Letter to Sinead, Mark and Friends,- gatherings of 2 or more young adults in search of faith. (Today’s Letter is written by Sarah Kelly, a young adult in her twenties. Thanks Sarah!)

Today’s Gospel is from Luke 10:1-12, 17-20. Find it in your own Bible, or click here for Mass Readings for this Sunday.

Dear Sinead, Mark, and Friends,

Recently, a very good friend of mine sent me a card with a beautiful message on the outside, it read “friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things”. Wow, I really feel that this is the message which our friend Jesus is communicating to us today! He tells us that we are his messengers, that we have been created by His Father, “the Lord of the harvest”, who has given to us a mission, which in the words of Blessed Cardinal Newman, “he has not entrusted to another”. That is how special you are to God, -that he so knows you, and that your mission is not like anyone else’s. Such a message of faith, hope and love from the one who created you: He so knows you, that He knows every ‘hair on your head’; that he has given you a mission that suits your personality. All that is required of us is that we trust completely and wholeheartedly in his love for us. In the Gospel, Jesus highlights this very fact when he says: “carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals”. Clearly, the Lord of the harvest will provide for his labourers. He is basically saying, ‘carry nothing, and I will carry you’. If only we could trust so fully in God who has so much confidence in us, and whose love overflows for us.

Dear Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the “Kingdom of God is very near”. And yes it is, but like the card my friend sent me, it’s not in one big thing, but rather in ‘a million little things’. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you, and everything you do. Part of our mission is to bring the Kingdom of God about on earth, in whatever little ways we can. The Little Flower herself, St. Thérèse of Lisieux eloquently affirms that “Little things done out of love are those that charm the Heart of Christ”. So, no matter how small or powerless you may feel, you are doing God’s service. Every little action has the potential to radiate God’s grandeur and so bring the reign of His Kingdom. Finally, today’s Gospel concludes with this stirring message of hope, “nothing shall ever hurt you”.

So dear friends, no matter what you do today, do it with a heart full of love for the little things, and that in all the little things that you do, do it with love. Jesus has told you, he loves you, and nothing will hurt you. Trust in Him, and you will be making His Kingdom known.

Have a lovely day and week,

God bless,

Sarah

xxx

Your Comments to Sarah are welcome!

See Mass Readings for today, click here: Have a quick look at the first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles 14:21-27, where Paul and Barnabas come back with great accounts of their first missionary journey into pagan lands. Then, the Gospel is from a very early part of the Last Supper, in John 13, where Jesus tells us what’s about to happen to him, and how we should love each other like he loves us,- for all the world to see.

Dear Sinead, Mark, and Friends:

First, we remember this week the several hundred people dead or missing, in the tragedy in Bangladesh, and the thousands injured. They are part of us.

Do you know that seven billion doors need seven billion different keys?

OPENING DOORS:  How do you open a door???? Can do from inside. Can do from

'Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in and share a meal at that person's table.' (Revelations 3:20)

outside, provided  you have a key, or if turning the handle will open it for you.

You can open a door for someone. Someone can open a door for you.

And Opening Doors is an image we find in the first reading, this Sunday: we are told that God ‘opened the door of faith to the pagans’. How does God ‘open the door of faith’ for any person?

Well, there are 7 billion people on our planet right now, and each single one of that seven billion people comes to God in different ways.  You have your way. I have mine. Others have theirs. Opening the door of our hearts is something that only God and ourselves can do together.

Some people see suffering and injustice, and respond to it. Others reach out to other people, and that’s the door that may open for them. Sometimes it’s a moment of joy, like the birth of a baby, or a glorious sunset. Others ask many questions about the meaning of things. Others meet someone and life changes for them. Others meet a community and they feel welcomed and at home. Others start to love people as Jesus does. Others come to come through their knowledge of science,- astro-physics, maybe, or sub-atomic particles, or the wonders of biology. Its amazing what can open doors. Others do it for us, and we do it for others.

When God ‘opened the door of faith to the pagans’ (first reading) , many different keys were used,- words, images, questions, wonder, music, art, compassion, suffering, belonging… God has seven billion keys to use!

AHA! MOMENTS:        Jesus said, in his final hours (in today’s Gospel from John 13):  ‘The Son of Man has been glorified. God will glorify him very soon.’  In other words, people will come to have an Aha! moment about Jesus,- they will see who he really is,-  that Jesus of Nazareth, the Rabbi in Galilee, is the Son of God! And you see him best in his glory, on the cross! Arms out wide, his heart bursting, Love totally revealed to us. The cross is his greatest moment of glory! A cause of great rejoicing,-for us! ‘I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me!’ cried Paul. The Risen Lord gladly shows us the wounds in his hands and feet and side. That’s the One we follow.

Have a great week. Spread the Word!

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.  (contact at seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com )

P.S. For reading these, you could invite one other or two others to share the reading with you and talk about it, argue about it, fight about it even, and then- pray about it. ‘When two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.‘ He’ll be there when you share!

Pope Francis ! We pray for him.

Communities.

(A ‘community‘ can be 2 people or more…)

Letter to Sinead and Mark and Friends.  (Sinead and Mark are two young adults.)

Visit You Tube for The Deer’s Cry,- ‘The Breastplate of Patrick’:, the ‘Lorica’ :  ‘I arise today’   www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGHWiAGpIP0   Comment on Youtube with this video: ‘The singer is Rita Connolly. Beautifully sung. The best I have heard and I have heard quite a few others. She was born in Dublin.’

DEAR SINEAD, MARK , AND FRIENDS,   Greetings for St. Patrick’s Day! I hope it is a great

Young Pilgrims, at the foot of St. Patrick's Statue, on Croagh Patrick August 13, 2012

one for you. And thank God, this day, for our new Pope, Pope Francis. May God bless him mightily and give him the strength he needs daily, for us all.

Some may call March 17^th  ‘Paddy’s Day’, but let’s try and meet the man himself, Patrick, Son of Calpornius, a deacon,  and grandson of Potritus the priest! (Priests were often married in those times.). Our Patrick hailed from the village of Bannaventaberniae,- in Britain (Wales?) or in Brittany? No one is sure.

He was fifteen when he was taken captive in a raid on his village, along with many others: the raider was ‘Niall of the Nine Hostages’ (I often prefer to call him ‘Niall of the Nine Sausages’, just to confuse people!). Here are some of his own words, taken from one of his two writings that we still have,- ‘The Confessions of St. Patrick’- meaning his Confession of Praise of God for what God had done and was doing in him and through him.

‘I am Patrick a sinner, the most rustic and least of all the faithful.’ Is how he begins. Then about his being taken captive:

‘I was almost sixteen at the time and I did not know the true God…I was taken captive as an adolescent, almost a speechless boy, before I new what to see and what to avoid.’  Later he writes about his time in captivity, very probably at the foot of Slemish Mountain in County Antrim:

‘When I had come to Ireland, I was tending herds every day and I used to pray many times during the day. More and more the love of God and reverence for him came to me. My faith increased and the spirit was stirred up so that in the course of a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night. This I did even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain. Before dawn I used to roused up to pray in snow or frost or rain. I never fl eth worse for it, nor was I in any way lazy because, as I know realise the Spirit was burning within me.’

At the age of 21 or 22, he escaped, probably to France. Some years later, he had a dream: ‘one night I saw a vision of a man called Victoricus, who appeared to have come from Ireland with an unlimited number of letters. He gave me one of them, and I read the

'We ask you, come again and walk among us' And who today is asking us?

opening words which were ‘The voice of the Irish’. As I read the beginning of the letter I seemed at the same moment to hear the voice of those who were by the wood …near the Western Sea. They shouted with one voice: ‘We ask you, holy boy, come and walk once more among us.’ I was cut to the heart and could read no more’.

Another night he had a dream and the only bit he could make out of it was this statement at the end: ‘He who gave his life for you, he it is who is speaking in you’ And he adds ‘At that I awoke with joy.’

That was the call that Patrick heard, to come back to Ireland with the Gospel of Christ, with the love of Christ for this people. That was the call that Patrick answered, probably now in his thirties.

Later in the letter he writes, about his teenage years spent in Ireland as a slave: ‘But I cannot hide the gift of God which he gave me in the land of my captivity. I sought him vigorously then, and there I found him.’

‘I came to the Irish heathens to preach the Good News, and to put up with insults from

In the sandals of the Master

unbelievers…It is there that I wish to spend (my life) until I die….All this was for a people newly come to belief whom the Lord took from the very ends of the earth’.  And, in another place:  ‘We are indeed witnesses that the Good News has been preached in distant parts, in places beyond which nobody lives.’

‘From the time in my early manhood when I came to know him, the love of God and reverence for him have grown in me… Although he chose me to be his helper I was slow to accept the prompting of the Spirit.

‘I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall.’

Patrick concludes his Confession:  ‘Let your conclusion and the general opinion be the real truth, that my success was the gift of God.’

Redemptorist Youth Congress August 2012,- participants from many parts gather at foot of Croagh Patrick, pilgrims for Christ like young Patrick.

Patrick, our friend and saint, was captivated, not by Niall his captor, but by Christ who captivated him.  Patrick allowed his heart to be filled more and more, day in and day out, with the love that God the Father had for him, with the love of Christ who gave himself for him. This young heart, filled with the joy and love of the Holy Spirit, gave himself to the people of Ireland.  ‘The Spirit was burning within me’.

Even though he was desperately homesick at times, he would not leave, for fear he might not return if he did.

What is captivating about Patrick for us today is that in him we meet a man who was himself captivated by Christ Jesus, who experienced daily the magnetism of Christ. And he saw people through the eyes of Christ, he saw the absolute value to Christ of each and every person, everywhere. He loved us with the love of Christ.

Thanks, Patrick. May we, in our generation, with our new Pope Francis, allow our own hearts and families and communities to be ‘taken captive’ by the over-whelming love of God for us all, and share that love with all we meet. May we ‘open wide the doors to Christ’, among our friends and with them.

‘Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ all around me.’  (The Breastplate of Patrick) or ‘I arise today’,- find it, as above, on  www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGHWiAGpIP0 

Fr. Seamus.            seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie

P.S. And on this day,  we remember two Irish Redemptorists who set out in 2010 to begin a new Mission in Northern Mozambique and soon into Malawi. Their names,- Fr. Brian Holmes (in his 60′s), John Bermingham (in his late 30′s).  They are learning Chichewa, a local language spoken by 15 million people! They are two among so many! God bless them, in this new venture of the Irish Redemptorists.

Anyone for Chichewa???? Contact us! We can give you a continent to work in.

‘Every new generation is a new continent to be won for Christ.‘ (Pope John Paul 2)

Letter to Sinead and Mark, two young adults.

Dear Sinead and Mark,

‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you.’ Wow! Think about it! Your heavenly Father and mine, who knows the number of hairs on the head of each person, knew you and knew me, in our mother’s wombs,- knew us intimately and everything about us. And still does. God is that close, that intimate, right now, with each one of us, and with all of us together, his people, his ‘beloved’. ‘The kingdom of God is near at hand’,- literally!

And when Jesus tried to tell that to his own neighbours, his fellow-villagers from the back-woods town of Nazareth, they couldn’t take it. It was all too close, all to near, and it scared them: ‘this text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen!’ he had said, a few minutes earlier, in the synagogue.

He had just told them that the Spirit of God was in him, and he was here to bring people great news (about God’s closeness to them right where they were just then), he was here to lift the downtrodden, set people free (from all sorts of stuff),-  and they just couldn’t take it. It was too immediate for them, and they started to scorn him,- ‘ah, sure, don’t we know who you are and your family…’ (just the way we often do it in Ireland.) It was their way of putting it all off till another day,- putting responding to God’s closeness on to the long finger.

If he had told them to go off and do something heroic, some great deed, to win God’s blessings, they would have rushed off right away to do it. But to be told that they didn’t have to do a thing except to welcome God’s gift, God’s closeness,- just to receive a ‘gift’ of God’s real presence and activity in their lives, ah no! They wouldn’t have earned it themselves, so they didn’t want it.

And when Jesus held up a mirror to them of what they were doing, they got angry and gave him the push,- trying to throw him over the cliff outside the town. He slipped away from them.

And it’s so hard for us to receive that pure gift also,- our God is closer to us than we could ever imagine, God is working in my life in this particular place and on this particular day. God loves me and wants the very best for me, and is calling me to welcome him. Ah, that’s hard. It means that I’ve got to let go and let God!

‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you.’ If it was true in the womb, it’s true this day in February, and it’s true where I am at this moment. Pure gift. Lifting us up. But are we willing to be lifted up?

Maybe today could be that ‘Wow’ day in my life, at last. ‘Here’s lookin’ at you’, he says, to me and to you.

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

P.S. See Homepage for information on St. Blaise, patron saint for sore throats, whose feast day falls on this Sunday, Feb. 3rd. Many Catholics seek the blessing of throats on this day.

seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie

Feast of Mary, the Mother of God…. and our Mother, our LADY.

The Mother of Perpetual Help

Sinead and Mark are two young adults.

Dear Sinead and Mark,

For this New Year’s Day 2013, and on the Feast of Mary, Mother of God,  I leave you with a short poem I wrote while sitting in my car in County Galway, on the second day of this Millenium. The Millenium was not just a calendar event, but a festive event, celebrating 2000 years since the birth of Jesus Christ. I was moved to pull in the car into a lay-by, and put this on paper. I share it with you.

“NO ANGEL HE BUT SON OF GOD”

If God had sent an Angel, not a SON,-
where would we find a crib,
or touch a cross?
Where would the blood have been,
or piece of bread?
Would we have felt his hand
upon our head?

He sent a SON.
For me he died.
He lives with me,
my Risen Lord.
No Angel He
but Son of God.

Poem by Fr. Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R., written on the second morning of this millenium,- January 2nd, 2000

Find under ‘Millenium’ in www.emptifulvessels.com/millenium

I wish you a very Happy New Year for 2013, and many many blessings! May Mary your Mother, and Mother of God, be always with you to help you, throughout the year.  Seamus.

Dear Sinead and Mark,

Back again! This weekend is the very last Sunday in Ordinary Time, in the Church’s Year,- and it’s the Feast or Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King. It’s the last Sunday before Advent begins next week. Just one month to Christmas!

Today can I give you two pictures and a YouTube? Have a look at the two pictures, because they are of Christ the King. He said “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself!’ (John 12:32) That’s the kind of king he is! The first picture is, I think, by an artist from Wexford, but I don’t know who it is. Would love to. The second is one of my own, on what the good thief

'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!'

saw when he turned to Jesus and said “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”  It’s in line with an ancient tradition in art of portraying Jesus as a clown, crowned.

(A Note: did you know that I.N.R.I., which you see on the top of any crucifix, are the Latin initials for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”,- Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudeorum.’ It was Pilate who had these words put there in three languages, Latin, Greek and Aramaic.)

Finally, the YouTube site for ‘You say it best when you say nothing at all’, by Alison Krauss www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jYfpkI5VuA. Or see it sung by Ronan Keating. (Jesus ‘says it best’ when he says almost nothing at all, on the cross,- but says everything!)

Thanks a mill! God bless. Have a great week.

Fr. Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.

email to seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com

(Sinead and Mark are two Young Adults).

Dear Sinead and Mark,

Did you ever hear anyone asking ‘How’s it going, oul’ stock?’  It’s a term of affection, and this is what my Googling of it told me: ‘Oul Stock’ -  Good friend. Generally used by the less than sober to assure the party being addressed that they are held in high regard and counted on as a close friend by the speaker. As in: ‘How’s it going, oul’ stock?”-

Well, I was reading one of the readings given to us for this 27^th Sunday,-  the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (or Jewish followers of Jesus) Chapter 2, verses 9-11: ‘the one who makes us holy (that’s Jesus!), and the ones who are made holy (that’s us!) , are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them his sisters and brothers.’ (See Hebrew’s Chapter 2, verse 11). Jesus of Nazareth, who never left that small portion of the Middle East, is the same stock as ourselves: he’s a human being, flesh and blood, knowing pain, temptation, struggle, tiredness, hunger, tears… just as much as we do. And so he could well say to you, Mark or to you, Sinead, or to any of your friends ‘How’s it going, oul stock?’,- ‘How’s it going, friends?’ Or if he lived in Belfast, he might say ‘What ‘bout ye?’

And the Gospel today (Mark 10: vs.2-16)  speaks to us of marriage, separation, the beauty of sex, and the extraordinary dignity of every child ! It’s a challenging reading, and I can’t deal with it all, in this letter to you. Let’s cut to the chase, and look at the beauty of our sexuality. Here, Jesus brings his hearers back to something that is a foundation document for Jews, Christian, Muslims,- the very first Book and the very first chapters of the what we call the Book of Genesis (‘Genesis’ means ‘the Beginning’).  Genesis teaches us this deep, deep truth,- ‘in His own image God created him, male and female

'Creation of Adam'- Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel- the spark of the hands about to touch! God's spark is in us, we are each of us, female and male, touched and filled in all our humanness by the divinity of God.

he created them’.  Sinead, you are made female in the image of God,  and you, Mark are made male in the image of God! (God is Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Lover to us all!)

And then, in chapter 2, another way of teaching the dignity of each woman, each man; ‘bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh’ is what they were, and are, to each other: and then it adds,- ‘This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one body’.  We are female in the image of God, we are male in the image of God, and husband and wife ‘cling to each other’ and the two become one body. And that’s the start of their wonderful journey of discovery of each other as two distinct, unique persons. And I love the way this is expressed in the formula one sometimes hears at weddings,- an older formula that is sometimes sadly neglected- ‘With my body I thee wed!’ .  That is why, in the Catholic understanding of a wedding, even when the couple have exchanged their wedding vows in words before the Christian community, their wedding is only completed, their marriage is only ‘consummated’,  when the couple have intercourse later. ‘With my body I thee wed!’ The couple exchange their vows AND their bodies,- and in this way ‘the two become one body’.  It is they, and not the priest or minister, who give each other the Sacrament of Matrimony. They keep in mind for themselves the first part as well, of that teaching from Genesis,- ‘This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife…’.  Becoming one body with each other before they give themselves totally to one another (as’husband’ and ‘wife’), is missing the point, missing the meaning, of their physical sexual union. (Is it ‘putting the cart before the horse’, as the old saying goes?) Another way of putting this: did you ever ask yourselves why do people not exchange Christmas presents weeks before Christmas, instead of waiting for Christmas Morning? Is there something here about waiting until the time is right and the gift means what it says? Sinead, Mark, this might not be ‘modern’, but maybe there’s deep and ancient wisdom in it. What do you think?

One last thought for you, on this: in Marriage Encounter,- a movement that helps married couples to grow more deeply into their love and union,- there is a phrase,-‘When a husband and wife make love, they should hear God cheering!’ Does that surprise you? The same Creator taught us ‘Increase and multiply!’,- in other words, go and make babies galore! And our Creator is thrilled with delight when we do!

And when a recent Pope, Paul VI (’the Sixth’) taught us: ‘Sexuality is at the heart of being Human’, what a joy it was to hear it. And if it’s at the heart of being human, you can bet it’s at the heart of God,- because God created us in love, from love, and for love. Why? Because God is love! We are created to be Lovers, ‘in the image and likeness of God’. The Trinity, -Father, Son, Holy Spirit-, is one great cauldron of love: it is love.

So, that’s your calling, Sinead, Mark,- to be as genuinely loving as human beings as you can be, – to grow all your life long in the skills of loving, cherishing, touching, reaching out, serving,- in all the many ways and deeds that lie beneath that four-letter word,- L O V E

Finally, if you can, have a look at the last section of today’s Gospel-Mark 10:14-16- about  Jesus and the little children, and the indignation of Jesus when the disciples tried to keep the children away from a busy Jesus. At end of this piece, Mark tells us, ‘Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing’. There’s tenderness, respect and real loving.

Have a great week, Mark, Sinead! Will write to you next weekend, again,- please God!

God bliss you and bless you!

Seamus.

(Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R. –     email   seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie )

Sunday September 16, 2012. Gospel: St.Mark, 8:27-35. (Click on Mass Readings on Menu for the text of the readings)

Dear Sinead and Mark,

Back again with you!  Can I take you this time on a journey, in your imagination? Come, travel with me a little while.

I’m a Hibernian traveler, a curious on-looker, walking the roads of Galilee with this strange Rabbi and his friends. They call him ‘Jehoshua’ or Jesus. This morning, we left the sea of Galilee early, as we have a long walk ahead of us. We’re heading north and east, towards Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in all this region, over 9000 feet high. Can’t miss it!  We’ve about 40k to go. As we leave the Galilee behind us, we see in the distance a great temple city in the foothills of Mount Hermon. The city is on top of a high cliff, 100ft. high, and 500ft wide, and it looks very Roman in style,- and why wouldn’t it, since they are the Occupier Force in all this region. The city is named after the Emperor of Rome, Caesar, and his henchman King Philip (one of the Herod family!),- it’s called CAESAREA PHILIPPI, as Philip wants to impress his boss in Rome.

Can I tell another thing? The people in this region , not only do they worship the Emperor Caesar as a god, but they also worship the god PAN, -he’s the one who plays the pipes! He’s half goat and half man, and he’s the god of Fertility! No wonder he’s popular!

Anyway, here we are now walking behind the Rabbi Jesus, chatting away to each other. We can clearly see the temple city ahead on the mighty rock-face, shining in the glinting sun. While we’re gazing in awe,  Jesus suddenly stops and turns to us. Something is bothering him, as if he is unsure about us. He asks us: ‘Who do people say that I am?’  Some of my friends in the group give different answers.. ‘you’re John the Baptist!’, ‘you’re the prophet Elijah!’ , ’You’re some ancient prophet!’, and so on.  I’m watching his face as the answers come. Now he cuts to the chase and puts this to our group- ‘Who do YOU say that I am?’  Oh, that hurts.  We have been following him for a couple of years or more, but he wants to know who do we think he is! Imagine! He’s serious. And, while we’re all stuck for words and embarrassed,  good ol’ Simon Peter,- he’s always the first to jump in with the answers,- he blurts out to Jesus ‘’You’re the Christ’ (that means the Messiah in Hebrew, or God’s Anointed One, God’s Sent One’).

And you can see that Jesus is relieved! At least someone can see who he is. But he is telling us firmly to say nothing to anyone about it.

We’re still thinking about all this when he starts to tell us that yes, he is the Messiah, but he’s going to suffer really badly, he’s going to made a laughing stock for people, and then he’s going to be killed by the people. He tells us, at the end of that, that he will rise from the dead after three days! Whatever all that means, I haven’t a clue.

And he’s no sooner finished saying all this to us, when my friend Peter takes him by the elbow and walks him away from the crowd of us, a little bit.

This kind of leader ?

Peter starts to give out yards to Jesus, that this was the wrong way to go.. He needed to have a bit of backbone, to be a leader, a warrior to lead the people against these Roman occupiers. Great stuff, Peter! I’m with you on that!

But what do you think Jesus does, -he is looking around at us, somehow with great love and sadness in his eyes, and he is saying to Peter, the hero of a few minutes ago (oops! this bit hurts!) ‘Get behind me SATAN!’ Wow, that’s some come-down for Peter. From hero to villain in minutes. Jesus then adds ‘the way you think is not God’s way’.

or this kind of leader ?

I’m wondering what will happen to Jesus! If he doesn’t go the way of chariots and swords, will he not end up with the Romans torturing him and killing him in their special cruel Roman way,- crucifixion! Nailed up to beams, and hanging there for hours, sometimes days, until you can’t breathe any more. Can’t bear to think of it.

So that’s where I am on the road today. I can see the great and beautiful city;  I can see CAESAR, I can see PAN and all his goings on, and I can see JESUS.  Who is CAESAR? Who is PAN? Who is JESUS?

As they say in my own language, back home in Hibernia, ‘Sin Ceist!’ ‘That’s the Question!’

My choice. My life. My head on the block? When it comes to it, which will I choose?

God help me!

Oops, too much thinking! There’s Jesus and the others heading back down the road for home, back to Capernaum. Will I run after them and catch up, – or stay where I am?

Thanks, Sinead and Mark, for sharing my journey with me. Check with me where I end up eventually.  And good journeying for you both. God bliss and bless us all.

Your friend on the road,

Seamus.

(Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R., Esker).