Tag: Bible

Benji, the Palm Sunday donkey.

The Story Of The Palm Sunday Donkey by Joyce Smith

Four years ago, my friend Joyce wrote a little story about the Palm Sunday Donkey. It was specifically for the children of Ninefields Church of England School, near Waltham Abbey in Essex. Each child got a printed copy as a gift from Joyce. One or two others of us also got one. With Joyce’s permission, I was able to Blog it as an entry for March 28^th 2021. Sadly since then Joyce died unexpectedly and though some will have read the story, it’s worth repeating as I pause in prayer and remember a delightful person who understood more than most, what it means to be child-like.

[Mr G # Palm Sunday 2025]

It promised to be a hot and sunny day as the early morning sunlight played on the little donkey’s face. Benji lazily opened first one eye and then the other, but although the sunshine was warm on his face, he shivered a little and huddled closer to his mother. It was, after all, only yesterday that he had seen the old donkey who lived along the road being cruelly beaten by his master.
Benji’s mother gently nuzzled her son’s face and slowly licked one long ear followed by the other. Then, at the sound of their master’s voice, they trotted over to the edge of their field and had a long drink from the bucket of water he had brought for them, before turning to munch the hay which was piled up in the corner.

Even though their master was a kind man, Benji was still very frightened of the world outside his field and the scar on his mother’s back would always remind him of how cruel some people could be even to a donkey who had done nothing wrong. Sometimes, as Benji watched his mother carrying a person down the hill to the big city of Jerusalem, he could almost feel the pain of her scar and he longed to do something to help her. But the trouble was, whenever anybody asked for a ride on Benji, he was so frightened that he would begin to shake all over and no one wanted to ride him when he was like that. And so, in his short life, nobody had ever ridden on Benji’s back. But perhaps, just perhaps, today would be different……….

When Benji and his mother had finished eating, their master returned and, as he gently tickled their ears, he began to speak softly to them:

‘There will be lots of people going down to Jerusalem today
to celebrate the Feast of the Passover’ he said ‘and I think that
someone will need you to carry him today, Benji, so I’m going
to get you both ready and I want you to stand quietly for me by
the house.’

Then, using a long length of rope so that the donkeys could still graze from the grass, their master tied them to the trunk of a tree and they began to wait to see who might come by. They hadn’t been waiting long, however, when two men hurried towards the donkeys and, turning to their owner they said:

‘The Lord needs them’‘
That’s just fine’ said their master and as he untied Benji and his mother he whispered in their ears,
‘today will be your special day.’

The two men led the donkeys to the end of a dusty path and as they stood there, waiting, Benji turned his head and from where he was standing he could see right to the bottom of the big hill and all of the city of Jerusalem surrounded by big stone walls and lots of people, who looked as small as ants, hurrying around. Just then Benji’s gaze was arrested by a pile of rubbish outside the walls of the city and he began to tremble. He had often seen donkeys carrying rotting rubbish down to the tip and, sometimes, his mother told him, bad people were hung on crosses and killed there. At that thought, Benji shook even more, but just as he was beginning to feel so weak that he thought he would fall over, he felt a hand on his head and a gentle voice saying:

‘Not today, little donkey, not today; the rubbish tip’s not for today.
Don’t be afraid little donkey, today I want you to carry me.’

Benji turned his head and found himself looking into the most understanding man’s face he had ever seen and suddenly his shaking stopped and he felt strangely calm. Yes, he would be able to carry this man because he knew he understood and he gently nuzzled Jesus’ hand. While his friends put their coats on Benji’s back, Jesus gently patted the scar on the older donkey’s back and this time she didn’t wince as she normally did, but she too, gently rubbed her head against him.

When they were ready, Jesus climbed on Benji’s back and began to ride down the hill towards Jerusalem. To his surprise, with this man on his back, Benji suddenly felt quite strong and sure of himself. Somehow, being with Jesus, had taken away his scary feelings and now he really did feel that he could carry him all the way to Jerusalem. And Benji’s mother was just a few paces behind trotting along quite contentedly.
They hadn’t gone very far, however, when people started to come to the edge of the road and they began to cheer and wave palm branches as Jesus rode by on the little donkey. People even spread their cloaks and more palm branches on the ground so that Benji had a very soft road to walk on. People then began to shout:

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord
Hosanna in the highest’

‘Yes, Jesus must be very special’ thought Benji, ‘ but I could have told all these people that from the moment he first spoke to me.’ And as he continued to trot down the road he, too, felt special and so happy.

But as we know, donkeys are very sensitive and after a little while, amidst all the cheering, Benji’s long ears began to pick up some whispers from people at the back of the crowd, people who said they didn’t like Jesus and even that they wanted to kill him. When he heard this, Benji began to shake again, but the man on his back gently patted him and said again; ‘Not today little donkey, not today.’
So, reassured once more, Benji trotted on right through a gate in the wall and into the city of Jerusalem, right up to the temple.

When they arrived there, Jesus jumped off Benji’s back, ‘ thank you, little donkey’ he said, ‘now you go back home with your mother and rest – well done little donkey, well done.’
Benji was so happy, he didn’t want to leave, but after rubbing Jesus’ arm with his muzzle one more, he turned and trotted back up the hill with his mother.

When he got home, he turned his head and looked at the city of Jerusalem once more and he wondered what Jesus was doing now. Then, as his gaze again took in the rubbish tip, a big tear rolled down his face and he heard that gentle voice saying ‘not today, not today, little donkey’ and he wondered what tomorrow might bring……

Joyce M Smith 2021

An angel called my name

Joseph’s dream. Vatican news.
Copyright © 2017-2025 Dicasterium pro Communicatione – All rights reserved.

On March 19^th, the Church remembered St. Joseph, husband to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though often rather like the ‘man in background’, Joseph played a vital and significant role in the birth of Jesus and did so in obedience to the will of God.
God communicated that will through the message of an angel and did so on 4 occasions. These dreams are all narrated by the writer of St. Matthew’s Gospel. (Chapter 1 verse 18ff, and Chapter 2)
In the first dream the angel assures Joseph that, despite his misgivings, it is God who has chosen him to be Mary’s husband and watch over her as she is pregnant with the son of God, Jesus. He is to be the protector, guide and provider of love and security to the Holy Family, to Jesus in his infancy.

The other dreams are instructions from God. In the 2^nd dream, Joseph is warned to flee with Mary and Jesus when King Herod ordered the massacre of the innocent babies and young children in order to do away with the one who might be a threat to Herod’s kingdom. Joseph flees to Egypt. The third dream tells Joseph that Herod’s death means it is safe to return home but the 4^th dream tells Joseph that there is still some possibility of harm so Joseph must avoid Judea and settle instead in Galilee.

Taking the theme of the first dream, a friend wrote a poem which she gave to me as a special gift. I have her permission to make it known to others, so here it is.

Joseph’s Carol ~ An Angel called my name

Blessed am I, blessed of all men.
When dark had quenched the light of day
A holy angel came; an angel called my name
I am not good, not free from sin,
Yet, as I slept and dreaming lay
An angel called my name.

A simple artisan, someone
Of humble birth, thinks not to see
A holy angel bright. An angel came that night
Through cool moonlight to sleeping world,
From cloud-streaked sky to speak to me,
An angel came that night.

Though humble, yet I count as one
Whose lineage of David came.
The angel seemed so near: the angel voice was clear:
“And Mary shall bring forth a Son.
God wills that Jesus be his name”
The angel voice was clear.

And when that Holy Child was born,
In Bethlehem, of David’s line,
The angels came to see. The angel melody
the dark sky filled. So from that dawn
I played my part in God’s design.
Oh God. My thanks to Thee.

(by Julia Edmonds)

[Mr G]

Emerging Love

*Hawkshead Church in early morning mist. Photo by Gill Henwood.*

This photo was taken by my friend, Gill Henwood and is of Hawkshead Church emerging from the morning mist.
This mist speaks to me of ‘revealing’, of something that will become clearer as the mist rises; of a beauty present but not yet fully defined.

Today is the time the Christian Church remembers the Conversion of St. Paul, the moment when all that clouded his mind and darkened his thoughts, were lifted by an encounter with the Risen Christ.
We are told of it in the Book of Acts, chapter 9 verses 1 to 19.

Paul or as he was then known, Saul, a zealous Jewish Rabbi, had made it his mission to persecute Christians, those Jews who had chosen to follow the teaching of the Apostles about Jesus. He was responsible for the death and imprisonment of many and was thus thwarting the work of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus.

Something had to be done to stop him and it was the Risen Christ who did so. As Paul travelled along the road to Damascus, the Risen Christ appeared and light flashed around him. Paul was blinded by the light and fell to the ground. It was as if a dark mist enveloped him and in the darkness Jesus challenged him, Why are you persecuting me?’ Paul asked who he was and the revelation came to him that it was Jesus.
Paul’s heart was converted but though his eyes were opened, he could still not see. First, his spiritual blindness had to be lifted; something Jesus arranged and then Paul became the great champion of Christianity he was destined by God to be.

For me there is something autobiographical in Paul’s famous passage in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13.
Having written his classic definition of ‘love’, He made the point that only love will carry us through to the heart of God and that is both our faith and hope.
He referred back to his own lack of understanding of the power of God’s love (verse 8 following) and reminds us that on our spiritual journey we move, often haltingly, to a deeper knowledge of love, as God shares His divine love with us. At first our perception of God’s love is as if we are looking through a mirror dimly’ or as the King James Version puts it, through a glass darkly, but then, as God continues to reveal his Love to us, we shall one day meet Him as Love face to face.

Gill’s photograph of Hawkshead Church suggests to me another illustration of this. Our experience of God’s love for us, may seem at times to be as if we are looking through the mist of understanding. It contains all that will be revealed but we must let God work in our souls as he did in Paul’s. Then, slowly but surely, the mist will lift and the glorious vision will open our eyes and our hearts to a deep and abiding love.
In the photo we already see the promise coming clearer. The scene contains all that needs to be revealed. So that is for us. If we open ourselves to the possibility of God lifting from us all that prevents His love to flourish, then it will become a reality.

The Conversion of Saint Paul

Brooding mist
blurs edges of perception.
Colours muted.
A whisper of wind kisses the air
rippling through the soul.
Visibility impaired,
a cloak of quietness drawn across the mind.
Stilling all movement.
Intentions passionately held,
melt into deep darkness.
Yet this is not the cause of fearfulness
nor of despair.
Out of the shadows,
of seeing “through a glass darkly”
there is a pinprick of growing light
which slowly, perceptively,
burns away the haze
as new vision takes shape.

A Voice,
crisp, gently directive,
unfettered by illusion,
beckons,
touching eyes to see a wonder,
“face to face.”
The waypath is irrevocably changed.

[Mr. G. Conversion of Paul. 25th January ]

The Burning Bush

BURNING BUSH – a pondering on Exodus 3: 1-15 (4-17)

Arresting attention, the bush burned by the wayside,
impossible to ignore, flame beckoning. A sign of glory.
Tongues of fire, like hands waving to excite our curiosity
“Come Near!”
A way of saying, Come and See”; God’s words of calling us.

An angel appeared in the midst of the fire, becoming flame.
Moses didn’t flinch. In those days Angels were common-place and expected.
Doers of God’s bidding, as they still do today but people have a tendency to rationalize away what they prefer not to understand.

Then God spoke, like a friend hiding in a favourite place, waiting.
“Moses! Moses!” Urgent, eager.
Disturbing too because whenever God calls us by Name it so often means that in some way we are about to change the direction of our life.
– Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Mary and Joseph, Mary of Magdala, Peter, Paul….
The well tried and tested vocational call which is not entirely about doing something but
a recognition that we are called to become someone.
“I call you by Name, you are mine.”
We are more truly children of God who comes to be with us.
“Immanuel”.

“Here I am” says Moses.
God invites him to take off his sandals for the ground is Holy.
It is infused with God’s presence.
This is the language of pilgrimage, an intentional journey to the heart of God.
“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

What he hears is that The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, has a plan,
He has heard His people’s cry. They are burdened and brought low by the oppression of Pharaoh.
“I intend to free them” says God, “and you’re going to help me.”
He then tells Moses his intention.

Despite the heat, a shiver of uncertainty and fear works quickly through him.
He would prefer God to be silent just now.

It does not escape his attention that God is sending him to Pharaoh, in whose family he was brought up. How can he stand against the might of Pharaoh?
Like so many whom God calls to some new task or way of life, excuses are sought and made. Moses stutters his way to a reason why it should be others. “Here am I, send someone else.”

When I was at School and I hadn’t done my homework, I would make up not one but usually about three excuses, just in case the first one failed. They all failed of course!
It feels a bit like that with Moses. He’s scared of Pharoh; the people of Israel won’t accept him; they won’t believe God has sent him; he can’t talk eloquently and he stutters; besides which he has a murky past. Oh dear!
It won’t convince God.

But Moses has a point. He really could imagine the peoples’ reaction when he told them of the bush that burned but was not consumed and of an angel suddenly greeting him from the middle of it; and of God suddenly talking to him;
Surely they would think him either mad or drunk!
“Just tell them that I sent you”.
“But they’ll want to know who you are. What could I tell them. What is your Name?”

Oh, that again! They always want to know so much. “Who are you, Lord?”

Precisely that! I am the Lord who will now give you what sounds a bit like a riddle.
“I AM WHO I AM”. So, Moses was to tell them that I AM has sent him.
God reveals who He IS. He is the One who is. He is the heart of all Being.
HE has brought into being the life of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses himself, and of all Creation, including you and you and you ….
The Name of God is forever and He is Lord for all generations. Because God IS, We ARE.

It took a bit more to convince Moses that he was the right person and he probably wished that he hadn’t taken notice of the Burning Bush but he could not deny that God had spoken with him and that God was absolute Being and was with him.

So in everything that followed, Moses could pray as we can pray:

Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour and the majesty;
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you,
and of your own do we give you.

Chronicles 29:14

[Mr G}