De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

Reached a point this evening where I really needed to hear what Fr. Richard Rohr ofm is saying in the below extract from one of his audiobooks that I had been sent as a text in a cirucular newsletter containing extracts of his talks + writings. But what he says is at times so tough to observe (like tonight)… It is the only way forward, however. The Welcoming Prayer Earlier this week, I wrote about how Francis entered pain and suffering rather than trying to avoid it. This wasn't an act of moral achievement or heroic obedience. It didn't feel like winning, but more like losing, dying, and letting go. The religious word for letting go is forgiveness. Forgiveness is giving up your investment in and identification with your own painful story. This comes from a deep place of inner freedom and awareness of goodness--God's, your own, and the goodness of the person you choose to forgive. I'd like to offer you a form of prayer--a practice of letting go and forgiving--calle...

I' m on retreat at the moment in a Benedictine monastery in Brittany (Landevennec). Whilst reading my personal journal that I have kept for many years I came across something I'd written about 10yrs. ago but which still felt relevant to me today. I've tweaked it slightly. Here it is... My crutch Clouds rolling in, they say it's going to rain. The air weighs heavy on my chest. Anxiety and fear grip me as before. What am I going to do? If only I would let you in, if I would only trust in you then surely your peace would find me. But I'm afraid of letting go, a s if I'm clinging to the pain like to a crutch, when all you want is to set me free. Heal me, set me free, O Lord, that I may let go and fall into your arms. And give me the courage I need, so that when the clouds roll, the thunder roars and rains fall, I may lift my arms in praise, turn my smiling face to you and sing "ALLELUIA!!" (Image from DVO - Bible Devotion app )...

This idea of abandon to God's will as an active undertaking is a theme that I've meditated on quite a bit, especially recently: the paradox of being called to hand over everything in one's life to God, to abandon ourselves to his will and yet, at the same time, to have the dynamism, fire, energy and courage to engage in fresh undertakings, to take initiatives in his name, taking such risks in faith, banking on his Spirit to guide hearts and minds, hands and feet. In this context I have been thinking a lot recently about St. Peter at the lakeside in Jn 21, sitting and talking with Jesus (the famous "Do you love me?" conversation). An image at the end of this dialogue never ceases to frighten and yet inspire me: when Jesus says to Peter " 'I tell you solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where yo...