Saturday 13 September 2025
St John Chrysostom
1 Timothy 1:15-17. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever – Ps 112(113):1-7. Luke 6:43-49.
Moving through the storm
Sometimes life can feel like a crumbling sandcastle as we juggle the pressures of work, rising tensions in relationships, or the weight of uncertainty. Endurance doesn’t come from having it all together. Jesus says that a life built on foundations of faith can withstand floods, while one built on self-reliance collapses. In her poem ‘The Leaf and the Cloud’, Mary Oliver reflects on times of hardship: ‘so this is how you swim inward, so this is how you flow outward, so this is how you pray.’ Faith anchors us not by avoiding the storm but by teaching us how to move through it and towards Christ who offers solid ground to build on. Our faith won’t take the storms and hardship away, but it does give us something to hold on to and to hope in. As the winds rise, which they will, we may bend but we won’t break. That’s because we’ve built our lives on something deeper, something enduring that will last.
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