Dear All,
I imagine many of us are making physical journeys around this time – holidays, visiting family & friends, and so on……. But we are all journeying on in life – some will be having a good patch right now – smooth, level paths – but others may be having a struggle & everything is seeming uneven, uphill & so on. Wherever we are in our journey, we hope that in the reflections this week you will find some resonance immediately or that you will be able to store up for the future.
If you are on the move we hope you are having some relaxation & are enjoying good company & some new sights & sounds.
We have the ‘Irish Blessing’ this week from Sacred Weave. We will pray it for all of you & anyone you are concerned about at this time.
With our love Margaret & Moira
Info re Saturday Reflection & Evening Prayer:
We won’t be sending out Saturday Reflections in August – (refuelling!)
We aren’t able to zoom Evening Prayer on Sunday 27th nor Monday 28th July – with apologies.
Looking further ahead the zoomed Evening Prayer on Thursday 14 August (& Friday 15 August for Community) will be the last one until Monday 1st September.
After that more or less ‘normal service will be resumed’! However, on the Sunday of the following weekend, (Sunday 7 September), there will be no zoomed Evening Prayer – Christina’s Jubilee.
For those who join us in the Blessed Sacrament Church, there will be no Evening Prayer there from Tuesday 5 August until we start again on Tuesday 2 September.
A Pilgrim’s Companion Psalm
The road home, O God, seems long
and at times is difficult and painful.
Grant me a holy communion, a companionship with others,
as I journey homeward to you.
I live in times of great trial:
an age of change sits at my door.
I can so easily loose the way,
can be led astray by illusions of holiness,
misguided by my ego’s desires.
Open my eyes to your precious gift
of the Church’s Communion of Saints.
“Saint” is a name I would never call myself,
but the treasury of my faith
teaches me about my holy birthright,
that I am part of the web of sacred communion,
uniting me with all other home-bound pilgrims
and with all who now rejoice
at their homecoming in you.
May I feed this day upon the food
of this mystic, holy communion
with those friends and fellow pilgrims
with whom I share this planet Earth,
as well as those saints now fully one with you.
May this awareness of my companion journey
with all the saints
deepen my life of prayer
and fertilize my faith in you, my Beloved.
By this communion of holy ones
may I be daily challenged
to greater compassion and charity
as I walk the way of the pilgrim.
God, Our Fellow Traveller
The many names from Abraham to Jesus are certainly not saints. They are names of men and women who struggled hard with the powers of evil, sometimes more successfully than others, and who have experienced love, hatred, joy, pain, reward, and punishment, like ourselves. It is these men and women who form the story in which God himself wanted to become a part. God, so it seems, inserted himself in our tiresome and often exhausting journey and became a fellow traveler. When Jesus joined the sad and deeply disappointed disciples on the road to Emmaus and opened their eyes so that they could see what was happening, he revealed what it means that God is a God with us.
Journeying
Susan Sayers
Think over the promise that Jesus has made to you: Look I am with you always, yes, to the end of time.
We are a pilgrim people, a travelling people, followers of the Way.
And ‘I am the Way’, says the Lord.
Lord, not only do you lead the way; you are the Way. Through you & in you, is the Way of Love; through you & in you is the Way of Life.
Whatever the terrain of your life-journey, you can walk it in the company of Jesus, so that he becomes your route. You can travel on him, in him & with him.
Lord, you have always led your people, & travelled with them. You called Abraham from the city to the desert. Jacob discovered your closeness in his loneliness as he fled from Esau; when Moses & the people of Israel travelled in the wilderness, you went before them always – a pillar of cloud by day & by night a pillar of fire.
You are there at our going out & our coming in, & we thank you. When our lives are at a crossroads, you will be our signpost. When we are lost & don’t know our way out – you are there. When the road is uphill & steep, we can lean on you. When our lives are nearing their end – you will be there. Lord, you are our Way.
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.
~ by Ruth Harvey
