December 2025

I had hope that the world post lockdowns and Covid restrictions would be gentler and less angry; how wrong I was!

Anger is not always a bad thing, indeed Our Lord showed anger on occasion, including when He overturned the market tables in the Temple. He was also prone to calling some people hypocrites. There are some things which should make us angry as otherwise we would be indifferent. Indifferent to the slaughter of innocents, to greed and to cruelty. Yet if we are continually angry, burning with rage for the injustices of this world, we can find ourselves feeling depressed and unable to live the hope and joy which is the essence of our Faith. The Incarnation, the birth of Our Lord, God taking flesh, brought light into the world and put darkness at bay. This is the power of the Divine Love.

Likewise, this can be so with the Church and the injustices visited upon Her by those within and without. We cannot be indifferent to the Church, that being the Body of Christ. Yet, once again the danger can be that the hope and joy which came to us through Christ can be severely dampened. S. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order and writer of the Spiritual Exercises, wrote of something that has come to be termed holy indifference. A translation of his Exercises, by Fr. George Ganss, SJ has the following:

‘Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls. The other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings, to help them in the pursuit of the end for which they are created. From this it follows that we ought to use these things to the extent that they help us toward our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it.’

One is called to prioritise that which brings them closer to God and aids them for the ‘end for which we are created.’ This means being able to let go, or sit lightly, to those things, aspects and circumstances in our lives that do not. We cannot remove much of this from our lives but by not making them a priority, be that in the immediate or for the foreseeable, we can perhaps be said to be indifferent.

Advent, which is much of this month, is a period in which to prepare for the coming of Our Lord. Preparation could perhaps be aided by reflecting upon the priorities within our lives, mine and yours alike, and seeking to better align them with those of God so that we do in ever increasing ways, ‘praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord.’

Please God, let it be that the Blessed Saints, most particularly Our Lady, continue to pray for us!