Dear Friends

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.

A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.

And they went and woke him up, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"

And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.

They were amazed, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" (Mt 8.23-27)

Being a Christian isn't always easy. Often we are misunderstood, sometimes we are ridiculed. People don't always say kind things to us. The church is often seen as irrelevant. Church attendance has been declining for the last century. We struggle with paying for the upkeep of expensive buildings and for a diminishing number of clergy. So often we have low morale and a shrinking esteem and a sense of inadequacy. We live in a post modern and a post Christian age. Understanding of the gospel by many today is poor. The Christian message is not heard. We can be a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Today people are too busy to bother with church. We live in a more isolated lonely society where the elderly and poor are marginalized.

Life can be a bit like sailing a small boat in the Bay of Biscay. The ocean is huge. The waves are very high and our boat is very small. Just like Jesus and his disciples in their boat on the Sea of Galilee when a storm brewed up. We can be afraid of the world out there. We can be tossed by the storms around us. We can lack faith like the disciples. Or another way of translating 'little faith' is 'why are you so timid?' Not that we lack faith but are timid to express it, or just don't have enough.

A Prayer of the Breton fishermen is:

The Sea is so big. Our boat is so small. Lord help us.

My prayers and best wishes,

Fr. Philip Edge - Vicar