SON OF ENCOURAGEMENT

 

The church bell has been silent for most of five years. I managed to get it going for a brief period back in April and all attempts since then have utterly failed.

It’s a real bell with a beautiful sound and it’s rung by a hammer that’s controlled by an electronic panel in the Sacristy and last week I had an earnest desire to hear it again. So, on my way out to celebrate Mass one morning I waved my hand in blessing over it and on the following day I stood before the panel and said a prayer to Barnabas, my Guardian Angel, asking him to do something.

What happened was quite interesting. No, there was no miraculous ringing, but something happened to me, as if something within me stepped back into a remarkable stillness. The pressure to fix it left me and my entire being went pure silent, a sense of perfect clarity and calm. Then I took the manual in my hands as I had often done before and, following its instructions got the bell working very quickly, a bit out of time at first but working beautifully. So, it rings the Angelus now twice a day.

Its sound comes to me as the voice of the Angel of God, this beautiful sound that announces that God is here, that He is kind and full of compassion. It is a very clear and kindly sound, and it fills me with joy.

I spoke about this at Mass on Sunday with the children gathered round in front of the Sanctuary, asking them to close their eyes, to listen and think about what God might be saying in the sound of the bell. One said God is happy, another that He is love, another that He wants us to pray and another that He wants us to come to church and a few others that I can’t remember now. Then one lad put up his hand and said, “I can only hear ding, ding, ding…!” and we all laughed at the good of it, the honesty.

But it speaks to me and is an answer to prayer, a reminder again that God is attentive to everything, that after a time of waiting and trying our best, there is the time of grace.

And the effect of prayer also is to bring us to a state of stillness, clarity, trust, calm in the face of what life demands of us. Because I find that we are so often pressing forward into life, like we press forward into wind and rain in a storm.

I find myself doing it while driving. My car is pretty useless going up a hill and I find myself leaning forward over the steering wheel as if I can push the car up the hill. It doesn’t make sense to do such a thing but it’s what happens.

God is asking me to sit back from that kind of pressing forward and allow Him to act in any situation. Not a sitting back in the lazy sense but in the way that happened me with the bell panel in the Sacristy. It’s the way that the Psalm 131 offers us, a Psalm that has been given us twice this week. “Truly I have kept my soul in silence and peace, as a child at rest in its mother’s arms.” The way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust.

This is the spirit that opens us to the reality of who God is, to experience the truth of who He is and what the Church is called to be. The Fatherhood of God, Motherhood of the Church.

After Mass on Sunday, people were curious to find out how I know the name of my Guardian Angel. It came about like this: my Mother was in adoration one day when she asked Jesus to show her the names of her son’s Guardian Angels. She might have done the same for her daughters, but I don’t remember the result. She picked up the Bible which opened at the Acts of the Apostles and the first names she saw were Paul and Barnabas, so she gave Paul to my younger brother and Barnabas to me, not realizing at all that Barnabas is one of my favourite Saints in the New Testament. I was delighted, not least because of the meaning of the name. Barnabas means “son of encouragement” and that is what I believe my Guardian Angel is doing in my life. Encouraging me. I pray to him every day. And I thank God.

I am of course cautious about angels because there are lots of them around, they are big business in New Age, and not all of them from God. We are told in the Scripture that Satan can appear as an angel of light, Lucifer being his name, so we really have to be careful about what we dabble in. It’s my rule of life to stick with the Scriptures, the Word of God and to accept only the angels spoken of there, Guardian Angels being among them.

We pray this in our Pallottine Community Prayers:

“Angel of God whom God has appointed my guardian; enlighten, protect, direct, and govern me this day. Amen!”

The version we learned as children:

“O angel of God, my guardian dear to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day (night) be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen!”

Angel of Fatima

 

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.

Hail Mary, etc.

V. And the Word was made Flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary, etc.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

LET US PRAY
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.