now growing things was never my strong point as anyone who looks at my garden will tell you. So how can I nourish my faith?

The answer to that is, again, simple. The sacraments exist to do just that. It’s up to me to make more use of the sacraments and to avoid falling into the trap of treating them as routine. When I made my First Communion it was a big thing. All smartly dressed, cleaned and polished. This was Jesus coming to me. Why should First Communion be taken more seriously than the second, third or five hundredth communion? I must strive to regain that sense of awe that I had for the sacraments as a child. I need to remember just how wonderful they are.

Our new Holy Father has been a great guide and inspiration. He has reminded me of the need to concentrate on the fundamentals of Christ’s teaching and not to get bogged down in the rules. The rules are important but we must never let them get in the way of the essential message ‘love thy neighbour’. That’s another thing I’ve realised this year. My faith is not just about me. It is about how I behave towards other people. Is my focus on myself or am I thinking of others? Christ’s focus was always on others. I think that is a clear message for all of us.

Now, things have changed over the years in the Church. I can remember when we had parish retreats, class retreats and even evening retreats. These gave us opportunities to step aside from the ‘production line’ that is daily life and take time to spend in contemplation. I experienced retreats where we were expertly guided to find that peace where God’s message for us becomes clearer. These don’t seem to be so popular today. There is a need in all of us for a guided retreat.

I recently came across a book by a Jesuit priest which attempts to guide us through a DIY retreat. The book is called ‘Together on Retreat’ written by Fr. James Martin SJ. I bought it as an e-book on my Kindle. I’ve just started using it and I’m finding it very helpful. It’s a bit like having an expert in your pocket to help with your spiritual life.

The basis of the retreat is, of course, prayer. Father Martin started off by describing some different approaches to prayer. Let’s face it, if I want to get on better with God then I need to converse with Him. Not just recite prayers, but open up to Him about how I find myself at that moment and look out for His answer. A few months ago I mentioned my problems of being distracted in Mass. Fr. Martin gave me a deeper insight into why that might be. He pointed out that sometimes God pops thoughts into your head, not as a distraction, but to draw your attention to some issue you need to deal with. My attitude to distractions has changed for the better.

As part of my journey of faith I decided on a real journey. I went to France to start my personal pilgrimage, walking the Camino. I started my journey by train, travelling to London, on to Paris and then overnight to Bayonne and up to Saint Jean Pied de Port. On the overnight train I met a German who was doing his journey in stages. He alighted in Lourdes to continue on foot. I considered getting off there myself, but didn’t. I only managed to walk three days before having to give up with back problems.

I did learn a lot about myself and my faith on the journey. As I write this I’m preparing to go off again, this time to Lourdes for the 8th December celebration. Strangely enough, my flight takes me into Bilbao to continue by bus to Lourdes. I passed through Bilbao on my way home from the Camino. Now I’m going in reverse to Lourdes. Perhaps that is where I should have been going in the first place. This time I will not be alone. My wife is coming along to keep me out of trouble.

That has taught me another lesson, it is never finished when you think it is. My pilgrimage will go on. In the same way the year of Faith will go on. That year was just to get us started. We are all on our Journey of Faith. I recently came across a pastoral letter from the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Rt. Rev Kieran Conry, He was reflecting on what we might have achieved in this Year of Faith. In it I found this wonderful quote.

In the document on revelation in the Second Vatican Council, ………… faith is seen not as the communication and reception of facts, but the giving of God himself, and our response is not an intellectual response, but, the document says, “by faith man freely commits his entire self to God.” In other words our faith is a personal response to God’s love and an acceptance of that offer of God’s friendship.

There we have it in a nutshell, our journey of faith is not a journey to a place. It is a journey that must take us beyond ourselves and lead us to place ourselves entirely at God’s disposal, to do with as He wishes. We must take our free will and choose, freely, to place it at God’s feet. Jesus put himself entirely at the service of the Father. We must, in our various ways, do the same.

The year of Faith is not the end; it is the beginning of the life of Faith. There can be no going back now. I’ll be following ‘Read The Gospels in a Year’ see the link below.

Joseph McGrath

Note: Fr. Martin’s Book ‘Together on Retreat’ is available on Kindle from Amazon.

Read The Gospels in a Year – sign up at  http://flocknote.com/gospel

Bumper Christmas Edition – my Column

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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 – What Does Faith Do For You?

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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

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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?

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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 Post – Journey of Faith 9

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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

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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

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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

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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

Oh, Why Did I Start This?

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Well, it all comes down to bandwidth and lazy design. My personal site (www.themcgraths.me.uk) hit a bandwidth problem this month (July 2013). I’m not sure what happenned since I can’t get into the dashboard but I think that pictures downloaded have exceeded the bandwidth of the site.

The pictures are on Flickr and I have those linked from a page on my site. I assumed that any downloads would come direct from Flickr and not affect my bandwidth. It seems I was wrong.

Now I like to publicise my monthly column in the Scottish Catholic Observer when it appears but I’m locked out ’till next month. That made me think about how I’m using space. I’ll use this site to blog on – well, everything and the other site can muddle along.