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We need God's help to conquer our fears. It can seem as though a troubled person is in an 'isolation cell', separating himself from ordinary society by his troubles. Yet when the worst problems are solved, but he refuses to attend to ordinary human interactions, it's as if a prison door has opened, but he refuses to come out.

Whether people are atheists or God-fearers, they suffer. There is so much suffering in earthly life that we are tempted to complain; but if we were to load all our pains and problems onto a large lorry, to send them away, we would soon have another collection. What counts is to live a good life here on earth, even with suffering. We can please Christ when we resemble Him in patience and obedience, in union with Him, and interceding for others. We give glory to God, grow in virtue, and prepare for Heaven.

The love of God is like a great flame that encloses all who trust in Christ. By our Baptism, we are made members of the Church and children of God. We already share in the life of God, and can be confident that our prayers are heard, and confident that, if we do not leave that state of grace, we will be carried across the Abyss when we die, to be brought towards Heaven: carried in the love of God, with no fear of being lost.

The evil one is at work, to plant weeds on our path: to spoil our hopes and plans by his malicious acts and deceits, all in order to make us lose trust in God, or to grow fearful. But God is powerful, like a gardener who, with one movement of His foot can crush the poisonous weeds and then clear the pathway.

People urge us to live in fear of global warming or disease, and expect us to make huge sacrifices for their causes. Yet if Christians urge people to change the sinful behaviour that plainly damages their lives, their families, and society, they are accused of not respecting the freedom and diversity of their fellow creatures!

Christian women who live and work in the world need not fear they are sinful if they take care of their appearance, and try to look attractive for their husbands. Sensible decisions about clothing and hair care are necessary; it is only vanity and extravagance that are unworthy of people bound for Heaven.

People endanger their souls by their involvement in the occult, in any of its forms, which include spiritualism, with its attempts to speak with or to 'call up' the spirits of the dead. To take part is to risk evil spirits entering the souls of the curious. Yet anyone who grows fearful should know that Christ's power is greater that the power of any creature - whether demonic or human.

We must not hold on to a slavish fear of God. The second Person of the Blessed Trinity took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be made man, able to suffer and die in earthly life, to save sinners. The gentle love in the heart of that Divine infant is the tender love at the heart of the Trinity.

God is pleased to see people welcome children, to see the love for life in the hearts of many people on earth; He is also pleased to see that some of the faithful even have a 'love for death', in the sense that they have banished their fears, by His grace, and even long to go through death, as through a doorway, in order to meet the Lord, when He calls them 'home'.

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'!

No mother should fear for the future of her departed baby. God the Father loves every person He has created, including the very tiny and innocent infants who die unbaptised because they died through abortion, or miscarriage, or after birth but before Baptism could be administered - or when it was denied them by unbelieving parents. He cannot allow the innocent to suffer after death, for He is just; and so in some way they live eternally in His loving care: as if having fallen at death into a comfortable nursery cot.

None of us need fear that God is powerless to help us withstand the assaults of the evil one. Christ on the Cross seemed to be weak; yet He was powerful enough to rise from the dead; and so He is certainly powerful enough to enable us to endure the assaults and temptations that come to us through the evil one. We ought not to live in fear, but rather, to be confident that Christ will keep His promises.

All who do the Will of God will act justly. His Will has been made known fully through Jesus Christ Who was sent to us from Heaven. If we disobey the laws of God and the will of Christ in attempts to promote what we call 'justice' we in fact promote things that are unwise or unjust, even if doing so through ignorance or fear, for example, trying to cure poverty by offering abortions.

God knows all our needs, fears, hopes and joys. God asks us to live in a beautiful relationship with Him, now that we have been reconciled. He asks us to entrust ourselves to Jesus as comfortably as a tiny child entrusts itself to a good mother, never doubting that she is there to feed, console, hold and nurture him.

Many people inhabit houses which were once a safe distance from the sea; but nearby cliffs have eroded, and the houses are in imminent danger of collapse. This plight mirrors the state of spiritual danger of Catholics who neglect the sacraments and rarely or never pray, and have not repented of their sins. God invites them to act, to find safety, to be freed from fear and danger. Unless they heed Him, they will fall, not into the sea but into the Abyss, for all Eternity.

We must encourage one another really to believe in Jesus Christ. If I am one of those fearful Catholics who constantly feels trapped between the memory of my sins, which we feel will bring us to Hell, and the assaults or temptations of the evil one - like a roaring beast, trying to devour us - I should look away from myself, upwards, to Jesus. If we call on Him, He is powerful enough to help us. But, to call, we first need faith in Him.

It is as if they are choosing to dive into darkness, whenever Catholics decide to ignore the teaching of the Church and follow a way of life always regarded by Christians with horror - involving unchastity, contraceptive use, divorce and attempted re-marriage, combined with a failure to hand on the Faith in its entirety to the children they do have. To ignore the Church's teaching is to ignore Christ, Who guides her by His Spirit - although Christ sees that some people are not entirely blameworthy, perhaps because of fear or ignorance.

As a person in a story found herself trapped in a tiny room, we can become trapped, hiding away from God not in sin, but in fear and lack of confidence. It's as if we have fallen by fear or carelessness into a state of inactivity. Our prayers are infrequent and fruitless because we don't want to hear what He has to say, in case He asks us to take risks, in His service.

If we decide, by God's grace, to leave our hiding-places, where we were nearly paralysed by fear at the thought of doing God's risky work, that requires sacrifices, we must perhaps emerge backwards from our hiding-places, in a posture of humility. Then, free from remorse, fear, and all that bound us, we can stand upright, breathe deeply, and find joy in living in the light as confident children of God.