THE
P RTAL
April 2019
Page 21
Around the Blogs
Lucy Day has been keeping an eye
on what Ordinariate bloggers and others are saying
t
he always readable Fr Ed Tomlinson has been concerned about Down’s Syndrome at www.
tunbridgewells-ordinariate.com/blog.
On 21st March, Down’s Syndrome Day he write:
“Today is world Down’s Syndrome day; a day for
celebrating the life and gifts of people who have this
condition. I have always found them to be honest, loyal,
sincere and joyful. Very joyful! And certainly the two
lovely children with Down’s Syndrome who regularly
attend Mass at St Anselm’s fit that description.
The video links in today’s post show how much
Down’s Syndrome people can achieve when enabled
to fulfil their potential and when their condition is
treated like a blessing not a curse. They also speak out
powerfully about the empowering role that fathers
can have in life when committed to their families. I
challenge you not to smile as you watch them!
Sadly, the world is often not kind to people with
Down’s Syndrome, and today, in many parts of the
world, they even face extinction due to the evil of
abortion. In Iceland last year not a single child with
Down’s Syndrome made it safely out of the womb. In
most countries, it is only a precious few of those who
are conceived. It makes me muse on the wise saying that
you judge a society on how it treats its most vulnerable
members. How awful and how self defeating. We are
impoverished as a result.
One of the cornerstones of Catholic teaching is that
every life, from conception to the grave, is an embodied
soul that is precious to God and merits dignity, love
and respect. If only our culture was as kind as Down’s
Syndrome people themselves tend to be; the world
would be a better place. To any who fear disability and
tend to see it only in terms of suffering I say go and
work with special needs people for a week. Your eyes
will soon open to the fact that they have just as much
to offer you as you do them. Pray today for those with
Down’s Syndrome.”
On 26th March Southwest Ordinariate at
swordinariate.blogspot.com had a thoughtful piece
entitled, “Forgiveness from the Heart”. “Forgiveness is
a costly business. When we are the victim of someone
else’s wrongdoing; when we have been hurt and paid a
price for another’s transgression, then it is very hard to
forgive. It seems like justice to say that there should be
a limit to forgiveness. We should only have to go so far
to forgive someone; after all it is not out fault that they
sinned against us.
One thing we need to be clear about is that
forgiveness is not about stopping our feelings of hurt,
nor is it forgetting what has happened. We can’t of
course just stop feeling hurt, nor can we just forget!
What forgiveness is to do with, is our heart.
It might seem strange at times that the church
encourages us to confess our sins so frequently, and
to confess things that most other people would simply
just forget about, but with a greater sense of our
sinfulness and sorrow for our own sin comes a greater
sense of the mercy of God. With that greater sense of
His compassion for us, and with the aid of the Holy
Spirit, we too can learn to forgive with a mercy that
has no limits.”
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