Dear All,
We are well on our journey through Lent so we have chosen to reflect this week on that journey with all it brings. It will bring different things to each of us but quite often our very efforts to make the journey one where we deepen our relationships with God & with others, can make us more aware of our brokenness. One of the reflections is an insightful piece on this by Henri Nouwen. We hope it will help make more sense of the suffering that accompanies an experience of brokenness.
For our blessing this week we have ‘Deep Peace’ from ‘Sacred Pathways’. Ukraine is in most urgent need of prayer so let’s include all who are suffering in our blessing.
Deep peace of the running wave to you;
Deep peace of the flowing air to you;
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you;
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you;
Deep peace, deep peace.
Wishing you another good week of our Lenten Journey, & with love
Reflections:
Maundy Thursday 14.4.22: Reflection on the Washing of the Feet – 5.30pm. (about 25/30 mins)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88261672004?pwd=Qng3bjBMZHV4UzY3Ylo0SHZrc2EyUT09 ID: 882 6167 2004 Passcode: 987291
Good Friday 15.4.22: Reflection: What is this day about?
7pm. (about 25/30 mins)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82900556488?pwd=dGNVd0d5a3diclg1MUlZc0dGTUZ2QT09 ID: 829 0055 6488 Passcode: 060489
Holy Saturday 16.4.22: Reflection: A Forgotten Day?
10am (about 25/30 mins)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85148484877?pwd=RVZpMDZuNEVvSmpVSmF4TXJMaDFkQT09 ID: 851 4848 4877 Passcode: 042996
ALSO: LIVE in Blessed Sacrament Church on Holy Saturday 16.4.22. at 11.30am – A Reflection for Holy Saturday.
Brokenness
The great task is to allow God’s blessing to touch us in our brokenness. Then our brokenness will gradually come to be seen as an opening towards the full acceptance of ourselves as the Beloved of God. This explains why true joy can be experienced in the midst of great suffering. It is the joy of being disciplined, purified & pruned. Just as athletes who experience great pain as they run the race, can, at the same time, taste the joy that they are coming closer to their goal, so also can the Beloved experience suffering as a way to the deeper communion for which they yearn. Here joy & sorrow are no longer each other’s opposites, but have become the two sides of the same desire to grow to the fullness of the Beloved.
Henri Nouwen
Lead us on our Journey.
Move us on our journey
from where we are to where you want us to go.
Open our eyes on the way
to the people of different cultures, continents and countries,
who can bring colour to our lives.
Take us on our journey
from where we are to what you want us to be;
so that we become a community
where all are welcomed and no one is excluded,
all are valued and no one is made to feel inadequate,
all are forgiven and no one is ashamed to belong,
all are encouraged and no one is too hurt to come among us.
Lead us on our journey
from who we are to who you want us to be;
so that patience is built into us,
kindness is assumed in us,
gentleness is part of us,
compassion flows from us,
truth is second nature to us,
and the commitment of love is part of us.
Let us go gladly on the journey towards Easter –
the journey towards death and resurrection.
Let us journey in the peace and power of the Spirit.
Ruth Harvey
A Canticle for Lent
Praise be to God,
calling us to the strangest of ways,
turning us inside out, upside down,
revealing a new world to eyes that are open.
Fools to the world, we know the wisdom of God.
Unknown, we cannot be ignored.
Dying, we still live on.
Disciplined by suffering, we are not beaten down.
Knowing sorrow, we have always cause for joy.
Poor ourselves, we make many rich.
Penniless, we own the world.
Praise be to God,
calling us to the strangest of ways,
turning us inside out, upside down,
revealing a new world to eyes that are open.
Steadfastly, we turn our wills towards God,
to meet hardships & afflictions,
hunger & weariness, illness & failure,
with sincerity, insight, patience, kindness,
speaking the truth in love,
resilient in the power of the Spirit.
Praise be to God,
calling us to the strangest of ways,
turning us inside out, upside down,
revealing a new world to eyes that are open.
Praise be to God!
O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly.
I entered into it with fear,
but also with great expectations.
I hoped for a great breakthrough,
a powerful conversion, a real change of heart;
I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light
that not even a trace of darkness
would be left in my soul.
But I know that you do not come to your people
with thunder and lightning.
Even St. Paul and St. Francis
journeyed through much darkness
before they could see your light.
Let me be thankful for your gentle way.
I know you are at work.
I know you will not leave me alone.
I know you are quickening me for Easter –
but in a way fitting to my own history
and my own temperament.
I pray that these last weeks,
in which you invite me to enter more fully
into the mystery of your passion,
will bring me a great desire to follow you
on the way that you create for me
and to accept the cross that you give to me.
Let me die to the desire
to choose my own way and select my own cross.
You do not want to make me a hero
but a servant who loves you.
Be with me today, tomorrow, and in the days to come,
and let me experience your gentle presence.
Henri Nouwen