Here I am, Lord, stuck in the messiness of my everyday life and in my (mostly minor, but disappointing) failings and failures; downhearted again. It seems, and almost certainly is, way too self-obsessive, but nevertheless, it is there.
Help me, Lord; lift me out of the doldrums. Help me to see things in the wider perspective and also to see that the needs of others and the little things I can actually do to help, are far more important than the mistakes I make and the 'fed-up-ness' I feel!
Amen
PS Oh, how much I need you to help me keep my mind on an even keel and my 'show' on the road! Thank you for always being there, for listening and helping.
Sunday, 25 June 2017
Two quick prayers for the day
Dear God,
Please help me to be and do the best I can.
Be with me today every step of the way.
Thank you, Amen.
Please help me to be and do the best I can.
Be with me today every step of the way.
Thank you, Amen.
Monday, 19 June 2017
About knowing and finding what we are looking for
There is only one place where we will find everything we are looking for
and that is in the arms of Jesus.
He is the Man for All Seasons and for all people,
for all the times and tides of our lives.
Young and old, fit and strong, weak and weary - come to him.
He is waiting with outstretched arms. If we run and fall into them, we will be eternally comforted and consoled, held and strengthened to take whatever life may send our way. Why would anyone hold back?
We need look no further.
and that is in the arms of Jesus.
He is the Man for All Seasons and for all people,
for all the times and tides of our lives.
Young and old, fit and strong, weak and weary - come to him.
He is waiting with outstretched arms. If we run and fall into them, we will be eternally comforted and consoled, held and strengthened to take whatever life may send our way. Why would anyone hold back?
We need look no further.
About service and worry
Two thoughts came to me recently.
In service, lies happiness.
Turn a worry into a prayer.
In service, lies happiness.
Turn a worry into a prayer.
Sunday, 18 June 2017
Farewell to Julian of Norwich
I had decided to end my extracts from this marvellous treasury of images of our loving God and leave others to explore its delights if they so chose. There was just one more phrase that had stayed with me which I wanted to share and, rather than have to skip through all the chapters to find it, I decided to use google.
I wrote, "I it am", and, lo and behold, someone had been there before me; and how!! Google was full of beautiful extracts, in the same entrancing language. Just three words can lead you into this wonderful world of the love of God.
I now know that the images of "I it am" are from chapter 26 and there they are in Wikiquote for all to delve within and relish and fall under their spell.
I first heard of Julian in my mid-thirties and her visions resonated immediately in my heart. When I found that she was born more or less 600 years before me and that she wrote of the infinite love of God, the utter conviction of which has sustained me throughout my life, I felt an immediate bond with her.
This is the God in whom I believe with all my heart and mind. This is the God of loving truth and truthful love, the only God worth giving one's life for and to. I cannot imagine that a more beautiful picture of the 'homely loving' of Our 'Courteous Lord' could be found anywhere in the written word.
I wrote, "I it am", and, lo and behold, someone had been there before me; and how!! Google was full of beautiful extracts, in the same entrancing language. Just three words can lead you into this wonderful world of the love of God.
I now know that the images of "I it am" are from chapter 26 and there they are in Wikiquote for all to delve within and relish and fall under their spell.
I first heard of Julian in my mid-thirties and her visions resonated immediately in my heart. When I found that she was born more or less 600 years before me and that she wrote of the infinite love of God, the utter conviction of which has sustained me throughout my life, I felt an immediate bond with her.
This is the God in whom I believe with all my heart and mind. This is the God of loving truth and truthful love, the only God worth giving one's life for and to. I cannot imagine that a more beautiful picture of the 'homely loving' of Our 'Courteous Lord' could be found anywhere in the written word.
Sunday, 4 June 2017
From Julian of Norwich on the immensity God's love of God
Revelations of Divine Love
The Eighth Chapter
........I understood........the blissful Godhead that ever was, is, and ever shall be: Almighty, All-Wisdom, All-Love.........For well I wot that heaven and earth and all that is made is great and large, fair and good; but the cause it shewed so little to my sight was for that I saw it in the presence of him that is the Maker of all things: for to a soul that seeth the Maker of all, all that is made seemeth full little........... he that made all-thing for love, by the same love keepeth (it), and it is kept and shall be without end.............God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the goodness that everything hath, it is he.
In all this I was greatly stirred in charity to mine even-Christians, that they might see and know the same that I saw: for I would it were comfort to them.
And therefore I pray you all for God's sake, and counsel you for your own profit, that ye.........meekly behold God that of his courteous love and endless goodness would shew (this Vision....of our Lord God) generally, in comfort of us all. For it is God's will that ye take it with great joy and liking, as if Jesus had shewed it unto you all.
The Eighth Chapter
........I understood........the blissful Godhead that ever was, is, and ever shall be: Almighty, All-Wisdom, All-Love.........For well I wot that heaven and earth and all that is made is great and large, fair and good; but the cause it shewed so little to my sight was for that I saw it in the presence of him that is the Maker of all things: for to a soul that seeth the Maker of all, all that is made seemeth full little........... he that made all-thing for love, by the same love keepeth (it), and it is kept and shall be without end.............God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the goodness that everything hath, it is he.
In all this I was greatly stirred in charity to mine even-Christians, that they might see and know the same that I saw: for I would it were comfort to them.
And therefore I pray you all for God's sake, and counsel you for your own profit, that ye.........meekly behold God that of his courteous love and endless goodness would shew (this Vision....of our Lord God) generally, in comfort of us all. For it is God's will that ye take it with great joy and liking, as if Jesus had shewed it unto you all.
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