Dear All,
Despite a tendency I have to want to cling on to summer as long as I can, by now I think we have to accept that we are in Autumn. Without doubt it is a glorious season. We see such amazing colours & hear so many sounds that tell us that leaves are falling especially if there is a lot of wind as there has been. Much has been written about this season & not just about the physical sights & sounds. We hear, for instance, the phrase, ‘the autumn years’ of our lives referring to older people. And a lot has been written about that stage of life as well. Today we have more or less stuck with the sights & sounds but next week we will look a bit at ‘autumn years’.
We hope that you have a chance and time this week to spend a bit of time out & about seeing beautiful trees with their wonderful colours.
The blessing is ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ – there is no doubt of our world’s need for it.
With our love & wishing you a peace-filled week,
Info re Evening Prayer: consequent of Stephen’s death, there will be no Evening Prayer in the Blessed Sacrament church on Tuesday 7 October. Also, there will be no zoomed Evening Prayer on Monday 6 October. Nor will there be Evening Prayer in Blessed Sacrament on October 8th (our Foundation Day).
“Autumn leads the seasons in modeling the sacred practice of recycling. What seems to die bespeaks a quiet truth: that which falls into the earth is never lost. The earth receives it and preserves it. Thus it becomes a nurturing source for new beginnings as another cycle of growth arises. This miracle of transformation is autumn’s prayer.”
Macrina Wiederkehr
Delicious Autumn!
My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird
I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns!
George Eliot
God’s World
O World, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, the wide grey skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart – Lord I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me,–let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
“My autumn memories as a child have deepened in me as I have grown older. They draw me into a season that engenders gratitude for both the material and spiritual harvests of years gone by. It is a season rich with wisdom, reminding me time and time again to treasure the beauty, appreciate what is, and then, let go when it is time.”
Joyce Rupp
O seeds sprung loose from dying plants,
Come! Come teach us to be generative.
Carry us to places where we can take root.
Encourage the seed of our love to fall freely.
Gift us with the grace of surrender.
O Come!