Snapd
ragon
THE P RTAL
October 2014
The sowing goes on
Snapdragon muses on two Ordinariate events in September
We can
rightly be very pleased with both the events which dominated September for
us – the Called to be One exploration day and the Festival at Westminster Cathedral.
Good numbers of explorers came to the former and an impressive number of members of
various Ordinariate groups from across the United Kingdom came together for the latter.
Neither was a recruiting
exercise or publicity
stunt; part rather
of the process
of sowing the
seeds of greater
awareness and understanding
of the Ordinariate and of
building a common life.
The sowing goes on
I had a conversation just
a few days ago with a young
married couple who had just
returned from their first visit
to Walsingham and had joined
us at a weekday Mass. Noticing
the name of the Ordinariate of
Our Lady of Walsingham on the
front cover of their Mass booklet,
they approached me to ask what our
connection with Our Lady of Walsingham
was. Though they are local and active in their
parish, they had really heard nothing about who we
are and what we are about. An unplanned and casual
opportunity to sow some more seeds presented itself.
we can sow seeds
Nothing particularly notewothy about that. And that
is my point. After the superbly co-ordinated national
efforts are forgotten, countless conversations and
providential encounters will present themselves when
we can sow seeds.
As Pope Francis reminds us in Evangelii Gaudium,
we may never see the fruit of our sowing and the
ground may seem hard and barren, but none of our
efforts, if done out of love for God, is fruitless:
Because we do not always see these seeds
growing, we need an interior certainty, a
conviction that God is able to act in every
situation, even amid apparent setbacks: “We
have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4:7).
This certainty is often called “a sense of mystery”.
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It involves knowing with certitude that
all those who entrust themselves to
God in love will bear good fruit
(cf. Jn 15:5).
This fruitfulness is often
invisible, elusive and
unquantifiable. We can
know quite well that our
lives will be fruitful,
without claiming to know
how, or where, or when.
We may be sure that none
of our acts of love will be
lost, nor any of our acts of
sincere concern for others.
No single act of love for God
will be lost, no generous effort
is meaningless, no painful
endurance is wasted.
All of these encircle our world like
a vital force. Sometimes it seems that
our work is fruitless, but mission is not like a
business transaction or investment