Dear Fathers, Friends in Christ,
Do you find sometimes that life becomes impossible? Here in the Australian state of Victoria we had bushfires during a recent heatwave , which caused the loss of life and properties and the aftermath is a burning disused mine at Morwell, which keeps on burning and causes toxic fumes over this place. The paper asks today ' why is the Government not considering evacuation'?
Then in the last few months Geelong was hit with the closure of the Alumium smelter, which caused the loss of hundreds of jobs and offcourse we all remember that Toyota and Holden and Ford are closing their doors in a few years time, which results in more hardship for people.
The treasurer Mr Jo Hickey is planning to tinker with the Medicare system and the retirement age ... he wants to bring it up to 67. But most of us , based on experience know that companies dont like to take on older workers.
Qantas announces 5000 jobs losses and we lost a well known and popular tv personality Charlotte Dawson , who ended her life because of cyber bullying.
In the course of my role as a Priest I come across a lot of people , who cannot face these stresses anymore, they dont know how to put the misery into a prayer to our Lord Jesus. In the Churches of the East , there is the Jesus prayer, it is short but too the point and is recited usually in Church in front of seas of candles :
It goes like this:
"Lord Jesus, Son of God , have mercy upon me, a sinner". This in fact, time and time again proved to be a powerful cry to God and God's Grace and Mercy was bestowed upon that person, who prayed this prayer.
On a day like today, when the Yahoo website and the newspapers spit out tons of misery, why not give this prayer a try in the quiet of the evening ?
May God have mercy upon us all,
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church/Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo
Australia
