16 May, Friday — Notes from England

Friday of the 4^th Week of Eastertide

Acts 13:26-33
Jn 14: 1-6

There are many rooms in my Father’s house...

Last week, I was in England, and while I was there, I took the opportunity to attend Mass. This is one of the best things about our faith — that I can walk in from off the street, and be able to follow worship, even when it is conducted in Latin. I may not fully grasp all the words, but I know the order of Mass, and there is comfort in that. I like that our traditions unite us – the solemnity of the Creed, the incense, the peace. I like to imagine that this might be how things might work when we eventually return to our heavenly dwelling.

I like to observe the people who show up at Mass when I’m in a foreign city. It takes devotion and commitment, to make the time during a work day, to go to church. Some people are in their workclothes. Some of the women wear veils over their heads. Two frazzled mothers bring their babies in perambulators. And old couple hobbles in, and sit at the front because they are hard of hearing. A teenager kneels almost the entire mass, in front of me, and knows all the Latin words by heart. A man sits behind me, still in his builder’s overalls. He knows all the words too. All of this, is humbling. And hopeful as well. Apparently our Catholic faith is facing a crisis with so many identifying themselves as ‘nones’. A lot of data points to this. Statistically, it is hard to refute the math. But ours has always been a faith carried by its ‘remnants’. This random weekday afternoon, these people have made the effort to be here. They must be the ‘remnants’, God’s very special chosen few, the ones Christ has gone to prepare a place for. Outside, the sun is shining, and the throngs are shopping, but inside this old church, in this quiet space, it feels like God is present.

How humbled am I, to have experienced this.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matt 7: 7-8).

You go on holiday never expecting to encounter God. Yet, He can surprise you…if you seek Him out.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)

Prayer: We pray for all who are struggling with their faith. May God seek them out, and bring them safely back to the fold.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks for the random occurrences that show us how God is in charge. We do not need to let our hearts be troubled.