Month: March 2022
Tweet Number 72 from my friend Joyce Smith
This week, Joyce has sent some words to go with her photograph.
At this difficult time, what Joyce has written says all that needs to be said.
Dear Friends,
Another day when the sunshine and colours of spring remind us of
the warmth of God’s love and give us and all people hope,
that the darkness of war will end and a new day dawn.
With my love and prayers.
God bless,
Joyce
This little poem has a double inspiration.
My friend Gill sent me photographs of majestic oak trees in Richmond Park, waiting for Spring to burst open their new buds.
The other inspiration is Genesis 18 verses 1 – 8. Here Abraham also waited under the oaks of Mamre, for God to reveal to him the promise of new life and new purpose.
The poem includes another ‘waiting’; for those on a Lenten Pilgrimage to open their hearts afresh to God.
MAMRE
By the oaks of Mamre
Abraham sat in quiet contemplation
seeking solace in the heat of the day.
Waiting, though he knew not what for.
Expectation seemed to dust the winter tree over him.
Branches dormant, dead?
They waited too for a new life promised
by the whispering of God.
Abraham’s moment came.
Visited by the Three, he rose,
with hospitality bubbling in his heart,
receiving them as if they were God
– because they were God!
And us?
We wait too as the Three approach us
in quietness,
inviting us to open our Lenten hearts.
It’s different somehow for us.
Abraham fed God and received God’s promise.
God feeds us and, in the breeze of Mamre,
becomes the Promise.
Expect it!
Mr G. 16th March 2022
(inspired by Genesis 18: 1-3 & by Gill Henwood)
Dementia Prayer Week, which was previously run by the Pastoral Care Project , is now being promoted by the Religious order of The Redemptorists. They are also known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (CSsR). The hope is that, through our prayers, we can offer support and spiritual care for those suffering with Dementia. The invitation to prayer is also in support of those who are caring for loved ones and who try to cope with distress which this dreadful illness brings to all involved.
The symbol of the ‘Forget me not’ flower is an important part of our ‘remembering’.
I recently lost my cousin, who was very close to me, and who was afflicted with Alzheimers and I find the message of the Forget me not flower very comforting. Forget-me-nots symbolize true love and respect. When you give someone these tiny blooms, it represents a promise that you will always remember them and will keep them in your thoughts. The Alzheimers Society have chosen this flower because of this.
The Prayer offered by the Redemptorists is this –
Loving God, Healer and Comforter, we pray for those who suffer from the anxiety, ambiguity and confusion of dementia, and in a special way for their caregivers.
Give them patience as they work through familiar daily scripts and questions asked, answered
and asked again.
Give them long memories to recall the fullness of their loved one’s life beyond these moments of forgetting.
Give them the grace to let go of what was and embrace what is in love.
When the pain of being forgotten and the grinding trials become too much,
comfort them with the promise of your Resurrection
where every tear shall be wiped away and we shall know each other once more.
God of all mercies, sustain those who care for others.
Grant them what they need for the moments ahead.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
[Mr G]
A prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
Today’s thought for the Day, on BBC Radio 4 this morning, was given by the Rt. Reverend Richard Harries. Centred on prayer for all those caught up in the conflict un Ukraine, the bishop used a prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr.
Reinhold Niebuhr[a] (1892–1971) who was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years.
He believed in Justice tempered with Mercy, the title of one of his works from which comes the prayer below. He saw the importance of religion engaging with politics and public policy. Living through the Second World War he recognized that everyone is affected by conflict and violence of warfare, not least the innocent. One of the themes Richard Harries raised this morning was that the sin of violence is rooted in the human heart which, unchecked and held in the burning love of God can easily destroy the peace and tranquillity of the world created by God.
Richard Harries spoke of the Agony of Christ which he placed firmly in the heart of Ukraine, in all those suffering and in real despair at this time.
Because of this our personal prayer can be the prayer much loved by Orthodox Christians, known as the Jesus Prayer. Today that simple but deeply profound prayer is popular with many Christians. It has a number of forms but Bishop Richard shared his own version, apt for what the world is going through right now: Lord Jesus Christ, have pity on us.
Here is the prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr.
Lord we pray this day mindful of the sorry confusion of our world.
Look with mercy upon this generation of your children so steeped in misery of their own contriving,
so far strayed from your ways and so blinded by passions.
We pray for the victims of tyranny, that they may resist oppression with courage.
We pray for the wicked and cruel, whose arrogance reveals to us what the sin within our own hearts
is like when it has conceived and brought forth its final fruit.
We pray for ourselves who live in peace and quietness,
that we may not regard our good fortune as proof of our virtue,
or rest content to have our ease at the price of others’ sorrow and tribulation.
We pray for all who have some vision of your will,
despite the confusions and betrayals of human sin,
that they humbly and resolutely plan for and fashion the foundations of a just peace between people, even while they seek to preserve what is fair and just among us
against the threat of malignant powers.
Amen.
[Mr G]
Mr G's Ponderings 