Dear All,
Today is the Feast of the Annunciation – ‘Lady Day’ as it used to be known. Two of the attachments are related to the feast – the ‘Mother of Sorrows’ & the ‘Loving God, Maternal God’ – the other two remind us that we are in Lent – we repent of our insufficient care of the created world. We still have a while to go before we reach Easter so let’s renew our efforts to get closer to our Creator, to others & to the created world of which we are a part.
The blessing today is ‘Bless to me, O God’ from Heavenly Peace. Let’s pray it for all those who are pregnant currently & hoping for a healthy baby but remembering that pregnancy can be a very worrying time especially when things are not straightforward.
Easter time:
On Maundy Thursday, Good Friday & Holy Saturday we will be ‘zooming’ reflections. Do join us – length no more than 30mins.
Maundy Thursday at 5.30pm – link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83691405900?pwd=YitBa0xmcEpFbjB2RERaVHRZcll4dz09
Meeting ID: 836 9140 5900
Passcode: 505659
Good Friday at 7pm – link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83821189101?pwd=NHYreFJvSEY2YkVHeXkwbTZVSW4xdz09
Meeting ID: 838 2118 9101
Passcode: 090093
Holy Saturday at 10am – link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88496408183?pwd=VU9vWENhMFFBVXJaN2VkVXE0eGY2dz09
Meeting ID: 884 9640 8183
Passcode: 637731
If you don’t choose to ‘zoom’ on Holy Saturday we are also leading a ‘live’ reflection at 11.30am, (again no more than 30 minutes), in Blessed Sacrament Church, Melbourne Av. CM1 2DU. Anyone is very welcome.
Also, although we don’t usually ‘zoom’ Evening Prayer on a Saturday, on Holy Saturday, (8th April) we will have Evening Prayer at 5.30pm. The link is
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87386676086?pwd=N2FLZmdnUkVqcTRuT2IyV2NvZWg2UT09
Meeting ID: 873 8667 6086
Passcode: 173662
Yes, you’ve guessed it! Holy Saturday is a big day for us! (Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre).
With our love & prayer
The Compassionate Mother of Sorrows
Mary is the feminine embodiment of the divine quality of compassion. For centuries she has been given the title ‘Mother of Sorrows’ or ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’ because of the heartaches she experienced as the mother of Jesus & because her sorrows symbolise the many pains that continue to pierce human lives today. Mary, standing at the foot of the cross of her son, clearly portrays the compassionate person who enters fully into the pain of another.
Compassion is about being with others in their suffering. It is about entering into that pain in such a way that one is no longer an observer but an integral participant. Compassion does not mean ‘feeling sorry’ for someone. Rather, compassion is to ‘get inside the skin’ of the one who hurts, to experience with him or her the pain that is there, to sense a kinship with the one who is suffering. Before we can be compassionate with others, we must first enter our own suffering & extend loving kindness to ourselves.
Joyce Rupp
Loving God, maternal God,
You are indeed full of surprises.
You are always bringing to birth.
You visited Mary
and made of her
a model for all women.
Mary visited Elizabeth
and touched by grace,
left us with
a legacy of praise,
a hint of future miracles,
experience of God’s ways:
the lowly are uplifted,
the powerful overthrown,
the hungry offered sustenance,
the resources of the wealthy given
to the underprivileged class.
Thank you, God of all people,
for revealing your feminine face.
Visit us now, & always,
with your renewing grace.
For this way pray.
Amen.
ANON
Prayer of Reconciliation
Lord, all your living creatures are yours,
blessed by you.
Yet, we herd and pen them
as if we had created them.
They have no life
apart for our allowing.
Yet, in spite of our ‘efficiency’
many people are hungry.
Have mercy.
Lord, we pray for empathy
for your creatures’ needs:
for community, for companionship,
and freedom from distress.
Help us to pay heed to the call
to tend and nurture;
help us to cooperate with you
and be your image for them.
IONA
Litany for Creation
The pain of the earth is raw,
like the pain of a mother
whose children are torn
from the softness and warmth of her breast.
The creatures of the earth are torn
from their land
their ancestors roamed,
from the source of their health and renewal.
Humankind has been tearing the earth
and burning without limitation;
we consume the fruits of the fields,
pollute the rivers and streams.
And so creation is bound
in a terrible cycle of death
denying God’s promise to every creature
held close to her heart.
We must rise in the freedom we have,
repent of our failure to care,
restore a just balance to earth
by letting it teach us to love.
So might creation be healed
and God’s heart be eased of its pain.
Yvonne Morland