It is with a sense of joy that today, Sunday 29 ^th March 2020, is being celebrated throughout the land as a day of thanksgiving for the protection of England to Mary, Mother of the Christ child and ‘Mother of God’. Surely it must always be with a sense of the need for protection that we turn to Mary in our prayers, asking her to intercede for us with her Divine Son for protection. And what better time to seek her protection than now, as we face a worldwide pandemic of major proportions that threatens both our local community and nation. How often history tells us that during times of trial and danger that God alone is ‘our shelter and our strength... in whom we take refuge’. And when we need God’s help, who better to ask than Mary, the Mother of his Son.

In his encyclical, “ Deus Caritas est”, Pope Emeritus Benedict said that “being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” 

As we enter 'Passiontide', the most sacred and solemn part of Lent, we are called to experience that encounter with Jesus in our daily lives, and to allow him the opportunity to change our lives, so that we can appreciate the new horizon he offers to us. By doing so we become more open to a new direction, one that points beyond death to eternal life, but being seasoned Christians we also encounter suffering, anxiety, pain as we get closer to the resurrection. Standing beside Mary at the foot of the cross we can share our suffering. Calvary is not a place for the faint-hearted. But through our re-dedication to Mary, we have a certain hope that she will help us, and that with God even our disasters can be turned to victory in Christ.