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If our souls are cluttered with sin and resentment when we receive Holy Communion there is little room for Christ

Christ gladly comes to us in prayer to help us unclutter our souls of sin and resentment. He wants us to trust him and not to worry.

Christ gladly comes to us in prayer to help us unclutter our souls of sin and resentment. He wants us to trust him and not to worry.

By seeing our daily life, in God's light, we see the 'layers' of praise, work, resentments, unforgiven sins, unremedied wrongs - like taking samples of core from the ground.

Some people begrudge having to look after sick relations. They even bang the dinner plates on the table. That's what it's like when we pray to God with resentment, or are angry about having to confess our sins.

People caught up in turmoil or tragedy react in various ways: The wise turn to God, and open their hearts to Him. Others cry out in anger or resentment, and increase their own distress.

The sick can exercise great spiritual power, with Christ. Those who resolve to be patient and to accept a special vocation can work for God and the Church, in and through their sufferings. By God's grace they can accept without resentment their pains and humiliations, as a penance for themselves and to help save other souls, in union with Christ Who won salvation for us by His patient love, in accepting the Cross.

Catholics who believe what the Church teaches and who pray with faith, invoke the Blessed Trinity, use Holy water, and ask the help of the Angels and Saints, are given powerful help to resist evil; and they help others, too, not to be swept away - as if by a waterfall - by the spiritual enemies who would drag us into fear, resentment and gloom.

Christ asks us to picture a peaceful home, and what it is like to enter where there are no loud disagreements or resentments or disobedience. The soul of a person who really loves Christ, welcomes Him with reverence, believes in His Church's teachings, and puts them into practice, is like a 'peaceful home' for Him, when He enters in Holy Communion.

The life we lead on earth must inevitably lead to either Heaven and Hell (even if to Heaven via Purgatory). Those who love Christ, and persevere in charity and purity in earthly life, will enjoy Eternal life in even greater charity and peace, with Christ. People who seethe with hatred, ambition or resentment, in this life, and persist in their selfish ambitions, will find themselves in Hell with others who are self-centered and lack love for Christ.

No-one ought to suppose that a person who kills himself is wise. In every life, there is some suffering. The way in which we respond to it reveals our character. Whether sick or well, rich or poor, we have free will. We can respond with recognition of what is good in our lives, even in difficulties, or we can give in to self-pity and resentment. All people - including suicides - are judged by God, at death: by God Who is both merciful and just, but who gave life as a gift, not to be carelessly thrown away. Suicide is a sin.

We help the whole Church by every good thought we have, every good deed we do, every humiliation or pain met with patience not resentment, and every prayer, and every act of humility or reverence; and the Church includes the Holy Souls in Purgatory, many of whom are released into Heaven - by the grace of Christ, because of the good we do.

Satan cannot bear to see Christ's faithful people happy and hopeful. When he cannot cause faithful people to break God's laws he stirs up discontent, or bouts of jealousy or anger, resentment and injured pride, to destroy the peace which is Christ's gift to His friends.

Even when we are sincere about our conversion, and we come into full Communion, determined to follow Christ and to grow in holiness, on the path to Heaven, we might still be laden with fears, bad habits, resentments or misapprehensions, from which Christ can gradually deliver us, if we surrender to Him more and more bravely, for love of Him. Near the journey's end, we might be carrying only a small 'handbag'!