“keep following your hopes & dreams. But be careful about one temptation that can hold us back. It is anxiety. Anxiety can work against us by making us give up whenever we do not see instant results. Our best dreams are only attained through hope, patience & commitment, & not in haste. At the same time, we should not be hesitant, afraid to take chances or make mistakes. Avoid the paralysis of the living dead, who have no life because they are afraid to take risks, to make mistakes or not to persevere in their commitments. Even if you make mistakes, you can always get up & start again, for no one has the right to rob you of hope.
Dear young people, make the most of these years of your youth. Don’t observe life from a balcony. Don’t confuse happiness with an armchair, or life your life behind a screen. Whatever you do, do not become the sorry sight of an abandoned vehicle !  Don’t be parked cars, but dream freely & make good decisions. Take risks, even if it means making  mistakes. Don’t go through life anaesthetised or approach the world like tourists.  Make a rucksack !  Cast out the fears that paralyse you, so that you don’t become young mummies. Live! Give yourselves over to the best of life!  Open the door of the cage, go out & fly! Please don’t take early retirement. 
During the Synod [2018 “young people, the faith, & vocational discernment”] one of the young auditors from the Samoan Islands spoke of the Church as a canoe, in which the elderly help to keep on course by judging the positon of the stars, which the young keep rowing, imagining what waits for them ahead. Let us steer clear of young people who think that adults represent a meaningless past, & those adults who always think they know how young people should act. Instead, let us all climb aboard the same canoe & together seek a better world, with the constantly renewed momentum of the Holy Spirit.!                                                                                                                             (“Christus Vivit” by Pope Francis)
  
Please pray for two of our stalwart disciples;
 
Clare Jennings. The time has come, in spite of wonderful home-care by many in recent months, for Clare to have more specialist care, & she is to be moved to Nazareth House in Hammersmith London, probably in the next two weeks. She has been, & I am sure she will remain, a tremendous inspiration to many of us, in the positive & cheerful way she has faced her illness, & become a reservoir of prayerful & loving support for those whose stories she has heard & adopted.
Do make a visit if you can, & please keep the visits brief to ensure others have an opportunity, & we don’t overtire Clare.
Please keep her & Jenifer much in your prayers.
 
Marie Podgorski suffered a number of minor falls in her bungalow some weeks ago, & after some time for assessment in St Monica’s in Easingwold, she was moved to Oak Trees Care Home in Alne, where she has settled well & she has 24hr nursing care. She is to remain there now; we have missed her in recent times from our 10am Sunday Mass, when she came on her motorised buggy, & we will miss her interested presence in St Benedict’s Close, where she could see so much of  the Village moving to & fro. She would welcome visitors to Oak Trees.
I take her Communion each Sunday afternoon, & last week on my way out, I shared the lift with an elderly lady whose husband is resident in the Home.“how long have you been here?” she asked me “maybe half an hour” I said. With a look of some concern she said “I hope you settle in soon”!  
                                                                                                                                           With my love & prayers, Fr Bede. ​