Guest Post: Rosanna Cassidy

 Rosanna is studying for a PhD at the University of Nottigham

    Everyone has bad days. Today was definitely one of mine. I woke up out of breath from screaming so much at my nightmares, and although they faded so fast that I couldn’t even remember them, I started the day still feeling a bit rubbish; it was nothing major, it had just already begun to feel like a ‘bad day’.

    About an hour after I had woken I spoke to my boyfriend and when I told him that I was still feeling a bit down he told me to remember that I was God’s princess, and that He was holding me safe in His arms. Now that is wonderful advice, but at the time I didn’t really pay too much attention to his words, because I’d heard them a thousand times before, and they were just words, how were they supposed to make me feel better?

    However, after returning from Mass and still not feeling 100%, I began to actually dwell on that advice a little more. I asked myself, “what does it actually mean to remind myself that I am God’s princess?” An answer sprung into my head pretty quickly: “start living like you believe it.”

    But then I laughed at myself, wondering what on earth that answer actually meant in a practical, real-life sort of way. I realised that the problem wasn’t reminding myself that I was God’s beloved, because I had never forgotten that fact in my head, but the problem was that I had forgotten how to feel it in my heart.

    Isn’t it true that from time to time on our Christian journey we get so caught up in the intricacies of theology, or the business of our serving, or we just have a down day, and we forget how to connect with the fundamental basics of our faith: that God loves us, that Jesus died to reclaim us, God’s daughters, God’s princesses, from every power of darkness in our lives?

    And of course, faith is not all about feeling things; we can still choose faith even when we can not feel that love and that joy for one reason or another. But sometimes it can be good for us to remind ourselves of how loved we are, and for us to reconnect with God’s love for us in a way that we can feel.

    So, thinking about all this, and being a practical and creative sort of girl, I decided that the only way for me to ‘live like I believe that I’m God’s princess’, was for me to scratch the ‘like I believe’, and actually spend some time ‘living as God’s princess’. So I put on a pretty dress, and put flowers in my hair and built myself a castle (ok, so really it’s a child’s den, but in my imagination it’s a castle!), and just generally, in a really practical, obvious way, taught myself how it feels to be a cherished, loved princess of the greatest King! And it may seem silly and childish, but God loves it when we are childlike with Him, when we strip things back to the simple things and just invite Him in. As I lie inside my den now I know that my day has turned around into a good day, and that I feel safe, and loved, and comforted– and it’s not because I’m between two sofas with a bedsheet over my head, but it’s because I found a simple way to reconnect my heart with God’s love for me.

    What I want to say to you is that everyone has bad days, or bad weeks, or bad months, but never be afraid or ashamed to admit that you need to go back to basics with God again. If you’ve lost sight of the basic message of God’s love, or if you feel like you’ve been over it time and time again but you still haven’t got it, don’t be frustrated with yourself, just be willing to be vulnerable and childlike with God again.

    When I crawled into my den today, I opened up a book, and this was what was written on the page in front of me:

‘My child, let My peace enfold you… not looking at yourself but at Me! Consciously and frequently rest your spirit in that peace; it brings true healing, and is all that you need. …Do not ‘analyse’ whether you have My peace; just know that it is there… My Name – the Name of Jesus – brings peace; Say it to Me – in love; say it to yourself – to comfort your heart, unfailingly.’

The Woman at the Well: Sharing the Joy of the Gospel

    In today’s Gospel we heard about the Samaritan women who met Jesus at the well. After asking her for a drink and receiving a shocked response, Jesus tells her: ‘if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink and he would have given you living water’ (John 4:10). At first she fails to understand the significance of this, but He goes on to explain that ‘the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life’ (John 4:14). The promise of eternal life is evident, but the most incredible part is that the woman to whom it is promised doesn’t fit any of the stereotypes of someone who people in that time expected to get to Heaven!

    This woman came from a race that historically did not associate with Jews. In fact, simply by speaking with her Jesus would have been considered ceremoniously unclean by others of His religion. She’d had five husbands and wasn’t married to the one she currently lived with, which even today would draw judgement from many people. So why did He approach her? Why did He risk His reputation for her? Because Jesus didn’t live for safety or tradition. He lived to spread a message of love to all of humanity. He was fearless in His radical interactions with people who didn’t fit the cultural or religious ideal… and in His radical attitude towards women. In this story Jesus’ behaviour is radical for the time in several ways:

He ministered to an outcast.

He interacted with a woman.

He accepted a gift from a Samaritan.

He forgave her sins and made no judgement.

    I love this photo because it’s one of the only ones I found where the woman wasn’t kneeling at Jesus’ feet. Here Jesus is sitting with her, casually talking to her whilst she carries out her work, and I think that’s how their conversation would have been! Until the point where she leaves he remains just a man to her, so she would have had no reason to kneel at His feet - especially as her coloured past had likely hardened her to be independent and self-protecting. Jesus didn’t have airs and graces. He humbled himself in becoming fully human and didn’t lose any of that humanity by also being fully God. He spoke with the woman on equal footing, showed her nothing but love, and didn’t look down on her despite the counter-message of the society at the time. 

    Countless times in the gospels Jesus performs healing miracles and insists His identity is not revealed. In previous instances He hid His identity as the Son of God because faith would not be faith if it were forced rather than freely chosen. Yet in this seemingly simple interaction He readily admits to being the Messiah – ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he’ (John 4:26). They are alone with no witnesses, and He has performed no miracle so has not proven who He is. So by telling her He is the Messiah He still offers her the choice of faith. 

    That woman went on to become one of the first evangelisers. ‘Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony’ (John 4:39). Despite her past, her culture and her religion, she was not afraid to tell her neighbours about Jesus. The message of the gospel is a universal one, intended to be retold over and over again by people of every nationality, age, gender and background. Too often fear holds us back from telling it. 

    Like the Samaritan woman we, too, must find the courage to speak out. Once she had encountered Jesus she knew her life would never be the same again, and neither will ours. The compulsion to shout about the Good News is in all of us, we just sometimes stifle it. The temptation to fall prey to the lie that we don’t have the words is great, but we have a gift within us – the gift of the Holy Spirit who, if we allow it, will speak for us. 

    ‘A time is coming when worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth’ (John 4:23). That can be the time we live in. Today let’s receive the gospel and allow it to blossom within us so that the sheer joy of it is too great to hold in. 

Let’s share the joy of the Gospel!

Why Lent is NOT a diet...

    As women we’re constantly bombarded with the latest weight-loss techniques, exercise crazes and fad-diets. The automatic attention we pay to even the word ‘diet’ in magazines or on billboards is so ingrained it’s almost as though we’re hardwired to seek out ways to refine and perfect ourselves.

    When it comes to Lent, how many of us naturally veer towards food when deciding what to give up? How many of your friends have named chocolate, biscuits, sugar, desserts or chips as their chosen sacrifice? How many have simply vowed to ‘eat more healthily’? 

    How many people who aren’t religious and don’t observe any other part of the Lenten tradition have you heard say those things? The question is… When is it less about God and more about you? When is it no longer fasting but simply starving? When is it no longer a means of spiritual discipline but instead an early attempt at the pre-Summer health kick? It’s a fine line which we have to be aware of in these 40 days as we try to prepare ourselves – hearts and minds – for Christ’s resurrection. 

    The trouble with giving up ‘unhealthy’ food is that the next time we reach for that favourite chocolate bar or biscuit, the little voice inside encouraging us to “make this small sacrifice for the sake of drawing closer to God” becomes so easily confused with the equally persuasive voice reminding us that “you’re not allowed that, it’s banned”.

    That’s not to say giving up a type of food isn’t a valid Lenten pledge! For many people sacrificing those squares of chocolate in the afternoon or the morning coffee and biscuit may be the hardest thing in life to give up as it’s the thing they rely on most or do out of habit. It takes extreme self-discipline. Food is also one of the only things that is absolutely essential in life, and so one of the only things that we can guarantee we’ll be reminded of if we decide to give it up. There are few things that we’ll be tempted by so often, and in that sense giving up chocolate, for example, acts as a regular reminder to turn your heart back to God.

    Everyone has some sort of favourite food or little indulgence that they know would be hard for them to give up. As such, in many ways it serves as the perfect Lenten sacrifice because the point of that sacrifice is that it’s not easy. But it’s important to continually make sure that your heart behind your sacrifice is in the right place.

‘I will decrease, so that God can increase.’

   

    I think this is the fundamental basis of Lenten promises. Whatever we give up, we have to ensure that God is kept at the centre of our resolve, and that the primary purpose is to draw near to Him. I will decrease my indulgences or bad habits so that God can increase in glory. NOT: I will decrease my chocolate intake so that I can increase my confidence on the beach, popularity at school or likeness to the celebs.

    We need to remember that there are three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. One without the others loses significance. Prayer alone causes no harm but costs very little of the self, almsgiving alone becomes self-righteousness, and fasting alone become merely dieting.

    2000 years ago a guy called Jesus gave up His own LIFE so that we might live. He sacrificed His own flesh on the cross at the hands of people like you and me, FOR people like you and me. Our simple acts of self-sacrifice during Lent are a way to share in that Good Friday spirit and dedicate our own bodies and our own lives back to Christ. 

    So next time you find yourself tempted by whatever it is you’ve given up for Lent, check your motivation. If it’s become an arbitrary rule a mere sense of duty, or even a subconscious method of fixing your figure after the weeks of eating Christmas chocolate, then offer that to Jesus and ask Him to give you a heart of truly sacrificial love in return.