We have seen the Olympic Flame going all over Britain in these past two and a half months. Crowds of people have come out to see it, early in the mornings and all through the days. The ‘living flame’ is a good symbol – a symbol that is very much a flame alive.  A living flame is powerful and dangerous; it is exciting; it is also a cleansing flame that can burn out the old and make way for the new. 

Ultimately, the flame of God is able to make all things new. 

For the athletes, competing in the games, there is always the question of training – training so hard for the honour to succeed. For years and years, they have been training, training, training, often giving up other things in their lives, to focus only on their sport, and on the will to win. 

Our task, as Christians, is to have the same, even stronger, commitment for God, analagous to the athletes and their focus on their sport, always with that one long-term aim – the glory of winning that prized gold medal. Our task, also, is to win our own ‘gold’ medals, first the Kingdom of God on earth, here and now, in all the circumstances of life as we find them, transforming those circumstances by God’s grace, for nothing happens without it being a manifestation of God’s love! Our final ‘Gold’ will be the perfection of the Kingdom of God in heaven, where a host of saints, angels, relatives and friends await us.  It requires some good training for people to believe, experience and know that this is true. That is why people attend the ‘Mariapolis’, to train in the things of God. 

But our way is different to the way of the World. It is not in my strength, or in our strength, that we win the ‘Gold Medal’ of God’s kingdom. It is only in God’s strength. 

Below are two pictures illustrating the Mariapolis, and the vital connections with the Olympics; they display their own inimitable message.

Vitally, we need the flame of the Gospel, alive and burning in us, for the Word of God is like the flame; it makes new; it cleanses; it excites; it gives new meaning to life. In essence, this is what we are sharing at the Mariapolis, at Leicester University, this week in July. In total, there are about 400 of us here, of all ages, and we are becoming one great family, in the one Family of God, the Mystical Body of Christ, in which every person finds their true home.

The flame of the Word of God is our beacon on the journey of life. 

The photograph below shows a group of parishioners from Leyland, attending the Mariapolis, and visiting Mount St. Bernard Abbey. Among them, one can see Fr. Anselm Stark, a monk dressed in white. He lives a life of prayer and contemplation, but he, too, is living the Mariapolis and ‘undergoing the same training’, living in his enclosed Abbey, only about half an hour’s drive from the University, where we are staying. Although not with us, physically, he is closely united with us, in that special spiritual way. In his words, he lives the same spirit of unity, or communion, that the Word of God is teaching  to all of us. 

Group from Leyland who are at the Mariapolis in Leicester 

May God bless us and keep us all safe, this summer, and give us all a good rest. May the living flame of God’s Love renew us, burn out what is not of Love and turn us into loving people.

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