Dear Friends,

Are you afraid? Who among us hasn't suffered fear... perhaps even terror? Sunday's Gospel from Mark is the stuff of nightmares: a "daughter at the point of death" and a woman "suffering with hemorrhages for twelve years". I have been both a woman with a hemorrhage and a mother with a daughter at the point of death. So, I do indeed feel fear and trembling as I read these words. But I suspect that each of us, has in our lives been faced with moments when we've felt on the brink of disaster... utter fear and powerlessness... whether physical illness, emotional distress, despair from the death of a loved one, the helplessness of watching a child suffer, the horror of war witnessed from near or from far, newstories of violence which seem incapable of comprehension... anyone of these moments (and those them came to your mind as you read this) can serve to bring us to the brink of our seeming capacity to bear. In the midst of all of this, these simple words of Jesus come to us: "Do not be afraid, just have faith."

"Just have faith"... sounds so good... but how in heaven's name does one "just have faith" when you are 'on the brink'? I think the question is: Faith in what? And, I think that what Jesus is promising is not "faith that you won't be sick, that your child won't die, that there will never be another abused child or another war". Rather, I think that Jesus is saying, "Have faith that I am with you" The question is: is that enough for us?

In Mark's gospel, miracles do happen, and sometimes they happen in our lives as well, but perhaps the most profound miracle in our lives is when the cure or the right answer doesn't come, but somehow we manage to get up and move forward with our lives, informed by the experience and wiser for having survived our personal 'moment on the brink'. As lovely as these healing stories are, central to our faith is the mystery of the cross and resurrection. The cross tells us of the power in surrendering power, and the resurrection promises us that new life is on the horizon.

John O'Donohue's, A Morning Offering, puts into verse the heart of the kind of freedom from fear that our God longs for us to hold.


As you seek to live your life in deeper freedom from fear, we invite you to come and pray with us at Spirit of Life. We are a Catholic community where every voice is heard, and women and men are unafraid to acknowledge the equality of women and men; and to embrace feminine as well as masculine... and beyond... images of God. We invite you to join us at Spirit of Life. As a community, we try wholeheartedly to "be Christ" to one another, to tend to the needs of one another, and to those in need in our world. Together, we celebrate our belief that we are being transformed by God’s grace as we gather together in prayer. We warmly invite you to come and gather with us at our Table, and join in our experience of the "kin-dom" of God. We are an inclusive, open, affirming and interactive community, deeply committed to being a people of "justice and joy."

With prayers that your life be blessed with faith, and freedom from fear,

Find more about past weekly reflections and podcasts in our ARCHIVE PAGE.