Seeker

In the light of the spread of Coronavirus - Covid19 we are being reminded of the importance of frequent and thorough hand-washing with soap and water. We are also being told by health advisors and others that it needs to be done for more than a cursory couple of seconds. Some suggest singing the song 'Happy Birthday' twice to ensure a minumum of 20 seconds. I have found that even done silently this feels rather silly, especially if I'm not celebrating anyone's birthday at the time. As I believe that regular prayer is as important as regular hand-washing, this Lent I have decided to use a set prayer while I wash my hands. The Lord's Prayer takes about 20 seconds to say and longer in a sung version. So praying the Lord's Prayer is what I'm now practising while washing my hands with hot water and soap, or while using 60% alcohol hand-sanitiser. It's already feeling a lot less silly than singing happy birthday. How about you? Do you have an alternati...

Today's Advent Word in the Advent calendar I am following is 'pray'. In response, I am quoting something I published on this blog in August 2016, in the post ' How to pray when you don't know how'. "Even when I want to pray, I sometimes feel I don't know how. Faced with disasters on a grand scale, or the smaller but just as painful griefs we all encounter at some time, there don't seem to be the right words. That doesn't matter. Prayer is about the focus of the heart, not the babbling of the mouth. Jesus taught that when we pray we shouldn't keep on babbling in the hope that God will hear because of the repetition of many words. When Jesus' disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he gave a framework or pattern for prayer which Christians call 'The Lord's Prayer'.  There are two versions of the Lord's Prayer in the gospels, one in  Matthew's gospel  and one in  Luke's gospel . Here's the Matt...

Even when I want to pray, I sometimes feel I don't know how. Faced with disasters on a grand scale, or the smaller but just as painful griefs we all encounter at some time, there don't seem to be the right words. That doesn't matter. Prayer is about the focus of the heart, not the babbling of the mouth. Jesus taught that when we pray we shouldn't keep on babbling in the hope that God will hear because of the repetition of many words. When Jesus' disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he gave a framework or pattern for prayer which Christians call 'The Lord's Prayer'.  There are two versions of the Lord's Prayer in the gospels, one in Matthew's gospel  and one in Luke's gospel . Here's the Matthew version, from the New Revised Standard Version: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our deb...

Notre Père qui es aux cieux, que ton nom soit sanctifié, que ton règne vienne, que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel. Donne-nous aujourd’hui notre pain de ce jour. Pardonne-nous nos offenses, comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés. Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation, mais délivre-nous du Mal. (Car c’est à toi qu’appartiennent, le règne, la puissance et la gloire, pour les siècles des siècles.) Amen You can find my initial reaction to attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015 in yesterday's post . Image Credit: Flickr, CC License

I've recently been on holiday in Austria. One of the things I enjoy in the Tyrol is the ' Lüftmalerei' - wall paintings applied to freshly applied plaster on house walls. You can also see this in Bavaria in Germany. Sometimes the wall-paintings take the form of false windows, as the one in this photo and the one below. They are on the outside of a baker's shop in Neustift in the Stubaital.  The words above the 'window' mean literally 'our daily bread give us today'. It is a quote from the Lord's Prayer and means 'give us what we need to live today'. We need basic nourishment for the body - bread or other staple food, fresh each day. We also need sustenance for the spirit. There are many ways in which people seek and find that - through art, music, beauty, prayer, sport, sex, love...the list could go on. Ultimately the deepest hungers are not easily satisfied. We tend to always want more. In thinking about the gospel reading for t...

Even when I want to pray, I often feel I don't know how. Faced with disasters on a grand scale, or the smaller but just as deeply painful griefs we all encounter at some time, there just don't seem to be the right words. That doesn't matter. Prayer is about the focus of the heart, not the babbling of the mouth. Jesus taught that when we pray we shouldn't keep on babbling in the hope that God will hear because of the repetition of many words. Instead, he said - pray like this - then gave a framework or pattern for prayer which Christians call 'The Lord's Prayer'.  There are two versions of the Lord's Prayer in the gospels, one in Matthew and one in Luke.  Here's the Matthew version, from the New Revised Standard Version: Our Father in heaven,  hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done,  on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts,  as we also ...