Readings 23 February 2024 St Mary's Church
Opening Prayer
We remember how Jesus often used to spend time alone with his Father, in wild desert places – and we pray: Lord, help us today to enjoy the peace of wild things, to relax and rest as you rested, honouring your creation with our recreation, expressing our trust through rest, and in all we do, saying with you, ‘It is very good’. Amen Readings The Peace of Wild Things “When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. |
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives
with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me
the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
For a time -
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
Inspired by Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13
Wendell Berry from The Peace of Wild Things And Other Poems (Penguin, 2018)
Wild Things!
When I first knew about Wendell Berry’s book of poems – The Peace of Wild Things … the title itself caught not just my attention, but my imagination.
Around the same time, the worldwide Lectio 365 began to look at the Wildness of God (in all sorts of ways) … and, gradually, as I reflected … The Peace of Wild Things, and the Wildness of God seemed to weave together …. and the title of today’s Quiet Spaces was born.
How wonderful, I thought! Wild things - wildness - and freedom of spirit … something which God offers us – and we don’t always notice – it all seemed to just fit with one of the many ways of living and journeying through Lent.
Here at Quiet Spaces, we often touch on the notion of how different from each other we can be … the diversity we bring in personality, life circumstances – (now, and in the past) - in our spiritual lives - and in how we relate to God …
I wonder what Lent means to us? To each of us as individuals … maybe it changes from year to year?or perhaps we have formed a routine which we tend to keep to most years?… and, I am sure … there are many other ways we might keep Lent, in between.
Many of us see Lent as a journey … and, this year, we might have already decided on a pathway we would like to explore …
We know, both in our church communities and online, there are many, many resources available to help make this Lent special.
Each of our journeys will be different, and … whether we are giving up something, taking on a new challenge or calling …. I wonder if we will feel open to the wildness of God and the unpredictability of the Spirit?
So … as we go into our time of stillness, and contemplation,
let us pray …
Holy Spirit, give us the wild freedom
of the adventure of walking in faith.
Give us courage to listen to challenges and callings.
Breathe new life into each of our stories.
Stretch the boundaries of our hearts and our imagination,
and let us discover, and live, what is in the expanse beyond.
May we listen to your Spirit, and watch for the unexpected wildness of God
through scriptures - and other readings and resources.
We ask that you will open our minds to explore your limitless grace,
especially as we journey through Lent,
towards Jesus’ Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Amen
Rev Judy Greenfield
Introduction to Silence
God of the wild and God of the wilderness, we pray that you will lead us where we are lost and found. We welcome your Spirit and listen for your word in the wild. Amen
Blessing
Blessed be the longing that brought us here
and quickens our souls with wonder -
may we have the courage -
to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs us
when we have settled for something safe -
may we come to accept our longing
as divine urgency
and may we know the urgency
with which God longs for us
Amen
John O'Donoghue
Thoughts to ponder:
Wilderness Blessing
Let us say this blessing began whole and complete upon the page.
And then let us say that one word loosed itself and another followed it in turn.
Let us say this blessing started to shed all it did not need,
that line by line it returned to the ground from which it came.
Let us say this blessing is not leaving you, is not abandoning you to the wild that lies ahead,
but that it is loath to load you down on this road where you will need to travel light.
Let us say perhaps this blessing became the path beneath your feet,
the desert that stretched before you, the clear sight that finally came.
Let us say that when this blessing at last came to its end, all it left behind was bread, wine,
a fleeting flash of wing.
—Jan Richardson
A Lenten prayer from Henri Nouwen
The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.
I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.
I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are not times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.
Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me. Amen.
How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season, without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I fully rejoice in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death? Yes, Lord, I have to die, with you, through you, and in you, and thus become ready to recognise you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed, anger, impatience and stinginess … I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way, and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.
(from ‘A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee, Orbis) Henri Nouwen
Dust of Snow – by Robert Frost
The way a crow shook down on me the dust of snow from a hemlock tree.
Has given my heart a change of mood and saved some part of a day I rued.
Bishop Sam Rose - When Words do not come easy
When words do not come easy, then, dear Lord, in the silence, listen to my heart, for there, among the joys and sorrows, lie so many unspoken prayers, so many people and situations that I meant to bring to you – and do so now in prayerful contemplation.
And in your gracious hands I place them, knowing they are answered.
http://www.faithandworship.com
May we find peace within the storm, and the encircling of his arms. May we find rest within the night,
and refreshment in the dawn. May we find joy within our hearts, a song just waiting to be sung.
May we find peace. Author unknown
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
John O’Donohue
Blessed be the longing that brought me here and quickens my soul with wonder - may I have the courage - to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs me when I have settled for something safe - may I come to accept my longing as divine urgency and may I know the urgency with which God longs for me.
The Wild Presence of God
John O’Donohue
‘Wild’ is something you cannot tame – and I suppose one of the things institutional religion does is to have a few ‘official tamers’ on hand in case the divine thing wakens up in too wild a way – but the beauty of mysticism is that the mystic is someone who falls in love with God and who has a sense of the pulsing presence of God which no thought, feeling or category can ever come near. The mystic keeps the God question clean of all our unworthy and inferior answers. [Meister] Eckhart is ‘wilder’ in his thinking about God than even the best atheists. What you find in him about the wilderness and absence of God and in God is so much more profound than the kind of vacancy you find in atheistic ideas. He says that God is that wilderness in which everyone is alone. God is only our word for it and the nearer you get to the presence, the more God ceases to be God and is allowed to become completely Himself. So the spiritual life is about the liberation of God from our images of him. ~~
[John O'Donohue from "Walking on the Pastures of Wonder" upcoming first release (Ireland) scheduled for March 12, 2015.]
Unfinished Poem
I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” ― John O'Donohue
Margaret Silf
“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
These are the words that begin the Lenten season. Each year has a different account from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but it’s always this story. It’s this story that is the foundation for much of what Lent seems to be about: a time of preparation, testing, sacrifice, penance. Jesus spent 40 days fasting and so we spend 40 days in a spirit of fasting. But what is it that this story tells us about Jesus? And what is it that Jesus tells us about us? https://godinallthings.com/2022/04/04/the-ordinariness-of-lent/
Malcolm Guite – from his Genesis Story – The Fifth Day
With open wings a seagull skims the spray, Sounding the depth below, a great whale sings,
Your Spirit moves amongst them as they play With open wings. Now open me to all your Spirit brings,
Move in me too as I begin to pray, That love may ripple out in shining rings. Speak to my soul through all you made this day, Through all that swims and flies and swoops and swings, And let your Spirit lift the words I say With open wings.
Baptism
Love’s hidden thread has drawn us to the font, a wide womb floating on the breath of God, feathered with seraph wings, lit with the swift lightning of praise, with thunder over-spread. And under-girded with an unheard song, calling through water, fire, darkness, pain, calling us to the life for which we long, yearning to bring us to our birth again.
Again, the breath of God is on the waters, in whose reflecting face our candles shine, Again he draws from death the sons and daughters for whom he bid the elements combine. As living stones around a font today, rejoice with those ‘who roll the stone away.’
Malcolm Guite
An Easter Triolet
We won’t give up on love, it is a given. And given things can always live again. The stone is rolled away, the rocks are riven. We won’t give up on love, it is a given. The grave is made the very gate of heaven. We sowed in tears, but here’s the golden grain: We won’t give up on love, it is a given And Love’s the given thing that lives again. Malcolm Guite
Lectio 365 – January 2024
Here I am Lord, alive and awake in your presence, alive and awake to your invitation to join you, the wild God out in the wild world. Draw me after you Lord, and let us run together. Lectio 365 January 2024
Wherever there is trouble, there God is - right in the middle of it all - the wild God in the wild world - and his invitation to us is to wade into the fray with him - to partner with him in his work in the world …. whatever that might be. He invites us to be people wildly in love with him wildly desiring his presence and following him wherever he goes, that we may be people whose souls are fortified with wild hope.
Lectio 365 January 2024
We remember how Jesus often used to spend time alone with his Father, in wild desert places –
and we pray:
Lord, help me today to enjoy the peace of wild things, to relax and rest as you rested, honouring your creation with my recreation, expressing my trust through rest, and in all I do, saying with you,
‘It is very good’. Lectio 365 January 2024
During this season let us reflect on how God invites us to live lives unfettered by the pressures and expectations of others, so that we may enjoy the dangerous freedom of the wild God, the loving creator and sustainer of all things, for whom nothing is impossible. Author unknown
Judy’s words
During Lent, we often look to our church leaders for guidance, for suggestions of new paths on our faith journey, and to lead us as a community towards Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. Whether lay or clergy members of our communities, we can all teach, guide, listen and learn….
Creator God, we pray for all who lead your people - for all who preach your gospel - for all who witness to your life and to your life within each of us. And Lord, we humbly ask that we may include ourselves in this number. As we look to walk with you more closely, may we follow your own wild footsteps - footsteps which were lovingly, and sacrificially, preaching strongly and boldly - so that we will feel able to share ourselves, and our faith with the rest of your flock, and all who seek to know more about you. Holy Spirit we pray that you will breathe new life into all church communities, and the secular communities that surround them, wherever they may be.
May we be surprised with your power and your presence; healing the sick, binding up broken hearts - and we ask that you will renew in us all, a consuming passion for Jesus. Amen
Sometimes, although we are aware of God’s presence, we might feel as though we are in a wilderness -
Let us reflect on the words of Thomas Merton:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude Copyright © 1956, 1958
Thoughts from Samuel Moor Shoemaker – the Celtic Finan reading for 23rd February
I stand by the door. I know the go too far in, nor stay too far out - the door is the most important door in the world - it is the door through which folk walk when they find God. There's no use my going way inside and staying there, when so many are still outside, and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.
Lord, we thank you for our time together today … and ask that, no matter what our own personal journey is during Lent, we may always be mindful of others who are treading paths of their own, and of those who are still trying to find the door where they can peep inside and get to know and love you.
We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen
Winter hope
Giver of life and strength and hope, when the winds rage and the rain pours, damaging this world with persistent force; when land moves and rivers rise to destroy homes, roads, livelihoods or lives; when darkness above covers the skies and nature goes beyond our bounds; lead us to calm our ways and heal our wounds; renew our will to protect and restore the earth from the degradation of over-exploitation to feed our desires. Guide us into wisdom, restraint and care for this planet, our home, that we may use it gently to supply our need, free from the extravagance of pursuing greed. Amen
Terry Garley – Iona Community
Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 22nd March at St Anne’s Church, Glenholt
who do not tax their lives
with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me
the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
For a time -
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
Inspired by Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13
Wendell Berry from The Peace of Wild Things And Other Poems (Penguin, 2018)
Wild Things!
When I first knew about Wendell Berry’s book of poems – The Peace of Wild Things … the title itself caught not just my attention, but my imagination.
Around the same time, the worldwide Lectio 365 began to look at the Wildness of God (in all sorts of ways) … and, gradually, as I reflected … The Peace of Wild Things, and the Wildness of God seemed to weave together …. and the title of today’s Quiet Spaces was born.
How wonderful, I thought! Wild things - wildness - and freedom of spirit … something which God offers us – and we don’t always notice – it all seemed to just fit with one of the many ways of living and journeying through Lent.
Here at Quiet Spaces, we often touch on the notion of how different from each other we can be … the diversity we bring in personality, life circumstances – (now, and in the past) - in our spiritual lives - and in how we relate to God …
I wonder what Lent means to us? To each of us as individuals … maybe it changes from year to year?or perhaps we have formed a routine which we tend to keep to most years?… and, I am sure … there are many other ways we might keep Lent, in between.
Many of us see Lent as a journey … and, this year, we might have already decided on a pathway we would like to explore …
We know, both in our church communities and online, there are many, many resources available to help make this Lent special.
Each of our journeys will be different, and … whether we are giving up something, taking on a new challenge or calling …. I wonder if we will feel open to the wildness of God and the unpredictability of the Spirit?
So … as we go into our time of stillness, and contemplation,
let us pray …
Holy Spirit, give us the wild freedom
of the adventure of walking in faith.
Give us courage to listen to challenges and callings.
Breathe new life into each of our stories.
Stretch the boundaries of our hearts and our imagination,
and let us discover, and live, what is in the expanse beyond.
May we listen to your Spirit, and watch for the unexpected wildness of God
through scriptures - and other readings and resources.
We ask that you will open our minds to explore your limitless grace,
especially as we journey through Lent,
towards Jesus’ Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Amen
Rev Judy Greenfield
Introduction to Silence
God of the wild and God of the wilderness, we pray that you will lead us where we are lost and found. We welcome your Spirit and listen for your word in the wild. Amen
Blessing
Blessed be the longing that brought us here
and quickens our souls with wonder -
may we have the courage -
to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs us
when we have settled for something safe -
may we come to accept our longing
as divine urgency
and may we know the urgency
with which God longs for us
Amen
John O'Donoghue
Thoughts to ponder:
Wilderness Blessing
Let us say this blessing began whole and complete upon the page.
And then let us say that one word loosed itself and another followed it in turn.
Let us say this blessing started to shed all it did not need,
that line by line it returned to the ground from which it came.
Let us say this blessing is not leaving you, is not abandoning you to the wild that lies ahead,
but that it is loath to load you down on this road where you will need to travel light.
Let us say perhaps this blessing became the path beneath your feet,
the desert that stretched before you, the clear sight that finally came.
Let us say that when this blessing at last came to its end, all it left behind was bread, wine,
a fleeting flash of wing.
—Jan Richardson
A Lenten prayer from Henri Nouwen
The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.
I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.
I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are not times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.
Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me. Amen.
How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season, without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I fully rejoice in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death? Yes, Lord, I have to die, with you, through you, and in you, and thus become ready to recognise you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed, anger, impatience and stinginess … I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way, and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.
(from ‘A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee, Orbis) Henri Nouwen
Dust of Snow – by Robert Frost
The way a crow shook down on me the dust of snow from a hemlock tree.
Has given my heart a change of mood and saved some part of a day I rued.
Bishop Sam Rose - When Words do not come easy
When words do not come easy, then, dear Lord, in the silence, listen to my heart, for there, among the joys and sorrows, lie so many unspoken prayers, so many people and situations that I meant to bring to you – and do so now in prayerful contemplation.
And in your gracious hands I place them, knowing they are answered.
http://www.faithandworship.com
May we find peace within the storm, and the encircling of his arms. May we find rest within the night,
and refreshment in the dawn. May we find joy within our hearts, a song just waiting to be sung.
May we find peace. Author unknown
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
John O’Donohue
Blessed be the longing that brought me here and quickens my soul with wonder - may I have the courage - to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs me when I have settled for something safe - may I come to accept my longing as divine urgency and may I know the urgency with which God longs for me.
The Wild Presence of God
John O’Donohue
‘Wild’ is something you cannot tame – and I suppose one of the things institutional religion does is to have a few ‘official tamers’ on hand in case the divine thing wakens up in too wild a way – but the beauty of mysticism is that the mystic is someone who falls in love with God and who has a sense of the pulsing presence of God which no thought, feeling or category can ever come near. The mystic keeps the God question clean of all our unworthy and inferior answers. [Meister] Eckhart is ‘wilder’ in his thinking about God than even the best atheists. What you find in him about the wilderness and absence of God and in God is so much more profound than the kind of vacancy you find in atheistic ideas. He says that God is that wilderness in which everyone is alone. God is only our word for it and the nearer you get to the presence, the more God ceases to be God and is allowed to become completely Himself. So the spiritual life is about the liberation of God from our images of him. ~~
[John O'Donohue from "Walking on the Pastures of Wonder" upcoming first release (Ireland) scheduled for March 12, 2015.]
Unfinished Poem
I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” ― John O'Donohue
Margaret Silf
“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
These are the words that begin the Lenten season. Each year has a different account from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but it’s always this story. It’s this story that is the foundation for much of what Lent seems to be about: a time of preparation, testing, sacrifice, penance. Jesus spent 40 days fasting and so we spend 40 days in a spirit of fasting. But what is it that this story tells us about Jesus? And what is it that Jesus tells us about us? https://godinallthings.com/2022/04/04/the-ordinariness-of-lent/
Malcolm Guite – from his Genesis Story – The Fifth Day
With open wings a seagull skims the spray, Sounding the depth below, a great whale sings,
Your Spirit moves amongst them as they play With open wings. Now open me to all your Spirit brings,
Move in me too as I begin to pray, That love may ripple out in shining rings. Speak to my soul through all you made this day, Through all that swims and flies and swoops and swings, And let your Spirit lift the words I say With open wings.
Baptism
Love’s hidden thread has drawn us to the font, a wide womb floating on the breath of God, feathered with seraph wings, lit with the swift lightning of praise, with thunder over-spread. And under-girded with an unheard song, calling through water, fire, darkness, pain, calling us to the life for which we long, yearning to bring us to our birth again.
Again, the breath of God is on the waters, in whose reflecting face our candles shine, Again he draws from death the sons and daughters for whom he bid the elements combine. As living stones around a font today, rejoice with those ‘who roll the stone away.’
Malcolm Guite
An Easter Triolet
We won’t give up on love, it is a given. And given things can always live again. The stone is rolled away, the rocks are riven. We won’t give up on love, it is a given. The grave is made the very gate of heaven. We sowed in tears, but here’s the golden grain: We won’t give up on love, it is a given And Love’s the given thing that lives again. Malcolm Guite
Lectio 365 – January 2024
Here I am Lord, alive and awake in your presence, alive and awake to your invitation to join you, the wild God out in the wild world. Draw me after you Lord, and let us run together. Lectio 365 January 2024
Wherever there is trouble, there God is - right in the middle of it all - the wild God in the wild world - and his invitation to us is to wade into the fray with him - to partner with him in his work in the world …. whatever that might be. He invites us to be people wildly in love with him wildly desiring his presence and following him wherever he goes, that we may be people whose souls are fortified with wild hope.
Lectio 365 January 2024
We remember how Jesus often used to spend time alone with his Father, in wild desert places –
and we pray:
Lord, help me today to enjoy the peace of wild things, to relax and rest as you rested, honouring your creation with my recreation, expressing my trust through rest, and in all I do, saying with you,
‘It is very good’. Lectio 365 January 2024
During this season let us reflect on how God invites us to live lives unfettered by the pressures and expectations of others, so that we may enjoy the dangerous freedom of the wild God, the loving creator and sustainer of all things, for whom nothing is impossible. Author unknown
Judy’s words
During Lent, we often look to our church leaders for guidance, for suggestions of new paths on our faith journey, and to lead us as a community towards Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. Whether lay or clergy members of our communities, we can all teach, guide, listen and learn….
Creator God, we pray for all who lead your people - for all who preach your gospel - for all who witness to your life and to your life within each of us. And Lord, we humbly ask that we may include ourselves in this number. As we look to walk with you more closely, may we follow your own wild footsteps - footsteps which were lovingly, and sacrificially, preaching strongly and boldly - so that we will feel able to share ourselves, and our faith with the rest of your flock, and all who seek to know more about you. Holy Spirit we pray that you will breathe new life into all church communities, and the secular communities that surround them, wherever they may be.
May we be surprised with your power and your presence; healing the sick, binding up broken hearts - and we ask that you will renew in us all, a consuming passion for Jesus. Amen
Sometimes, although we are aware of God’s presence, we might feel as though we are in a wilderness -
Let us reflect on the words of Thomas Merton:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude Copyright © 1956, 1958
Thoughts from Samuel Moor Shoemaker – the Celtic Finan reading for 23rd February
I stand by the door. I know the go too far in, nor stay too far out - the door is the most important door in the world - it is the door through which folk walk when they find God. There's no use my going way inside and staying there, when so many are still outside, and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.
Lord, we thank you for our time together today … and ask that, no matter what our own personal journey is during Lent, we may always be mindful of others who are treading paths of their own, and of those who are still trying to find the door where they can peep inside and get to know and love you.
We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen
Winter hope
Giver of life and strength and hope, when the winds rage and the rain pours, damaging this world with persistent force; when land moves and rivers rise to destroy homes, roads, livelihoods or lives; when darkness above covers the skies and nature goes beyond our bounds; lead us to calm our ways and heal our wounds; renew our will to protect and restore the earth from the degradation of over-exploitation to feed our desires. Guide us into wisdom, restraint and care for this planet, our home, that we may use it gently to supply our need, free from the extravagance of pursuing greed. Amen
Terry Garley – Iona Community
Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 22nd March at St Anne’s Church, Glenholt