Seeker

O Lord Jesus, because, being full of foolishness, we often sin and have to ask pardon, help us to forgive as we would be forgiven; neither mentioning old offences committed against us, nor dwelling upon them in thought, nor being influenced by them in heart; but loving our sisters and brothers freely, as you freely loved us. For your name's sake. Amen. Adapted by me from a prayer by Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894) Image Credit: Pixaby, CCO License, Public Domain

Advent begins today, the 1st Sunday of Advent. Much has been spoken and written about what Advent (4 week season before Christmas) is about. One of its aspects is preparation for an expected coming, the coming of Christ, past present and future. A few years ago, I attended an Advent retreat during which the retreat leader quoted these words from a prayer by a New Guinea Christian. "At Advent we should try the key to our heart's door. It may have gathered rust. If so, this is the time to oil it, in order that the heart's door may open more easily when the Lord Jesus wants to enter at Christmas time! Lord, oil the hinges of our heart's doors that they may swing gently and easily to welcome your coming." from The Lion Prayer Collection, Lion Books 1992, p. 321 Image Credit: Colinfoo, Pixabay Licence

Here is a prayer I love. I should pray it more often. It is appropriate to pray at any stage of life, in any circumstances. The first 2 lines seem particularly appropriate just now with all the fear and anxiety around due to the current rapid spread in the UK of Covid-19. I do not know the author. If you do, please tell me. Free me   from all fear of the future,  from all anxiety about tomorrow,  from all bitterness towards anyone,  from all cowardice in the face of danger,  from all laziness in the face of work,  from all weakness when your power is at hand.  Fill me   with love that knows no barrier,  with sympathy that reaches to all,  with courage that cannot be shaken,  with faith strong enough for the darkness,  with strength sufficient for my tasks,  with loyalty to your kingdom's goals,  with wisdom to meet life's complexities,  with power to lift my eyes up to You! Image Credit: John Hain on Pixabay, Pub...

As far as I can remember, today is the first Remembrance Sunday when I have not attended a Remembrance service in church or an Act of Remembrance at a war memorial. I hated such events when I was a child and completely failed to understand why they seemed so important to my parents, grandparents and their generations. As a teenager I was highly critical of the way that Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day events appeared to glorify war - or so it seemed to me. I was wrong. Since then I have begun to understand why it is so important to remember both lives lost in war and those who survive. It is important to honour both the dead and the living. It is important to remember the worst people do to each other, the best people do for each other, the courage and selflessness shown in war as well as the pain, fear and brutality. It is important to acknowledge our human failure to live together in peace as diverse children of one God. It is important to remember in order to strengthen the comm...

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...

This morning I had to go on an unplanned journey, following an unplanned breakage of our shower unit. I really did not want to go, but I did want people to be able to shower over Christmas, so going to buy the necessary replacement parts was a must. My husband has now skilfully done the work necessary, for which I am grateful. Today's Advent word on the 20th day in the Advent Calendar I am following is 'go'. As time is limited today, I am reposting below, some thoughts on the word 'go' that I first posted in Advent last year in a post called #go. The word 'go' got me thinking about the last journey we each have to make, that is death. 'Go' also reminds me of the many ways we need to 'let go' in life, sometimes to let go of things, attitudes or habits, in order to make room for something better. The final letting 'go' is the letting go of life as we go into death. For Christians, that final letting go into death, is in the '...

The word 'bless' - today's word in the Advent Calendar I am following this year, sound such a comforting word. Yes, to bless someone, does show good intentions, even if it's just to say 'bless you' when someone sneezes. At the very least, it shows someone has noticed your problem. These last days of Advent bring a mixture of blessings and woes. We want and are encouraged to experience all the joyful aspects of the Christmas season. There's nothing wrong with that, unless in so doing, we stop noticing the problems in and around us, or worse still, stop caring. Can some of us too easily avoid uncomfortable Advent themes by focusing exclusively on the feel-good factors of Christmas? We are still in the Advent season. One of Advent's major themes is the challenge to make way for the Lord of justice, truth, peace, love and grace to come among us. So today I am posting again a most uncomfortable prayer for God to bless us.  I do not know its origin. Th...

Last year, in a post entitled All Souls Day I asked whether Christians should pray for the dead or simply remember them with thanksgiving? My answer was that for those who pray and who have lost those they have loved, it is natural to hold loved ones in our hearts before God. I remember them with thanksgiving and trust them to God. You can read the whole post here . Around this time of year many churches hold special services to commemorate those who have died. This can be especially helpful for those who have been bereaved in recent months or years. There is something about coming together with others in the presence of God to light a candle, remember and give thanks that can give hope as we learn to live with the lonely process of grief. The prayer below is a prayer of remembrance, particularly for those who have died in the faith of Christ. I think it can be used for anyone who has died. None of us knows the depths of another's heart and we cannot plumb the depths of ...

Eternal Trinity, you are a deep sea, into which the more we enter the more we find, and the more we find the more we seek. The soul ever hungers in your abyss, longing to see you with the light of your light and, as the deer yearns for the springs of water, so our souls yearn to see you in truth. Amen Catherine of Sienna Image Credit: Philip Barrington on Pixabay, CC License

#Rough is the #AdventWord2018 for this 11th day of Advent. The word 'rough' reminds me of rough roads like the one in this photo. 'Rough' makes me think of hard times, desperate situations. 'Rough' also makes me think of the Advent theme of preparing a way for Christ. That preparation is about making rough places smooth, challenging injustice and oppression. That preparation work is in itself a rough and difficult task, not at all comfortable and often dangerous as John the Baptist knew to his cost.  So, here for the 12th day of Advent and thinking of that rough and challenging work is an uncomfortable blessing:  May God bless us with a restless discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that we may seek truth boldly and love deep within our heart. May God bless us with holy anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that we may tirelessly work for justice, freedom and peace among all people. May God bless ...

For the 9th day of #AdventWord 2018, my response to today's word #cry  is a prayer from the Bible. "Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you. do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call." Psalm 102: 1 - 2 (NRSV) And here is another version of that same prayer, set to music by the French composer Jacques Berthier (1923 - 1994). It is a sung prayer from the Taizé community in France . In this short video by Maureen Ward the prayer is accompanied by some lovely peaceful images. If you do not feel the need to pray this for yourself, perhaps you could pray it for someone else who cries today and is in need. Image Credit: Pixabay, CCO License

One Advent theme is finding light in darkness, hope in despair. Today's word for reflection on this 4th day of Advent in the #AdventWord2018 online calendar is #night. In the Northern hemisphere, the Advent season falls at a dark time of year, with short days and long nights.  The long #night of winter d arkness affects us physiologically and emotionally. Darkness can also be a metaphor for hopelessness, for oppression, for feeling lost and seeing no way out whatever pit we find ourselves in. Light is essential for human life. No wonder we like to light candles in the darkness. No wonder we want to light up the #night. One reason to observe Advent, rather than rushing too quickly to decorate our homes and public spaces with Christmas lights, is that where there is darkness, we need to name it. We need to get real about whatever darkness we face within and around us. We need to acknowledge the mess we are in. We can best welcome light when through the #night we have been long...

During Advent, I am using #AdventWord2018 to stimulate reflection on Advent themes and share this with others on social media. On this 1st day of Advent today's word is #Journey. Journey is a word often used as a metaphor for life. Journey is also used to describe the dynamic nature of the Christian life, a life to be lived on the move with Christ. A Christian's #journey is one that has to start again each new day. It starts from the place where we are now, as the person we are now. Sometimes the route of the journey is unclear. Sometimes we take wrong turnings and need to retrace our steps to find the way. The destination of the Christian journey is life in all its fullness, the eternal life that Jesus promised and Jesus is both the Way and the Companion on the journey. John Birch has written a number of prayers exploring the Christian's daily walk with Christ. Here is one of his that I find helpful when the journey seems hard: "In my journeying with you, m...

11 November 2018 marks 100 years since the guns fell silent at the end of World War 1. Like many others I took part in a Remembrance Service and Commemoration this morning, as I have done every year since childhood. And every year it gets harder. We, the human race, are wounded by war even when it does not destroy us. We create those wounds because, in our sinfulness, we have not learned how to live in peace with each other. And it continues to be the case that war is for some a very profitable business. Sometimes it seems all we can do is to lament. The sonnet 'The Wound in Time' by the British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy was written for Remembrance Day 2018, to be read aloud on beaches around the UK and the Republic of Ireland, in recognition that most of those who served in our armed forces in WW1 and WW2 left by sea and many never returned. Those attending the beach events were asked to draw silhouettes of people in the sand at low tide, knowing those would be washed aw...

Should Christians pray for the dead? Or simply remember them with thanksgiving? In the Church of England the 16th century, reformers made no provision for the observance of All Souls Day (2 November) in the Book of Common Prayer. That was because of its association with abuses of that time, relating to praying for the dead and paying for masses to be said to ease the departed through purgatory, or paying for divine pardons. Number 22 of the 39 Articles (1562)is strongly worded: "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and ground upon no warranty of scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God." Having been brought up in a Reformed Protestant tradition, I was taught that praying for the dead was wrong, but always right to pray for the living. I was critical of Catholic friends who prayed for someone after they had died. In my...

Although I was nowhere near the sea on that evening of 18 June 1994, images of water and sea filled my mind. I suppose I was standing on the edge of something that frightened me, rather like a child not daring to leave the wet sand on the sea shore and paddle into deeper water. A naturally cautious person, I can be risk-averse. I was staying in a convent on an individual silent retreat weekend. I had booked in for the retreat to create space at a time when I was feeling stressed for several reasons. I was also wrestling with the horrible suspicion that God might be calling me to ordination as a priest in the Church of England. I was resisting the idea. No, I did not want to be ordained. That was for other people, definitely not me. During the weekend I read a book I found on a convent shelf. This was 'Pray as you can: discovering your own prayer ways' by Jean Gill, Ave Maria Press 1989. These words on page 15 challenged me: "All of us are surrounded by God; i...

Yesterday in my post for Ascension Day I linked to the prayer initiative 'Thy Kingdom Come' . 'Thy Kingdom Come' is an international and ecumenical call to prayer, for Christians to join together in the 10 days from Ascension Day to Pentecost to pray for more people to come to know Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who taught his followers to pray 'Thy Kingdom come'. When we pray that prayer we are asking for God's rule of love, justice and peace to be made as real on earth as it is in heaven. It is not something we can pray regularly without seeing that changes need to be made, not only in the world 'out there' or in 'those people', but changes in ourselves as followers of Jesus. One of the reasons we may find it hard to pray, or may avoid prayer, is our unwillingness to allow God to transform us to become more like Jesus, whose life on earth so perfectly embodied the values of God's kingdom. If you don't know what those values are...

Ascension Day often passes unnoticed, even by many Christians. It falls on the Thursday of the 6th week of the Easter season, 10 days before Pentecost Sunday. Like Easter it is a move-able feast and lacks the commercial reminders that alert people to the date of Easter Sunday.  Ascension Day recalls the last of the resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples. So it could be seen as an ending. But as with most endings it also marks a beginning. The stained glass image at the head of this post shows the disciples, including Jesus' mother Mary looking up after Jesus disappeared from their sight. They could not stay there. They had to return from the quiet place to the bustle of the city where they did indeed find him to be still with them, but in a new way. Ascension Day celebrates not the absence of Jesus but his presence, no longer confined to time, space or a particular locality of ancient Palestine. Jesus is present and potentially available by his Holy...