WHY ARE YOU AFRAID?

Too many people do not really live.

They remain trapped in their own past, forever turning over their mind events of the past, the wrong decisions made, the wrong turns taken, the “might-have-been” of twenty, thirty, maybe fifty years.

Others are trapped in the anxiety about the future. While they forget that the only day we have to live is today, the present, with all its hours and minutes for being, loving, doing, growing, giving thanks, helping, sharing, believing, reaching out to others.

In the Our Father we pray: “Give us this day our daily bread” . There is wisdom here, asking only for the needs of the present. The same wisdom is even more vividly expressed in the Hail Mary. 

There are only two moments of life that we are sure of, the present moment and the moment of death. 

We ask Mary to pray for us at these two moments. To say this prayer and mean it is to live intensely in the present, free from worry about the past or fear of the future.

A young lady lay dying in hospital. The fatal cancer caused her intense pain. A priest saw her five days before she died. She was at peace with herself, with God, with death that she saw approaching. Though still in the prime of life, there was no complaint, not a trace of self-pity, as her days on earth was fast coming to an end. 

“I thank God for the years I have lived”, she said. “The only prayer that I can say now is “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me a sinner now and at the hour of my death”. She saw that for her the moment of death and the “now” would soon be one. And so she lived her last days believing, trusting, loving, praying intensely as she had done all her life.

If it is a tragedy to die young; it is a far greater tragedy to pass many years on earth without living at all.

Don’t allow the gift of today to be devoured by regrets for yesterday or fears of tomorrow.

God is aware of all that you worry about he has waited and is still waiting for you to call on him irrespective of how hard it is because of the troubles of your past and fear of the future. He knows the hurt you feel, the weight and guilt that you carry. Allow him to forgive these guilts and heal the pain of the past. 

Continue to Trust in God and let your life begin today as you walk in freedom without any fear, guilt and pain of the past. 

God will Forgive, Heal and walk with your every step of the way.. Remain Blessed.

[With Excerpts from 'The High Noon of God' by Peter Byrne, C.Ss.R.]