成人快手

Good morning.聽 I once went to the Scots College in Rome, which trains men for the priesthood, and one of the students told me that he had been brought up in a predominantly Roman Catholic town and had come to Rome before he met his first Protestant.聽 My experience was that I had to go to university in Glasgow before I started to make friends who were Roman Catholic and learn from them.聽 One of them was called Jim.聽 He was a good deal older than I was, already studying for his second degree, and he excelled as a university debater.聽聽聽

One morning I met him on the staircase of the students union, quite early.聽 鈥淛im, you鈥檝e got a dirty mark on your forehead鈥�.聽 Very gently he pointed out to this Protestant minister鈥檚 son that it was Ash Wednesday and he had been to mass and the priest had rubbed ash onto his forehead: a sign of penitence and human mortality at the start of the solemn season of Lent.聽

On Ash Wednesday there鈥檚 a traditional penitential procession led by the Pope to the Basilica of Santa Sabina where ashes are sprinkled on the Pope鈥檚 head and he then places ashes on the heads of others.聽

When I was a student, I knew a very old and very wise minister.聽 Every time someone said to him 鈥淥h I鈥檓 sorry鈥�, he liked to reply 鈥淭here鈥檚 no need for sorrow: just for amendment of life鈥�.聽 How much easier it is, often, to wallow in a self-obsessed preoccupation with our own wrongs rather than decide to do something to put them right.聽

When the great reformation figure Martin Luther was going through the agonies of someone who believed he was the greatest sinner who ever lived, he heard a voice saying: 鈥淒on鈥檛 be silly, little man, you鈥檙e nothing of the kind鈥�.聽

Loving God, show us the way of appropriate confession and proper forgiveness.聽 Amen.