Seeker

Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday.  Many Christians take part in an Ash Wednesday service. For some, an Ash Wednesday service includes receiving the sign of the cross on the forehead or hand, drawn with ash mixed with oil.  The words that are said to each recipient as the cross is drawn are something like this: "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.    Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ." 'Remember you are dust...' is a stark reminder of our mortality and imperfections. It is an acknowledgement that we are human, not immortal and not perfect. It reminds us we are made of the same basic stuff as planet earth - our home. We receive the ash-drawn cross as a sign of repentance for the evil we humans have done and the good we humans have not done. Repentance is not only feeling sorry about sin. Acknowledging and lamenting sin is the start of a process. The process of repentance involves turning round, changing our attitude towards God and...

27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day. This year 2020 also marks the 75th anniversay of the the liberation in 1945, by the Soviet army, of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The theme of the Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 is 'stand together'. Nearly 14 years ago I stood in front of a museum case in Poland containing beautiful hand-stitched baby garments. I was a visitor in the museum site of Auschwitz-Birkenau . I stood and wept. Some mother or grandmother had lovingly prepared those garments for a child who probably never lived to grow out of them or may never have worn them. Were they confiscated when a carefully packed suitcase was emptied on arrival at the death camp. So much hope for the baby's future must have gone into those stitches. Were those loving stitches wasted when the hope for that particular child died? Maybe not. As a mother and grandmother, as I stood by that display I felt for a few moments that I was the mother or grandmother of that baby f...

It's 25 January, the birthday (in 1759) of the Scottish poet Robert Burns . All over the world, people of Scottish descent and others who get drawn in to Burns Night celebrations, will this evening be eating haggis. Ours will be a low key celebration for just 2 people, but we have haggis. What else could we eat on Burns Night? It will be a traditional Scottish haggis and comes from a manufacturer based in an area of Scotland where some of my forbearers were farmers of sheep and growers of oats, 'neeps' and 'tatties'. The basic haggis recipe is the minced heart, lungs and liver of a sheep, seasoned and mixed with oatmeal, stuffed into a sheep's stomach lining and boiled. It is traditionally served with mashed root vegetables like potatoes and swedes/turnips. Haggis is one of those foods that tastes much better than it looks. However elaborately it is sometimes presented, a stuffed sheep's stomach just looks revolting to my mind. It does seem strange t...