By Fr Jim Nolan
In a series of reflections for February, poet, iconographer and Parish Priest of Davidstown/Courtnacuddy, Fr Jim Nolan offers us some inspiration.
In the springtime we spring clean and every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a
householder who brings from his storeroom things both old and new (Mt 13:52).
In our catechesis we are given religious instructions about the basic principles of Christianity, inviting us to draw
from the wells of salvation, pondering the mystery of divine revelation and mans’ struggle against moral decay to conversion.
The life of Jesus was rooted in his prayer-relationship with the Father, so that we too can imitate and build upon this in times of overcrowding of our lives with the burdens of this world, we need therefore to go to that lonely place, to be quiet with our supplications in the presence of that holy place where He dwells. It is there that we raise our minds and hearts, in the daily challenges of life in his service.
“The heavens the work of his hands are calling you and wheel around us, displaying their external beauties. And still your eye is looking on the ground” : Canto XIV – Dante - Divine Comedy.
Our lives are lit up by the apostolic light of the gospels overcoming the darkness of the enemy (cf. John 9:5).
Can our faith in God conclude that we Christians have formed a bond between one another that will last for eternity?
With differing opinions and with our unfocussed way of communicating because of the many distractions and levels of belief, we find ourselves in a different gear but nevertheless on the same road.
Faith therefore must be the light and the efficiency of the soul, a type of automation in our competing world today.
The bend in the road looms ever closer, for some of us, it is very true – the years pass swiftly and as we arrive at the final curve on the road we reflect on our pathway and the pathways others have taken and the dreams upheld by them with a mix of disappointments and achievements held in common by all of our lives.
Jesus as the light of the Gospels enkindles the innermost recesses of our spirit, germinating the minds of all Christians down the ages attracting all of us unto God without discrimination.
We therefore are all brothers and sisters marked by the flavour of the Gospels where God’s rhythm enters our souls ,where faith unites and where his name is in our hearts and on our lips (Cf.. Ps 119:103) 'You have turned for me my mourning into dancing and have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. Amen Amen Amen'.