Volunteer Spotlight – January 2022

Volunteer Spotlight – January 2022

As humans we have no choice other than to answer the question: is there a creator or not? For me the answer has always been ‘yes’ and that Jesus brings completion to this answer. My faith changes how I understand myself and how I understand and relate to others. Our lives in all ways and times, become a participation in the Creator’s work.

I’m a member of St Philip Howard’s parish in Cambridge. I love that it is an international community. Another important part of church for me, lies beyond parish life in a small interfaith group that I meet every couple of weeks to share a meal and discussion. Currently we are made up of Christians and a Muslim. This commitment over a few years, has resulted in friendships across denominations and religions, that I wouldn’t have experienced otherwise. Although I love a silent Catholic church empty of people, or prayer before an icon, the encounter with others has always been where I most experience the presence of God.

I’ve lived long enough to have had many times when my faith has been important. One that comes to mind happened in 1998. Two years before, I’d been run down by a careless driver and suffered a serious injury. At a mass over Easter in 1998, I noticed that Jesus had spoken the words  ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do’ and that if he hadn’t said these words out loud, so that we could hear them, we would not have known that we were forgiven; that to be forgiven requires some kind of communication between the person who forgives and the one who is forgiven. At the time of the accident, the careless driver had asked to see me in hospital, but I had asked the nurses to let him know I bore him no ill will, but other than that I didn’t want to see him again. However, after this mass the driver came to mind. Although I had forgiven him, I realised he hadn’t heard me say so. I decided to contact him via the policeman who had attended the accident, and in the end we spoke. Forgiveness in the mundanity of normal family and work life is in so many ways, more difficult than a one-off encounter like this, but on this occasion, my faith in the gospel led to an encounter that was a moment of grace shared between the policeman, the driver and me.

I came to volunteer for Radio Maria because Fr. Andreas came to our parish for a few weeks He told us that he had come from Austria to grow Radio Maria in England. His coming here reminded me of how the ancient missionary saints criss-crossed Europe over hundreds of years to bring Christianity to our lands or to sustain it through the rough times. As a listener and volunteer, I have experienced the community of Radio Maria as a mission that follows in this tradition. I’ve told friends and family about it, and it’s been especially touching to hear the voices of people I know in Liverpool where I grew up, ring into some of the programmes.

If you would like to volunteer with Radio Maria, please email Volunteers@RadioMariaEngland.uk. We would love to meet you!