By Fr Jim Cogley
How do we hold peace when all about us seems to be falling apart? How do we hold faith when there are such obvious reasons to be afraid? How can we hold onto hope when even hope seems hopeless? These are very real questions in these challenging times; questions that most of us can identify with. Recent I had every reason to be worried about an issue that was outside of my control. I went to bed expecting a restless and anxious night. I tried to practice what I have preached for so long; faith instead of fear and trust instead of worry, but to no avail; the clouds of darkness still lingered as I tossed and turned. In my feeble attempts to pray a thought came out of nowhere. ‘This is not working, simply because my ego is so much at work’. ‘I’ was trying to hold faith, ‘I’ was trying to hold hope. There was no surrendering and allowing myself to be held. In the Prophet Isaiah there is a verse that says ‘Thou will keep in perfect peace the one who trusts in you’. Following a simple act of surrender, I had a real sense of the Lord fulfilling his promise and I began to feel held. It was no longer me trying to hold faith and hope, now it was they that were holding me, and so I closed my eyes and had a good nights sleep.