When it comes to the election of a new leader there can be no doubt that the Roman Catholic Church is in a class by itself. The news this week has been dominated by reports from Rome where the conclave of Cardinals moved slowly towards a conclusion.

The drama was played out in a very public way with the Cardinals being locked up in the Sistine Chapel which had electronic jamming equipment installed under the floor. Clearly mobile texting of the results was to be avoided in favour of the traditional smoke signals.

There can be few people subjected to such scrutiny as Pope Francis. His past has been delved into and his present actions examined minutely. On both counts he has not been found wanting by the faithful. His first words to the crowd of pilgrims was to ask for prayer rather like St Paul in his 2^nd letter to the Thessalonians, “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, as happened among you” and a good start made to his ministry.

In his first homily he sought to steer the church away from work which NGO’s were engaged in and focus more on Jesus and his cross. Whilst he did not say that the preaching of the cross was offensive, as we do not like to hear that we are too sinful to contribute to our salvation, he did say that to be a disciple we need to profess Christ with the cross.

To the more liberal minded in the crowd mention of the cross may not have sounded like shorthand for the death of Christ on their behalf. To the conservative it may not have sounded vital for salvation. Ultimately the cross stands over against all other methods of self-salvation. To rely exclusively on the work of Jesus on the cross requires the convicting and converting power of the Holy Spirit.

Those who proclaim it soon get the labels of un-loving and intolerant. Pope Francis starts with reservoir of goodwill will stand him in good stead if he is to fulfill the Pauline goal, “we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” 1Corinthians Chapter 1 verses 24/25. In today’s world we could substitute Liberals and Conservatives for Jews and Gentiles and pray that both might find salvation in Christ at the foot of the cross.

The annual migration from Ireland to that famous horse racing track in the Cotswolds is gearing up to go as next week is the Festival. Such is the Irish input that the third of the four days of racing is named after St Patrick our patron Saint!

The 27 races are run over the four days. Part of the attraction is the prize money which, this year is £3.76 million. This goes some way to explain the attraction it has for members of our government who travel there no doubt with the intention of reducing our budget deficit!

My first exposure to the races arose many years ago when a somewhat sleepy colleague transformed himself into a smartly dressed racegoer replete with a very large pair of binoculars and took himself off to Cheltenham. This change, I was informed, happened every year as the magnetism of the festival proved irresistible.

The recession has had the effect of reducing the numbers of punters but not the number of horses. There is a record entry with no less than 600 making the journey from Ireland.

The actual amount of money bet on the horses gets harder to calculate as online betting now rivals on course betting. Taxing these considerable sums has proved to be difficult but ways have been found to ensure that whatever the fate of the Bookmaker or Punter the Government always wins!

What would the Bible have to say to such matters?

Quite a lot as festivals formed the framework of the religious year. They were joyous occasions celebrating such things as harvest and bringing to recall the goodness of God in providing for them in the wilderness.

Perhaps the best known festival is the Passover as it was the precursor of the Communion in the New Testament. It was designed to enable the worshipper to remember what the Lord had done in delivering his people from bondage in Egypt. It entailed the sacrifice of a lamb the blood of which was applied to the doorposts and lintel of the house. Those in the house were protected when the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn struck the land (Exodus chapter 12 verse 29).

The plague passed over those sheltering under the blood.

This act of salvation for God’s people foreshadowed the death of Jesus Christ for sinners. He was the sacrificial lamb that was promised of which the lambs in Egypt were a foretaste. He died so that those trusting in the efficacy of his sacrifice would receive eternal life. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” was how St John put it in his Gospel.

Unlike Cheltenham this gift comes without money and does not rely on chance. It relies on the promise of God to hear the cry of repentant sinners and as St John writes about Jesus, “ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out”.

Never mind the official dates for the arrival of Spring it really arrived this week! The almost continual wet weather that stretched way back into 2012 dried up at last and Spring became a reality.

The start of the calving and lambing has brought life back into the fields around the farmyard as the first to calf and the first of the lambs got their taste of freedom. Their mothers enjoyed some fresh grass but had to go looking for it as the growth is minimal and their diet has had to be supplemented with silage.

The garden birds resplendent in their breeding plumage have entertained us throughout the winter but now have something else to sing about as they set about the business of attracting a suitable mate. The usual collections of Tits and Finches have had their numbers swollen by a flock of Siskin that only now have dispersed.

We have a few nest boxes on trees around the house and today I noticed a Blue Tit examining one of them with a view to setting up house there.

The Rooks which always started to build on 1^st March look like they have deserted us again this year. We blamed their departure on the destruction of the Palmerstown woodland some three miles away. It had the largest rookery in the County but a more likely explanation for their disappearance is the arrival of Buzzards. A pair of them have nested on the farm in recent years and their whistle call put the Rooks on red alert. Initially the Rooks were able to fight off the Buzzards but the latter have had some success at robbing the nests in the Rookery so our friendly Rooks have packed up and moved on.

Elsewhere there is a tinge of green appearing on the hedgerows and the snowdrops which cover the floor of the spinney have now to compete with the bright yellow of the emerging daffodils and primroses.

Another spring has arrived as promised, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Genesis Chapter 8 verse 22.

A promise kept. Another reminder given to us of the heavenly harvest of which the earthly harvest is but an analogy.

The writer to the Hebrews touches on this when he describes who Jesus is and the work He has done, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3.

A seated Saviour represents a job completed. The sin barrier removed by the cross. A way opened for the blood bought believers. A harvest of souls of which our harvests are analogous.

Put your faith in Jesus the Lord of the harvest.

It is a source of wonder that things can go on in a small country for many years and yet go unnoticed. This seems to be the case of the 10 Magdalene Laundries who are reckoned to have had 30,000 women pass through their hands.

When they were founded their task was to rehabilitate young girls back into society. A hundred years on into the 20^th century and these places had become increasingly prison-like with a daily diet of long hours of laundry and needlework.

As there was the presumption that the girls had sinned their day included extended periods of prayer and discipline was maintained by means of enforced silence.

The extent to which suffering was endured came to light with the publication of the McAleese Report which was discussed in the Dial this week.

The evidence showed that Irish courts routinely sent women convicted of petty crimes to the laundries; the government awarded lucrative contracts to the laundries without any insistence on protection and fair treatment of their workers, and Irish state employees helped keep laundry facilities stocked with workers by bringing women to work there and returning any workers who escaped.

For those incarcerated, whatever wrongs they did, and for many it was simply that they existed, their rejection must have seemed complete. The brutality of the regime could have been coped with better if there had been some love, some compassion, some link to family, even an end date to look forward to. Instead there was silence, the removal of self worth and an inability to share even their sorrows with each other.

The Taoiseach’s apology on behalf of the Nation was fulsome and complete. He had taken the time to hear many of their stories as they recounted how they endured all that “a cruel and pitiless Ireland” had thrown at them. Perhaps the noblest thing which he did was to believe them – something which many had not experienced before.

It was a cathartic moment when at the conclusion of the Taoiseach’s speech. The T D’s stood to applaud the survivors in the visitors’ gallery, who in turn applauded the House.

Although no one mentioned it the Gospel had been played out. A confession of past sins was followed by a genuine apology and the promise of restitution to come.

The Word for the Week must surely be for all of us, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John chapter 1 verse 9.

All sin is ultimately against God and forgiveness is the prerogative of the One who is “faithful and just to forgive” because Jesus has made a complete atonement for them.

It exactly matches the survivors’ needs and it exactly matches our needs also.

For many of us who lack the skills to interpret points of Catholic doctrine the most significant thing about the Pope’s term in office was his resignation this week. We never knew he could do such a thing. We thought it was a life sentence!

Being able to call “times up” is speaking in language I can understand. Rather like the headmaster fed up with the endless bickering in the staff-room and the kids being disobedient in the playground it makes sense to call it a day – especially at age 85.

There will now be time to get back to the writing desk and do a sequel to his trilogy on the life of Jesus. Perhaps an appreciation of the life of St Paul could come next? In the last book of the series he sought to take the text at face value and, finding no reference to the presence of animals in the Gospel accounts of the stable at the birth of Jesus, made his findings known to the consternation of the many crib creators in Ireland!

We all have our pet doctrines and these have a habit of popping up at regular intervals. For instance some of our Baptist expositors see baptism every time water is mentioned so we will have to be a little tolerant if in his writings the Pope sees mass every time Jesus has a meal!

Over the last 8 years we have been grateful for his strong support for traditional Catholic stances on abortion, the sanctity of life and traditional marriage. He withstood the pressures of secularism when other churches capitulated to it. It will need a strong man to continue to hold the rope in these turbulent times.

It may come as a surprise to some that the Bible does not mention the office of Pope. Tradition has it the St Peter was the first one but this is not how he saw himself as his writings show; “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock”(1Peter chapter 5 verses 1-3).

St Peter’s identifying with his fellow elders; his recognising that one could so easily lord it over others makes it plain that he learned from the time Jesus washed his feet along with the other disciples.

Perhaps with the Pope’s resignation will come the opportunity to proclaim Jesus as St Peter did before him; `Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Acts Chapter 2 verse 21).

Rather like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day we return from holiday to find the news in the papers resembles the news the day we left Ireland 18 days ago! Bargaining in Brussels and hamburgers of horse meat in Ireland!

In the latter case Ireland should get some credit for being the first to spot it. Our Food Safety Authority discovered “beefburgers” with substantial amounts of horseflesh but – where was the beef? This is a question that is being asked throughout Europe as one country after another discovers equine traces in place of beef on their plates.

The food chain has just got longer. Tracing the origins of the “beef” product in the burgers has become harder than spotting a winner at Punchestown! It seems that the “product” originated in Poland or France and made its way via various traders to the production lines of meat factories thence to the Supermarket counters of Europe.

As a result the anonymity of the horses is safe! However their flesh may not be. The problem lies in the medication which they may have received before slaughter.

In contrast to the beef industry where there is complete traceability of product from birth to the retailer and where stringent rules are enforced on the use of medicine, horsetrading is largely unregulated.

There is something of a parallel in the financial world as the Anglo-Irish bank debt is swopped this week for long term bonds. These represent the remaining €25 billion bank debt and, as the ECB couldn’t lend directly to a bank, Anglo was got rid of and we, or our children, will be paying for the bonds over the next 40 years.

If that was all we had to worry about we would be in relatively good shape but with our sovereign debt at €160 billion (and rising as our annual expenditure still continues to exceed our income) we will be in hoc to Europe for the foreseeable future!

What has the Bible to say about all this?

It is easy to pick out the greedy people who incurred the multi-million debts. They are being pursued through the courts to try to recover some of their well defended stash.

But what of the rest of us who marvelled at the “good times” and became part of the inflationary spiral.

Our leaders said the fundamentals were sound when they were building on sand. Covetousness was rampant as the 10^th commandment – the real fundamental was overlooked – “You shall not covet…” (Exodus chapter 20 verse 17). St Paul recognised just how the commandment brought out the worse in us; `I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead (Romans Chapter 7 verses 7/8). This sin which is brought to life so easily when we hear the words “You shall not” has a divine remedy in Christ our substitute who became a sin offering for repentant sinners who trusts in him; “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit (Romans Chapter 8 verses 3-4).

Don’t put the cart before the horse. Trust Jesus first then you will prove the truth of Scripture.

It has been 20 years or more since we visited the Young Scientists Exhibition so we took the opportunity to rectify the matter this week.

The first thing to strike you is the huge number of schoolchildren crammed into the RDS Hall. They had come by bus to support their school’s entry and to learn from the 550 projects that could be viewed.

There were 3,000 students manning these projects. Each had a descriptive board outlining the aims and summarising the findings. All were bursting with pride at having been chosen and were delighted to explain the inner workings and the thinking behind their presentation.

We were especially attracted to the primary schools section. There the enthusiasm knew no limits. We were fingerprinted, offered smells, given the sticky stuff of Coke residue and presented with flower seeds to plant to encourage bees!

A number of entrants had grown up on farms so their projects related to their environment. The majority of them suggested improvements in milking methods largely worked out on the home farm. One son of a sheep farmer offered a new method of fostering lambs which we will try out in the coming months!

The overall winners were 3 girls from a school in Kinsale which has a track record of winners at this event. They qualify for a European competition which has been won a number of times by students from Ireland.

The Bible has something to say about talents. It would seem that they are granted along with the ability to put them to good use. In other words the talent comes to the person who is fit for it and it’s when we do not use our talent that we are censured. (St Matthew chapter 25 verses 14/30.)

We are not to be content when people praise our natural ability but to recognise that it is a gift from God to be offered back to him that he might magnify it to his glory.

The greatest gift of God is that of salvation in which God gives the grace to nurture the talents he provides in an environment of self control. As St Paul puts it in his letter to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (chapter 2 verses 11 to 14).

Talents are precious gifts. Don’t squander them. Instead surrender them to God who knows how to produce the outcomes that really satisfy us and glorify him.

You can tell it’s that time again. The gym is packed and you can barely get into the swimming pool! All those mince pies and high living have taken their toll and now comes the gritting of the teeth and the resolve to do it properly this time and see the results in a return to the vigour of youth – dream on!

It was a pack-out in the men’s changing room of the Markievicz Baths which are located behind the church premises at Grace. No better place to study the changing men’s fashions. Gone are the body piercing for metal regalia of recent years and in is the art work of multiple tattoos of figures and designs.

In the past people were content with the odd tattoo illustrating some fantasy now the drawings are “wall to wall”!

Previously it was torso only but arms and legs have been enlisted to make multiple statements. To heighten the dramatic effect colour has been added so that the old fire breathing dragon, so cherished by yesterday’s hard men, now really breathes fire. Red flames leap across the chest impervious to the tepid waters of the swimming pool.

In what must be the quirkiest item I have seen was the bloke next to me in the changing room who had a line of music (without the words) written across his back. This stood out over against his more usual display of knights in armour so I had to ask what caused this lapse in the macho image. Apparently the guy is a fan of Robbie Williams and had dedicated a place on his back to a line in one of his songs. To my regret I didn’t find out which song it was and was left wondering if it could have been the recent addition to his repertoire called “Losers”?!

The Bible does not have much to say about decorating our body but what it does say is to the point, “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord” Leviticus chapter 19 verse 28. Apparently these were practices performed by pagan peoples when mourning for their dead. God’s people, Israel, were to be different and so it is for Christians today.

When a person turns from their sins and commits their life to Christ they bring with them the marks of the old life. Some of the more visible are the tattoos which will not wash off. These now become reminders of the past and, in their own way, part of the testimony to the difference Christ has made.

The good news is that losers can become winners when they put their faith in the death of Christ. As St John put it, “they have conquered him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” Revelation chapter 12 verse 11. It’s the blood (i.e. the death) of Jesus Christ that makes it possible for sinners to get right with God.

So whatever resolutions we make for the New Year remember it’s not our trying to change but our trusting in Christ to change us that will make the difference. And if you are serious about trusting him you will read his word and meet with his people.

A Blessed New Year to one and all.

We have just finished singing “And the bells rang out for Christmas Day” as part of the refrain in the ballad “Fairytale of New York” to be confronted with the midnight bells on 31^st December ringing in the New Year!

The first carillon heralded the good news of the birth of the Christ child and the second proclaims our ever optimistic assumption that next year will be better than the last one.

It is traditional in most cities for people to gather in the main square or outside the Town Hall to welcome the New Year but in Dublin the tradition is to gather at Christ Church Cathedral. This building, which dates back to 1169, is built on the site of a previous wooden church on a height above the original Viking settlement on the river Liffey. Its Gothic naves span a 12^th century crypt – said to be the largest in these Islands. It will be used this year to host a reception following a New Year’s Eve Concert in the Cathedral. The bells will be rung during the countdown to midnight when revellers congregate in the Cathedral precincts.

There have been many additions to the original bell over the centuries some of them being recast from canon. The most recent addition was in 1999 when an additional seven bells were added to the ring, giving a grand total of 19 bells, a world record for bells rung this way.

Robert Burns’ poem Auld Lang Syne set to music is frequently sung at midnight although the correct words are seldom heard! Even if they were heard it is unlikely that they would be understood as the Border Scots of Burns’ day is not well known even in Scotland.

It is a drinking song which has endured because it strikes a chord of enduring friendship. It envisages friends meeting after many years and reminiscing about their youth which is still vivid despite the long separation when they went their separate ways. Now having met the hearty handshake and the drink awaken the memories and renew the friendship.

Christians today are often characterised by the warm handshake and fellowship based on a shared experience of Christ. It is not unusual for them to adopt a Bible text for the New Year rather than make resolutions which seldom last very long. The text is based, neither on optimism nor on the warmth of Christian fellowship but on the certainty that “Christ died for me”. He substituted his perfect life for me – the sinner. He rose from the dead ensuring that those who trust him will rise to be with him forever.

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” St John Chapter 3 verse 16.

Receive it, believe it, adopt it as your life text for this year but above all trust the One it refers to – He will not leave you as an orphan but adopt you as a son or daughter for 2013 and all the other years you remain here on earth.

Annually on the morning of 21^st December crowds gather at this megalithic monument in Co Meath to witness the sunrise on the shortest day of the year.

This year the crowds were larger than ever but the sun didn’t turn up. In fact as one little girl reported “this is the 4^th year we have had no sun!”

The sun is, of course, the main player in the drama. Its appearance as it rises over the neighbouring hill sends a shaft of light, through the roof-box, directly above the entrance and down the 19 metre passage to illuminate the 3 burial chambers.

This meeting of the celestial with the terrestrial would have worked perfectly 5,000 years ago but, with the earth now tilted 10 degrees the shaft of light (when the sun shines) doesn’t make it to the chambers but hits the passage floor.

The Department of Works have taken cognisance of our weather and the earth’s tilt and thoughtfully installed electric lights. These do the job of enabling the worshippers to see where they are going but lack something of the spiritual content provided by the sunbeams!

Many archaeologists believe that the monument was used as a place of worship for a “cult of the dead” or for an astronomically based faith.  It is clear that the monument is build around the sun enabling its penetration of the earth and illuminating its darkest place on the pivotal day of the year.

Assuming their weather was similar to ours there must have been a lot of frustrated worshippers in megalithic times!

What light can the Bible throw on these matters?

Isaiah the prophet has written regarding Jesus, “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (chapter 49 verse 6) and St John had no doubt that with the coming of Jesus this was being fulfilled, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world (chapter 1 verse 9).

We are attracted to the light, that is, unless we have something to hide. A little light would suffice us, once a year, to dispel a bit of darkness as St John wryly remarked, “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil (chapter 3 verse 19).

The good news is that God has penetrated this world not on a sunbeam but in Jesus. He came to give life to the spiritually dead which is our natural state. He rescues us by introducing us to the light and granting us sight. As St Paul put it, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 4-6).

As we celebrate the coming of the Christ child let us open our hearts to receive His Spirit that He may come to us and fill our lives with His light.