Offaly influencer reflects on God's Easter love

God's Easter love gives us the courage and the strength to live our everyday, ordinary lives. His love makes what seems impossible, possible. Whether you are feeling the loss of love, hope and faith in your life or you’re feeling down in any way, maybe you can ask out loud or silently for God's Easter Love to bring love, hope and faith into your life and love, hope and faith into the world. Each year Holy Week and Easter offer us a moment in time to take the opportunity to consider the deeper meaning of life. We are all from time to time on our journey through life given a Cross to carry.

The coronavirus and the war in Ukraine where I am at present and indeed conflict in 31 other areas of our world is a cross at the moment for the whole world to carry. So let us during this Holy week and soon to be Easter season keep in our prayers all who wake up this week who carry a heavy burden especially those who are unwell and sick and those who are also affected by the coronavirus and war and conflict in their countries and indeed anyone affected by worry or illness of any sort in their lives. Let's try and make this Holy week and Easter season a time of love, hope and faith.

There still is fear, there still is a painful awareness of sinfulness, but there also is light breaking through. Something new is happening, something that goes beyond the changing moods of our life. We can be joyful or sad, optimistic or pessimistic, tranquil or angry, but the solid stream of God’s Easter Love presence moves deeper than the small waves of our minds and hearts. God's Easter love brings the awareness that God is present even when his presence is not directly noticed. It brings the good news that, although things seem to get worse in the world, the Evil One has already been overcome. God's Easter love allows us to affirm that although God seems very distant and although we remain preoccupied with many little things, our Lord walks with us on the road and keeps explaining the Scriptures to us. Thus there are many rays of hope casting their light on our way through life.

Preciously Loved

Easter is not just about an extravaganza with special music and fragrant lilies. It’s not about crowds amassing in beautiful buildings. Easter declares that we serve a living Savior who is still transforming lives today. Easter is not just about His resurrection, but the promise that we will rise with Him. Easter is about the hope of tomorrow and the gift of everlasting life. Yes indeed, we will celebrate. We will celebrate what God did for all of us at Calvary. Yes, we will celebrate by remembering Him, by loving Him, by worshipping Him, and by praising Him.

As St Julian of Norwich faithfully said, “For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us.” Sometimes we can see clearly the Cross of sickness, bereavement, war, pandemics, a broken relationship, other times some of us carry a hidden cross of pain, stress, loneliness, depression and if we look deeper into life we never really know what people are going through in silence. So let's make the rest of Holy week and Easter be lending a hand, lifting a heavy load. God's Easter love can be a smile on a cloudy day. It can be a crust of bread to the poor, giving shelter from the storm. It can be a thought, a poem, a blessing, a prayer. It can be showing support, care and enthusiasm. It can be listening quietly while someone else has something important they’d like you to hear. It can be a friendly hug, a smile or a warm embrace. It can be offering your time. It can be sitting silently beside someone to watch the sun behind a silver sea. It can be wiping a tear. It can be chasing the moon at night. It can be a whisper, a word, a soft touch at the right moment. It can be a telephone call.text, email or a letter, closing the miles. It can be a kiss on a fevered brow. It can be the gift of a flower. It can be teaching with kindness and love. It can be sharing the depth of a powerful silence. It can be wishing you were somewhere when you must be someplace else. It can be a time of healing and a time of forgiving. It can be taking someone’s place when they must be somewhere else. It can be walking, running or driving through the blazing brilliance of the seasons of nature. It can be just holding hands or looking into one another's eyes. It can be waiting out the tough times. It can be touching God through the heart and soul, and letting His will be done.

entrust us with the freedom to choose life. For all this, we are grateful. Amen

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, never forget how very important and how very special each and every one of us is in this life. May I offer up this comforting blessing or a prayer of mine for a good Holy Week and Easter for you the reader on your life's journey that you may see the light of God's Easter Love in the darkness during these challenging times! May you feel the loving presence of those who hold you in their thoughts and prayers! May your spirit find what it needs to sustain you on this journey of life! May you discover your inner strength and face all difficulties with dignity and grace. May you be filled with comfort, faith, love, acceptance, strength, grace and a lasting sense of peace! May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work that you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart. May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul. May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work. May your work never weary you. May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement. May you be present in what you do. May you never become lost in bland absences. May the day never burden. May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities and promises. May evening find you gracious and fulfilled. May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected. May your soul calm, console and renew you. May there always be work for your hands to do.

May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your windowpane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you. May the blessing of God's soft rain be on you, Falling gently on your head, refreshing your soul. With the sweetness of little flowers newly blooming. May the strength of the winds of Heaven bless you, Carrying the rain to wash your spirit clean. Sparkling after in the sunlight. May the blessing of God's earth be on you, And as you walk the roads, May you always have a kind word for those you meet. May joy and peace surround you, contentment latch your door, and happiness be with you now and bless you evermore! May the raindrops fall lightly on your brow. May the soft winds freshen your spirit.

May the sunshine brighten your heart. May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you, and may God enfold you in the mantle of His love now and always. I also pray for us all to have the power to be gentle, loving, kind and caring to one another and to ourselves; the strength to be forgiving and be forgiven; the patience to be understanding and compassionate and merciful; and the endurance to accept the consequences of holding to what we believe to be right and good and peaceful. May we put our trust in the power of good to overcome evil and the power of love to overcome hatred. Pray for the vision to see and the faith to believe in a world emancipated from violence, hatred and war, a new world where fear shall no longer lead men and women to commit injustice, nor selfishness and unkindness to make them bring suffering to others. Help us to devote our whole life and thought and energy to the task of making peace and a better life for people and children in need in our world and country, praying always for the inspiration and the power to fulfill the destiny for which we and all people were created and that we will always look after the needy in our county, our country and in our world especially so many vulnerable and needy people in our country and world who are in serious need at this time.

Remember change starts within yourself and that you can't change others you can only change yourself so be a change for goodness and genuineness in your own life and always remember for evil to exist it takes good people to remain quiet. Much peace and love to everyone and may our Holy Spirit watch over us and protect us on our journey of life and may we be filled with God's Easter Love always. Amen