As Lent continues and we look towards Holy Week and the Triduum, our minds during these past few weeks have been taken up with many issues that surround us and often we don’t know the way forward: the complexities around Brexit; recent flooding in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe; the horrors of violence in New Zealand; knife crime in our cities, to mention just a few . . . I am reminded of the reading from Francisco de Osuna: The Third Spiritual Alphabet – (1981, The Missionary Society of St Paul the Apostle in the State of New York. Pg 96):
“I do not find anything in the world, good or bad, for which we cannot bless God if we just examine it carefully. Doing this we will join the angels in glorifying and blessing God in all things as their source and ascribing them to either (God’s) mercy or justice, for in both cases we find (God) worthy of praise.”
During these remaining weeks of Lent like the Prodigal Son/Daughter let us put our faith and trust in a God who embraces us all and – despite our difficulties, concerns – welcomes us and those we recommend to God’s loving care.