The drawing above of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus is by my artist friend, Kay Gibbons. It was recently exhibited in The Oxford Arts Society Show. Kate works in various mediums, especially stained glass; glass sculpture; water colour; sculpture; oil and much more. Her designs are often striking and bold and she has a tremendous eye for colour. To see more examples of her work, visit her on Instagram. (PS, I am a big fan!)
A Thought on Mothering Sunday from Kay
When all around is busy , crazy and chaotic … I like to sit quietly and draw and think and ponder and wonder… about this , that and the other …..
[Kay Gibbons]
Mothering Sunday is aChristian holy day, celebrated throughout Europe, that falls on the 4th Sunday inLent. It is a time when we traditionally celebrate the church as the place where our Christian family finds its home.In the past many people worked away from home—many children in service to big households—but on this day they were given time off to return home to their families, and to their ‘mother church’. They would pick flowers along the way to give to their mothers. It was also a day in Lent when the rules about fasting were relaxed, and it was a time when special Easter cakes were prepared, so it also became known as Refreshment Sunday, Pudding Pie Sunday and Simnel Sunday – after the practice of baking Simnel cakes to celebrate the reuniting of families during Lent. Mother’s Day** is a more recent invention when is a celebration of the role of mothers and families. It is celebrated on the same day that Mothering Sunday so the two celebrations have now been combined.
{ ** mothers’ day is kept at another time of the year in the USA and other places}
A Prayer on Mothering Sunday and beyond
Loving God, you have given us the right to be called children of God.Help us to show your love in our homes that they may be places of love, security and truth. Loving God, Jesus, your Son, was born into the family of Mary and Joseph; bless all parents and all who care for children; strengthen those families living under stress and may your love be known where no human love is found.Loving God, we thank you for the family of the Church. We pray that all may find in her their true home; that the lonely, the marginalized, the rejected may be welcomed and loved in the name of Jesus.Loving God, as we see the brokenness of our world we pray for healing among the nations; for food where there is hunger; for freedom where there is oppression; for joy where there is pain; that your love may bring peace to all your children. Amen
Windflowers photographed in the Lake District by Gill Henwood. Anemone or the windflower. Its name comes from the Greek word ánemos, meaning “wind.”
The Wood Anemone (a.k.a. Windflower),Opens to herald the Spring equinox, the turning of the season from dark to light. This is the time of renewed hope for the world through the Easter journey of Jesus. This journey began when the Angel Gabriel visited God’s chosen Christ-bearer, Mary of Nazareth, in the event the Christian church celebrated earlier this week – The annunciation. It was a momentous encounter. A new beginning. One which Jesus brought to us from God. It was a journey filled with joy, challenge and a ‘Word’ crafted in the heart of heaven and delivered to us as the Good News (Gospel). This ‘Word’ of God’s supreme and total Love for us and all who inhabit the earth, was not only spoken. It was ‘lived’ by Jesus at the very centre of his being because it is what defines him. He knew the power of darkness and unlove and he entered into the darkness and struggles of human life. He also knew what overcomes it. Sheer love of God which St John reminds us, at the beginning of his Gospel account, is the Light shining in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1: v5). Nor can it do so.
Even when the darkness tried to destroy Jesus on the Cross, on Good Friday, it failed because in the Crucifixion of Jesus we see and know and inherit the immense and unquenchable Love of God. That love will prevail and has continued to do so over two thousand centuries. We have to accept and receive it and be changed by it. In these globally dark days where some of our number are trying to have absolute power over us and many lives are being destroyed by war or through pain inflicted on them, we need to remind ourselves that it is God who will prevail. He arms us, who are his friends on earth, with simple armour – His Love. The more we use it, the more hatred and misuse of power will be challenged and will not prevail.
The Windflower tells us the time is coming, the wind of the Spirit is rustling away the winter and soon the Light of the World will shine. The little flower has endured the darkness of Winter but it has prevailed. May that be a message to all of us whatever we believe. We conquer evil with love. There is no other way.
[Mr G with inspiration and contribution from Gill Henwood]
One Sunday afternoon in heaven, a wing of Guardian Angels met God and he noticed their glum faces. “Why are you looking so miserable”, God asked. “We’re bored” they replied. “How can you be bored! You have so many humans to look after, and animals too.” “That’s the trouble,” Angel Anthropos said. “Many of the humans aren’t much fun and right now so many of them are anxious and sad.” “Some are downright wicked” said Angel Pax. Angel Vocalis, ever one to put in its opinion, added that, “many are just dull. “and,” said Angel Gloriana, “so many of them keeping asking for things for themselves. Some of them think they are so important that they want bigger and better homes, cars, boats, holidays. They are possessed by their possessions. They don’t care about anybody else. Angel Anthropos concluded, “There is no joy or colour in their lives.”
God smiled at his little group of angels whom he loved so dearly. Then he shook his head and sighed, “I know just what you mean. So many dark things are going on at the moment, causing many of the little ones to suffer. The vulnerable ones have so many things to deal with. That’s why they need their Guardian Angels now more than ever. The Angels twitched their wings and began to feel guilty, though God reminded them that there in no room for guilt in heaven. You must brush away your guilt with love. Go and love those in your care more than ever. They knew God was right, of course, but it was hard to do that right now.
Then God smiled. “I know a way to cheer you up, and maybe some of the humans too.” He beckoned them into his studio where he kept his art material. It was the Creative heart of heaven where God made things. The Angels noticed the design of a tiny flower. Angel Vocalis said that, though it was pretty, the flower didn’t look that much. It was hardly worth making. Then he flung a wing over his mouth, “Sorry, Father God, I shouldn’t have said that.” “Don’t worry,” God replied, “who gave you your mind to think, to have opinions, to speak. But let me tell you about this flower. As you say, it’s tiny and most people won’t notice it. It could so easily be ignored. That’s why I’ve painted it pinky-purple with dark foliage – and there’s something I want to show you but I need all your help.” The angels looked at God expectantly. “I’ve made lots of copies and I need you to colour them in for me. Now get on with that whilst I go to Evensong and listen to all the voices singing throughout the world, and listen to their prayers.
After God had gone, the Angels got busy and carefully and quietly painted the flowers and the foliage. A hush descended as it often did when they were doing creative things. It also helped that they were absorbed doing part of God’s work. As they worked skillfully, they remembered how much of Himself God poured into the things he made – including themselves. The secret was that everything was made by Love as love.
When God returned he brought the Holy Spirit with Him and together they examined what the angels had done. “Tove!, Tove!” said the Spirit, which was a Hebrew word meaning Good, Beautiful. The angels were pleased because God was pleased. They all looked at their paintings and loved them. The tiny flowers were bursting with life. God agreed that they were little and would be dwarfed by bigger, brighter, more showy flowers. Some would be hidden by the grass and would be mown when the grass was cut but God had a plan, as always!
First, he explained something very important. He told the angels, “It’s not always the big flowers, or the big things or big people who show people what I am like, nor is it always by big gestures that people serve me. My dear daughter, St Teresa of Calcutta , once reminded people that we don’t necessarily do big things in our life but rather little things with a big love. These little flowers are signs that we can bring beauty and peace and love to others by the little things we do – smiles, thoughtfulness, acts of kindness, just ordinary things which make others feel better and wanted and loved.” “Now put your paintings next to each other”.
When they did, there was a carpet of colour and the table, the floor, everywhere was covered in beauty. Then God, the Holy Spirit blew on them and the little flowers came alive and danced, and danced. And as they swirled to the music the Holy Spirit made, tiny seeds flew from the flowers. “Catch them!” said God, and they did. “Go now” said God as he smiled on them and they were filled with joy. “Be off with you to the earth especially to dark and sad and lonely people who need brightening up, but go everywhere – cast the seeds all over the place. It’s the tiny seeds of love which bring joy to life, even in the difficult and broken places. Place some of your seeds gently in the cracks and reclaim people’s hearts with beauty and love. May these little flowers bring hope and joy and remind people that little things make a big difference, especially when those little things are joined to each other in a big carpet of love and care.
“Tove! Tove!” said the Holy Spirit, blowing God’s love over them… and they went gladly and willingly.
photo by Mr G
It is in little things that we show people what God is like. Simple things like caring, smiling, showing people that they matter and are valued, holding a hand, giving a hug, acts of practical kindness, praying for people, breathing God’s love over them. It is such things that really change the world and make it a better place. Every time you see a little flower, give thanks to God for making it and breathing the same love into it as He does into us …. And remember the words from the Book of Genesis: “and God saw all that He had made, and it was very good”.
St Non’s Well where St David is said to have been baptized near St. David’s. Photo Mr G
‘Gwnewch y pethau bychai’ – do the little things.These are the famous last words of St. DAVID (Dewi Sant). We remember them especially today, the 1st March) which is his feast day.
Not far from St. David’s Cathedral in Wales, there is a lovely scenic walk along the coastal headlands to a place where St. David is reputed to have been born in the 6th century. It is said that David’s mother, Saint Non, gave birth to David in a house on the site of an ancient chapel and nearby there is a small well bubbling up from the ground and forming a little pool before cascading away. Today it is known as St. Non’s Well because tradition says that it first sprung up at the time David was born. The water is said to have healing and miraculous powers. It is regarded as one of the most sacred Wells in Wales. It certainly feels a holy place – one of those spots where you sense that God’s grace has been specially dispensed. Visitors to the well strew garlands of flowers and herbs in the pool of water and some, like me, fill water bottles with the crystal clear spring water. Cupping one’s hand and letting the water trickle through the fingers is a delicious sensation.
David himself was very fond of water – the only liquid he drank, except the wine of the Eucharist. He and his followers were known as the Aquati because of this. Perhaps, too, David’s affinity with water stems from the legend which surrounds his birth. He is said to have been born in the midst of a terrific thunderstorm!
St. Non, David’s mother, was the daughter of a local chieftain and she is said to have been made pregnant (perhaps even by force) by Prince Sant of the royal house of Ceredigion. Some say he was King. Whatever the circumstance of the pregnancy, Sant seems to have tried to make amends by renouncing his kingdom after David’s birth and following the life of a hermit.
David himself eventually became a monk and a scholar. He is said to have founded 12 monasteries and certainly many came to him to learn the Christian faith. Of those, quite a few went on missionary journeys to Cornwall and to Brittany. There they established the faith and proclaimed the Gospel. David continued to live in Wales but his reputation for holiness and scholarship, as a spiritual warrior, spread throughout Europe.
He and his monks lived a simple life of prayer, worship and study. They ate frugally on a diet of vegetables with water. Not all his monks approved of this and it is said that a group of them were so fed up that they tried to poison him! Hagiography is not always noted for its accuracy!
It was as death approached that David prepared himself for his final words to his monks and nuns. According to his chief biographer, Rhgyfarch, himself a son of a later Bishop of St. David’s, David gathered his loved ones to his side and spoke these words:
Be joyful and keep the faith and do the little things that you saw and heard from me.
The little things which David taught included prayer, being present for the breaking of bread at the Eucharist; reading scripture; speaking only when necessary and helping the poor. He believed also that we should have a deep respect for others. Learning to listen to each other with real love is a way towards greater understanding but it also leads to godliness. We are encouraged to be lowly, possessing a humility which never expresses itself arrogantly and which steers us away from pride. He also set great store on hospitality – always being ‘at home’ for others and for God – having time for both. There are so many big, dark things happening in our world today and we might wonder what doing some little things can make such a difference. You would be amazed – in fact do be amazed!
It is the little things we do in Christ’s name which matter most. Mother Teresa of Calcutta expressed much the same thing when she said that she and her sisters didn’t do great things but rather little things with a great love. St. David would have approved of that. Mother Teresa points us to one particular thing we can do more than anything else and it is suggested by the lovely Saint John of the Cross.
Where there is no love, put love in, and then you will draw love out!
That will change everything in a world of great sorrow and need.
Mr G's Ponderings 