I’m sure we are all justifiably proud of our Catholic Christian Faith and try to live a good life free from sin. But in our everyday lives, we put our faith in many different things. We have faith that the bus or train will arrive on time, that on our holidays the pilot has the necessary skill to take us to our destination and land the plane safely.

Then there are other types of faith;-

Hamish was a young man who lived up in the Scottish highlands and was really looking forward to celebrating his twenty first birthday party with all his friends and family. This was especially so, as both his mother and grandmother had both told him about an amazing family tradition going back for hundreds of years. It seems that his father, his grandfather and his great grandfather were all able to walk on the waters of the loch on the day of their twenty first birthdays, but at no other time. On this special day each of them had walked across the loch to the far side where they had enjoyed a glass of malt whisky before returning across the loch.

Hamish was really looking forward to carrying on the family tradition, so on the day of his twenty first birthday, getting up very early, the “birthday boy” made his way down the loch and walked along the small jetty carefully carrying his bottle of malt whisky. Feeling full of confidence, he stepped off the jetty and out onto the water and promptly sank to the bottom of the loch. He came to the surface, coughing and spluttering, minus his bottle of single malt whisky and swam towards the bank.

Furious, confused and dripping wet, he made his way to his grandmother’s cottage and asked her, “Tell me, why can’t I walk on water like my father and grandfather?” His grandmother replied with a smile, “Well it’s all a matter of birthday dates;- you see, your father, grandfather and great grandfather were all born in December, a time when the loch was all frozen over, unfortunately for you, your birthday happens to be in the middle of July”

Perhaps instead of faith, what the young man really needed was an accurate weather forecast!