Ferbane Parish

‘Increase our faith’
Walter Ciszek, a Polish Jesuit priest spent fifteen years in forced labour camps in Siberia. When asked what kept him going during those dark days he replied: ‘it was not I who kept the faith; it was the faith that kept me’. Faith is not always a pleasant, fulfilling experience. It is often just seeing in the dark, but then it is only in the darkness that you can see the stars. As the great Bengali poet and novelist Tagore wrote so eloquently: ‘Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark’. Central to faith is patience. To believe is to plod on, but without faith, life loses its meaning. It is a trust, then, rather than a certainty, a journey rather than an arrival. It’s not the belief that God will do what you want. It’s the belief that God will do what is right. With the disciples in today’s Gospel we pray: increase our faith.

The Season of Creation ends on Tuesday 4th October, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Born Giovanni de Pietro di Bernardone in 1881 he founded the Franciscan Orders, devoted his life to service of the poor, played a major role in re-building the Church which was badly in need of reform, created the first Christmas crib, and promoted special reverence for all of creation which he saw as manifesting the presence of God and deserving of respect. Francis died in 1226 and was canonised by Pope Gregory IX in 1228. He was declared patron of animals and ecologists by Pope St. John Paul II in 1979. ‘Praise to you my Lord through Sister Earth, our Mother who sustains and governs us producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs’. (St. Francis).