Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Dear All,
We are moving fast through Lent – 4th Sunday this weekend & Mothering Sunday too.
I looked at the Sunday readings & was particularly struck by the excerpt from Ephesians – such a wonderful picture of God. Look at a few of the words: love, generous, mercy, life, in just the first four lines. You will find the full reading here & a few reflections on some of those key words. The last sentence, too, is worth a ponder: ‘We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as, from the beginning, he had meant us to live it.’
The blessing, this week, is Libera’s Gaelic Blessing – Deep Peace (tr5). Let us pray it for all mothers & all others who have a mothering role in someone’s life. Let’s remember those struggling with that responsibility, those who long to be a mother & seem to be unable to be, those whose children have rejected them, those who have experienced the death of a child – all mothers everywhere.
With our love & prayer as always
Ephesians. 2. 4-10
God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – & raised us up with him & gave us a place with him in heaven in Christ Jesus.
This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness to us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as, from the beginning, he had meant us to live it.’
A Litany of Generosity.
Spirit of Life and Love,
Bless me with a generous heart
A generous heart that knows how to give…
When I feel as though I do not have enough to share,
When I feel unappreciated,
When I believe my gifts will fall short of what is needed, expected or desired,
When my enemy is in need of mercy, whether asked for or not.
Spirit of Life and Love,
Bless me with a generous heart
A generous heart that knows how to accept with grace…
When I receive gifts that I fear are undeserved
When I am forgiven by those I have hurt
When I am hurting and comfort is received.
Spirit of Life and Love,
Bless me with a generous heart
That I may give joyfully,
Receive gratefully,
And create loving kindness in my life and the lives of others.
A Psalm of Love.
There are three things the heart must know. The first is: what is love?
Love is the whole of us handed over wholeheartedly to another.
Love is the inside out of us in harmony with another.
Love is being there day after day for one, for many, for any who need to know what it means to be loved.
Love is simply knowing. Love is, & growing to know the Love that is & will be with us for ever.
There are three things the heart must know. The second is: how do we love?
We love when we simply sit & wait & never lose faith in another.
We love when we listen to another life & affirm that life into being.
We love when we take initiative to forgive & forget, to be & become, to shoulder the burden & share the pain, to try to see things through another’s eyes & feel with another’s passion.
We love in all those little ways we fill our lives & crowd our days with genuine gestures of loving.
There are three things the heart must know. The third is: are we loved?
We are loved when we are called into life & invited into meaning.
We are loved when we are healed inside deep down in the empty hole of our being, where shame & shadows seek to define us, struggle to own us & occupy so much sacred time.
We are loved when we feel we are whole & at ease with what is & was & maybe & at ease with who we have become & who we are becoming.
We are loved, yes, we are loved & embraced by the Love that lasts forever, unquestioningly, unconditionally, empowering us to love another, to love all others in the way that we are loved.
It is by love
That we draw out
The reality of who we are,
God’s image in us
That God made.
In love with God’s
creative love in others;
Beginning to reflect
His sublime
Transforming light
Abiding in us;
Having the look of love about us
In opening to others;
Doing the truth in love
Drawn out by faith,
The salt that gives taste,
Now authentic prophets
Of the Son
Shining out
With God’s dear light
And blazing with his Love’s fire.
David Hodges