ST John's Parish on the Falls Road has published an insightful video series where people from the area and beyond have shared their stories in a bid to help others maintain or regain inner peace.
July 29 saw the Feast Day of the siblings saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus. And in reflecting on one of their stories from the gospel, Father Martin Magill decided to ask the community how they find peace of mind.
The story tells how Martha finds herself upset at her sister's unwillingness to help her with house work. Jesus responds to Martha saying, "Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things".
In keeping with the theme of the story, St John's Parish on the Falls Road has published a 10-video series where people share their tips for regaining inner peace in times of worry.
The participants talk about everything from stress, mental ill-health, and serious illness, and tell how they managed to cope in difficult circumstances.
Amongst those sharing their stories is Margaret Stewart, a young Belfast woman who was diagnosed with a tumour in her spinal chord and was faced with the challenge of learning to walk again.
Commenting on the initiative, Father Magill said: "I decided to put a post up on Facebook about inner peace and how many of us can get caught up in a spin of worry, anxiety and fretting.
"I was just sort of asking people for their thought on what they find helpful for inner peace. Within two hours I had over 200 responses, and that told me something. I just found some of them very interesting.
"I looked through them and asked 10 people if they were prepared to record. Originally I thought they could do 30 seconds each, which would give a five minute video, but when I went into some of their stories I realised there was no way we could to it in 30 seconds. One of our volunteers, Maria Rosa, suggested releasing 10 separate videos, so that's what we did."
He continued: "One of the things that struck me was that no one size fits. There may be people who were brought up in a particular faith, Catholic or otherwise, and have maybe moved away from that at this particular moment in their lives, but my hope would be that in listening to others they might find inner peace."
