Hello dear friends in Jesus Christ,
This week’s the Bishop’s Blog reaches out with a reflection on Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament!
Soon the schools will be closed for the summer. We have already had what seems an over-dose of beautiful weather. Can there be more to come? Will it fit our plans? We are free to speculate. Removed from all our uncertainties and speculating is the utter certainty of the Lord’s intimate affection for us, and His desire to draw us back, deeper into the heart of the Father. Jesus has given us the way to follow. Through the centuries His disciples have constantly and consistently found that way in the Eucharist.
In September, in Liverpool, during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress, the Catholic Church of England and Wales will give public witness to our core belief that Jesus is present with us, to us, and for us, in the Blessed Sacrament.
Our Faith can seem to ask many things of us. It can be natural to be overwhelmed at times by a sense of inadequacy or frustration or even loss of heart. Again and again we come back into the presence of Jesus, and slow down and simply sit or knee, and slow down some more, and wait and listen and break through that temptation to try and sort everything out ourselves.
We surrender all to Him, and allow Him to slow us down even more, to the point where we don’t need to fight or strain anymore. We abandon hope of achieving peace because we have found the One who is our peace.
Pope Francis recently wrote, ‘An essential condition for growth in discernment is a growing understanding of God’s patience and God’s timetable, which are never our own.’ (Gaudete et Exultate on the call to holiness in today’s world. para 174) 
A lesson I am forever having to re-learn is how I must have confidence that the Lord knows what He is doing. As I visit and meet and listen it is clear that many of you know this better than I do. Thank-you. Let us pray for the success of the National Eucharistic Congress in September.
Until next week -we pray for each other.
As ever in Christ,
+Paul
Paul Swarbrick
Bishop of Lancaster