Wednesday 1 April 2020

Dear sisters and brothers,
Thank you to all who are praying with us for our world and its peoples at this challenging time. Here, in our community at Middle Park, we are praying our Prayer in this time of crisis every morning and evening. Please join with us if you can.

The Pope's Special Blessing
Last Thursday Pope Francis stood before a deserted St Peter's Square to deliver an extraordinary Urbi et orbi blessing for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. There, he asked the faithful to turn to Jesus and hand him their fears, so that he may conquer them. "Embracing the Lord in order to embrace hope: that is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope,” Pope Francis said.

Look to nature to remember that God replenishes!

A reflection by Fr Hugh Brown, OCarm

Standing in our garden this week, I was reminded of a little story that was told to me the other day. Mike spied a fairly rare sight one morning – it was a Butcher Bird – all too rarely seen around this part of the world. What struck Mike was the fact that the Butcher Bird, as with all other aspects of nature, has no idea what we humans are experiencing! They don’t have the anxiety, the confusion and the sense of helplessness that can too easily engulf us.
 
Butcher birds and everything else in nature will continue to do what is best for them and what they know how to do – to find food, to nest, to fly, to mate, in other words, to be themselves. But not only that! The seasons will come and go and each year will bring its share of sunshine and (hopefully) rain, warmth and cold, wind and stillness. The circle of life will continue and a new beginning is always promised in the morning even as the seasons run their course.
 
We humans are now virtually confined to our homes except for the most essential things in life. But that needn’t stop us from looking out of a window, standing in our yard, opening our door and remembering that creation is a gift of which we are a part. All life begins and, as we know, it also ends. But the wonderful difference between ourselves and all the rest of creation is that God promised to take us into the life of God. Why is that so scary when we understand that God is love? Why are we frightened when we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus? 

For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists,
nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing,
can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(St Paul's Letter to the Romans 8:38)

Remember, you are not alone - we are praying for your and your loved ones.

'The light shines in the darkness, a light that darkness cannot overpower.' (John 1:5)
 

The Carmelites of Australia & Timor-Leste

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