Come as you are

It is Ash Wednesday and we are all happily walking around signed with the sign of the Cross on our foreheads. The birds are singing outside and spring is in the air.

 So is God’s  tender Mercy - reaching out to us as this season of grace begins. The words of a song  are singing in my heart –

 Come back to me with all your heart. Don’t let fear keep us apart.

 Long have I waited for your coming home to me.

And living deeply our new life.

 Yes, our Loving Abba Father is searching for each of us and especially his lost and troubled children. He loved the world so much that He gave His only Son…

 That’s why Jesus came -  to reveal the Father’s tenderness for each one of us.

 The favourite hymn of  our old Sr. Kevin now in Heaven  was –

 Come as you are.

 Come as you are that’s how I want you

 Come as you are, feel quite at home.

  Close to my heart, loved and forgiven,

 Come as you are, why stand alone.

 Come as you are,

 That’s how I love you, come as you are,

 Trust me again.

 Nothing can change, the love that I bear you.

 All will be well, just come as you are.

 The great sacrament of God’s healing love and forgiveness is there for us all.

 Pope Francis has said “Jesus in the confessional is not a dry cleaner.

 Confession is an encounter with this Jesus who waits for us , who waits for us just as we are.

 There was a woman called Jane who prayed in our chapel for years. She loved the Lord and His Word in the Scriptures very much . I asked her one Ash Wed. what she was going to do for Lent. She said she was going to be joyful and spread God’s love.

 A good resolution for us all maybe in our present suffering world.

 Let us pray for each other in this season of grace and mercy.