You may have heard the story of two friends who met for dinner in a restaurant. Each requested a filet of sole, and after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish, a large and a small one, were on the same platter. One of the men proceeded to serve his friend. Placing the small piece on a plate, he handed it across the table. "Well, you certainly do have nerve!" exclaimed his friend. "What's troubling you?" asked the other. "Look what you've done," he answered. "You've given me the little piece and kept the big one for yourself." "How would you have done it?" the man with the bigger piece asked. His friend replied, "If I were serving, I would have given you the big piece." "Well," replied the man, "I've got it, haven't I?"

Looking after ourselves is certainly something we need to do, but there is always a line we cross where we move from looking after ourselves to being self-centered. Phrases like, "charity begins at home", which are thought to be in scripture are not found in the Bible, in fact, its message is quite the opposite. Jesus says, "Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." (John 12:25) Hate here, should be translated, "love less", that is "… those who 'love less' their life in this world will keep it for eternal life" That may or may not make it an easier pill to swallow, but the translation is more accurate.

This way of thinking about life gives us life, selfcenteredness ends up destroying a person. I want to talk about moving from being self-centered to thinking outside ourselves at this Eastertide.

A few weeks ago my family and I went away for the March break and went skiing at Mont Tremblant, a couple of hours north of Montreal. A number of strange and unfortunate events happened while we were there. As some of you may know, the actress, Natasha Richardson was skiing there. My wife, Elizabeth, saw her get on the lift in front of us the day she fell and hit head which subsequently led to her tragic death. While we were on our ski trip a mother and daughter died in a accident on Lake Rosseau in Mukoska and although we didn't know them, the accident occurred directly in front of my mother's property. I have no idea if these events had anything to do with another event that occurred that week, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did. While going up the ski lift in the middle of that tumultuous week, Elizabeth and I started up a conversation with another man. He was a physician from Ottawa and when he learned that I was a Priest he asked if he could ask me a question. I responded yes, to which he asked, how do you talk with God? I said it

was a huge question and decided this was not the time for a petty response. I was under pressure as he seemed to be very interested in my answer as was Elizabeth.

My answer to his question probably surprised

me as much as it

may have him. I didn't start with, "the answer is prayer", I ended with it. I began by saying that we need to begin by thinking outside ourselves. I continued saying that there is certainly a lot of self-centeredness out in the world today, to which he agreed. I said that we may start with thinking about ourselves, having discussions with ourselves, talking to ourselves about what is going on in our lives. Sometimes, people catch us doing this and wonder if we are all there. It's quite normal and a good way to catch up with oneself.

But when we move beyond thinking about ourselves we move into another realm. We may think of loved ones, those we know, we may think about things that won't even affect us and this removes the focus on us and takes us outside ourselves.

Thinking becomes praying when we ask for God's help. When God enters our thoughts it becomes prayer and we begin a conversation with God. The skier thanked me and we went on our way to the next run.

Prayers can take the form of thanksgiving for what God has done and petitions relating to what God will do. Jesus, when asked how to pray, gave us the Lord's prayer, of which there are two versions, one in Luke and one in Matthew - we use the one from Matthew (Matthew 6:9-13). The prayer is short and to the point, something I wish some of my fellow Christians would remember. At St. Mark's we have a place, like many churches, in addition to the pews where people can come and think, meditate and pray. Our Celtic Prayer Cell is there for all before or after the service or during other days of the week to reflect on God's kingdom and our call to share the good news.

When we think outside ourselves, I believe, that that inevitably leads to prayer. When we move beyond thinking we can do it alone, that leads to prayer.

When we give thanks to God for what God has done in Christ on the cross, done in our lives and done in the world, we move outside ourselves into God's realm, God's kingdom, and to that we can say, Thanks be to God.

Happy Easter to all.