Tag: Bible

God walks among the pots & pans

St. Teresa of Avila believed that God could be found in everyday and rather ordinary activities as well as in
the silence of prayer said in church or some special place.

Though she herself had experienced deep mystical experiences she was down-to-earth and practical.

When it was reported to her that a sister was having an extreme religious experience which threatened to overwhelm her, Teresa advised that she should eat marmalade. (she knew the value of sugar as a way of bringing things under control.)

She was born in the 16th century in 1515 and her feast day is today October 15th. At an early age she was fired up by the lives of the saints and she was particularly taken by the martyrs and their complete self-offering to God.

When she was about 12 she decided that she would leave home and travel to where there were enemies of Christ who would, she confidently believed, behead her! Then she would immediately enter heaven! She took her younger brother Rodrigo with her but fortunately for them, they were apprehended by an uncle before they had reached the outskirts of the town. He noted that the ever-practical Teresa had remembered to pack the sandwiches!

Though she failed to receive the martyrs crown, she responded to the call from God which was to be total and life-long. Entering a Carmelite convent at the age of 21, she was to be dogged by ill health for many years, even to the point of death. It was then that she experienced a mystical visitation from God which left her heart trembling after which she was “left completely afire with a great love for God.” She knew then that her soul would “never be content with anything less than God.”

At this time in Spain, convent life was one of luxury. Nuns even had their own personal maids! Teresa received a call from God to restore a sense of sacrifice and simplicity to the Carmelite order. With thirteen other nuns, she left the security of her convent and for the rest of her life she founded a different sort of convent. Throughout Spain she introduced reforms, some of which she had to argue for in front of prelates and even a Pope but she was not afraid of anything that she saw as standing in the way of God. Simple convents for a simple Godly way of life was her aim. The nuns went barefoot (discalced) as they trod gently but purposefully towards God and His Kingdom.

Teresa herself rushed all over Spain founding convents, and earning the nickname of ‘God’s Gadabout’. Yet in the midst of all this activity was a soul stilled into prayer. She remained close to God in the silence of true prayer.

Her spiritual guides insisted that she wrote down her thoughts about prayer and they are, to this day, among the great spiritual classics. They reflect her holiness, wisdom and sense of humour. Through them she has become a favourite teacher of prayer to many, many people. Her teaching was recognized by the Church when shortly after her death she was made a saint (no less than a ‘Doctor’ of the Church) who was truly a ‘teacher of the faith’

A good part of that teaching is that God is close to us in the midst of ordinarinessof life. As we go about our business prayerfully, we walk with Jesus through whom we walk in the joy of heaven on earth.

We find God in the everyday, and if we train ourselves to recognize that, we shall meet Him in the events of our lives and in the people we meet. This is about finding Heaven in Ordinary.

Teresa reminds us also, that God was within us as well as beside us, and here she takes up our Lord’s own teaching that the Kingdom of God is within us. We encounter Him in the silent depths of our hearts.

“You know that God is everywhere,” she says, “which is a great truth; wherever God dwells there is heaven, and you may feel sure that all which is glorious is near His Majesty.” Always practical and pragmatic, she insisted that is where we are close to God or as she liked to put it, “God walks among the pots and pans.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away:
God never changes,
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God finds they lack nothing.
God alone suffices.

The prayer by Teresa found in her prayer book after her death.

[Mr G. 15th October 2026}

God rebuilds St Francis.

(*Saint Francis* – *from a poster in Santiago de Compostello*)

God rebuilds the spiritual heart of St Francis.
The start of a Saints journey to the Kingdom of heaven,
as we commorate the 800th anniversary of his pilgrimage this weekend.

When Francis gave up his life as a kind of lad about – when he turned away from drinking, fighting, leading a pack of rebels, it was because he had been brought up sharp by Jesus.
Not for the first time or the last, God had visited the soul of one whose life was going in entirely the wrong direction.
Francis’s soul was sick and needed healing.
So God drew him away to a derelict church of San. Damiano on the edge of Assisi. There he knelt in prayer and looked at the faded crucifix still hanging over the altar. Francis insists that the voice of Christ came to him at that moment. The words he heard were: Francis, rebuild my church, which you see is falling down.
The derelict Church certainly needed repairing, just as Francis’s soul needed rebuilding. Francis was about to begin his ministry and service for God. The words of Jesus to him from the cross where his ‘call’ ~ his response was to be his vocation, not just to physically rebuild the Church of San Damiano, but much more, a renewal of the Church in need of a deeper vision of God.

First, though, he had to get to know the One who called him to this service and to know the love of God flowing into him and through him to others.
As he knelt in that place of meeting with Jesus, he formed this prayer which was to remain with him throughout the rest of his life.

The Prayer before the Crucifix

Most High, glorious God,
enlighten the darkness of my heart
and give me
true faith,
certain hope,
and perfect charity,
sense and knowledge,
Lord, that I may carry out
Your holy and true command

Another prayer which was to become food for his soul is one in which he prays that the love of the Lord Jesus should enter his heart and absorb him with its fire and sweetness. It is known as the Absorbeat because God’s loving Spirit possesses him.

May the power of your love, Lord Christ,
fiery and sweet as honey,
so absorb our hearts
as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven.
Grant that we may be ready
to die for love of your love,
as you died for love of our love. Amen

A simple, yet deeply profound prayer was one that he is said to have dictated as he lay dying. It was a prayer which he had used often and wasn’t original but it was so important to him that it was his deathbed prayer. Many will know it in some form.

We adore you, most holy Lord Jesus Christ,
here, and in all your churches throughout all the world;
and we bless you,
because, by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.

For Francis his spirituality was totally bound up with the Crucifixion. He is said to be responsible for encouraging the devotion known as The Stations of the Cross, the 14 meditations on our Lord’s journey to His Crucifixion. He himself was to be granted the gift of the stigmata when, after a vision of Christ crucified, the wounds of Jesus, in the form, of scars like nail wounds on his hands, feet and right side appeared on his body and remained with him until his death 2 years later.

[Mr G. 3rd October 2026]

Summer Evensong at High Easter

Photo, The East Window in St Mary the Virgin, High Easter, Essex

Summer Evensong in St Mary the Vitgin, High Easter
gazing at the East Window.

We gather to open ourselves to God
in this House of Prayer,
where, alight with early evening sun,
Incarnation beckons through refracted glass.

Here, blessed Mary and humble Joseph
are transfixed in golden beams
streaming towards them from the Christ-child,
deeply alive in cradle strewn with straw.

Ox peeps adoringly over shoulder of Ass
as the shepherd and his boy look on,
crozier, an icon of pastoral love to come,
carried proudly.
Star above all, shining in majestic glory,
a portal through which heaven comes to earth.

I see the telling of this in the left window
as Angel Gabriel, deep in converse with God’s chosen One,
seeks to draw from her a ‘Yes’
that comes from the heart,
And challenges us too.

The triptych of God’s love
is completed in the third window ,
that of Presentation
where The child of God touches the waiting Simeon,
as the old man tenderly takes, holds, and blesses Him
in gentle and awesome thanksgiving,
which releases his own soul into God’s arms,
slipping into a peace his heart longs for.

Three God moments dance in coloured glass
opening our hearts, our souls, our vision,
Calling us to glorify, presenting ourselves
to receive the light of our Salvation
and the grace of God’s Incarnate love.

For this we came.

[Mr G. 23rd July 2026]

I visited High Easter Church on July 19th to take part in Choral Evensong.
I was fascinated by the East Window and above is my reflection.
Choral Evensong was sung beautifully using the Book of Common Prayer
and accompanied by a fine organist. The congregation welcome was kind
and warm, and the after service coffee was splendid!
Should you ever find yourself in that part of Essex, the postcode is CM1 4QW.
It’s a fine church with Saxon roots, roman brick and bits from almost every age.
Unusually it has a window dedicated to St. Valentine!

Pope Leo reflects on Peace

Peace Vigil Reflection
Part of the text of Pope Leo’s reflection at the Prayer Vigil for Peace in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on April 11^th

“Your prayer is an expression of that faith which, according to the words of Jesus, moves the world to pray for peace.
War divides; hope unites. Arrogance tramples upon others; love lifts up. Idolatry blinds us;
the living God enlightens. My dearest friends, all it takes is a little faith, a mere “crumb” of faith, in order to face this dramatic hour in history together — as humanity and alongside humanity.
Prayer is not a refuge in which to hide from our responsibilities, nor an anaesthetic to numb the pain provoked by so much injustice.
Rather, it is the most selfless, universal and transformative response to death: we are a people who are already risen! Within each of us, within every human being, the interior Teacher teaches peace, urges us toward encounter and inspires us to make supplication.
Let us rise from the rubble! Nothing can confine us to a predetermined fate, not even in this world where there never seem to be enough graves, for people continue to crucify one another and eliminate life, with no regard to justice and mercy.

Prayer teaches us how to act.
In prayer, our limited human possibilities are joined to the infinite possibilities of God.
Thoughts, words and deeds then break the demonic cycle of evil and are placed at the service of the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom in which there is no sword, no drone, no vengeance, no trivialization of evil, no unjust profit, but only dignity, understanding and forgiveness.
It is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive.
The balance within the human family has been severely destabilized. Even the holy Name of God, the God of life,
is being dragged into discourses of death. A world of brothers and sisters with one heavenly Father vanishes, as in a nightmare, giving way to a reality populated by enemies.
We are met by threats, rather than the invitation to listen and to come together.
Brothers and sisters, those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death.
Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol (cf. Ps 115:4–8), to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee.
Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!
True strength is shown in serving life. With evangelical simplicity, Saint John XXIII once wrote: “The benefits of peace will be felt everywhere, by individuals, by families, by nations, by the whole human race.” And echoing the incisive words of Pius XII, he added: “Nothing is lost by peace; everything may be lost by war” (Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris, 116).

Let us, therefore, unite the moral and spiritual strength of the millions and billions of men and women, young and old, who today choose to believe in peace, caring for the wounds and repairing the damage left behind by the madness of war.
I receive countless letters from children in areas of conflict. In reading them, one perceives, through the lens of innocence, all the horror and inhumanity of actions that some adults boast of with pride.
Let us listen to the voices of children!

Dear brothers and sisters, there are certainly binding responsibilities that fall to the leaders of nations. To them we cry out: Stop! It is time for peace!
Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided!
Yet there is a no less significant responsibility that falls to all of us — men and women from all over the world. We are an immense multitude that rejects war not only in word, but also in deed. Prayer calls us to leave behind whatever violence remains in our hearts and minds. Let us turn to a Kingdom of peace that is built up day by day — in our homes, schools, neighbourhoods, and civil and religious communities. A Kingdom that counters polemics and resignation through friendship and a culture of encounter. Let us believe once again in love, moderation and good politics. We must form ourselves and get personally involved, each following our own calling. Everyone has a place in the mosaic of peace!
As Pope Francis taught us, “There is also a need for peacemakers, men and women prepared to work boldly and creatively to initiate processes of healing and renewed encounter”

Dear brothers and sisters, let us make a commitment to pray without ceasing and without growing weary, a commitment to a profound conversion of heart. Throughout the world, it is to be hoped that every community become a ‘house of peace,’ where one learns how to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished

Brothers and Sisters of every language, people and nation: we are one family that weeps, hopes and rises again.
“No more war, a journey with no return; no more war, a vicious cycle of grief and violence;” (Saint John Paul II,)

Dear friends, peace be with you all!
It is the peace of the Risen Christ, the fruit of his sacrifice of love on the cross.
For this reason, we raise our prayer to him:

Lord Jesus,
you conquered death without weapons or violence:
you shattered its power with the strength of peace.
Grant us your peace,
as you did to the women filled with doubt on Easter morning,
as you did to the disciples who were hiding in fear.
Send forth your Spirit,
the breath that gives life and reconciles,
that turns adversaries and enemies into brothers and sisters.
Inspire in us to trust in Mary, your mother,
who stood at the foot of your cross with a broken heart,
firm in the faith that you would rise again.
May the madness of war cease
and the Earth be cared for and cultivated by those who still
know how to bring forth, protect and love life.
Hear us, Lord of life!

Mr G’s Ponderings 13th April 2026