Dear All,
Jubilee Weekend & Pentecost!! We hope you are enjoying some kind of celebration.
Let us pray with urgency, ‘Send forth your spirit, O Lord, & renew the face of the earth’. We can all, I’m sure, think of situations – ones that are close to home & ones that are further away that need God’s Spirit of peace, hope, light, love, & so much more today & tomorrow & into the future.
As we pray our blessing let us pray that we are open enough to receive that Spirit. The blessing is the Rutter ‘Clare Benediction’.
With our love & wishing you happy times,
Moira & Margaret
A reminder to those who join us on Sundays for Gospel Reflection & Evening Prayer that on this Sunday we will be in Colchester celebrating the Jubilee & not on zoom!
Lord, Holy Spirit,
you blow like the wind in a thousand paddocks.
Inside and outside the fences,
you blow where you wish to blow.
Lord, Holy Spirit,
you are the sun who shines on the little plant.
You warm him gently, you give him life,
you raise him up to become a tree with many leaves.
Lord, Holy Spirit,
you are the mother eagle with her young,
holding them in peace under your feathers.
On the highest mountain you have built your nest,
above the valley, above the storms of the world,
where no hunter ever comes.
Lord, Holy Spirit,
you are the bright cloud in whom we hide,
in whom we know already that the battle has been won.
You bring us to our Brother Jesus,
to rest our heads upon his shoulder.
Lord, Holy Spirit,
in the love of friends you are building a new house,
heaven is with us when you are with us.
You are singing your song in the hearts of the poor.
Guide us, wound us, heal us. Bring us to God.
James K. Baxter. Aotearoa (New Zealand)
She comes with mother’s kindnesses
And bends to touch and heal.
She gives her heart away in love
For those who cannot feel.
She comes with lover’s tenderness
To answer love’s appeal,
She gives her body with her heart
To make her passion real.
She comes with worker’s faithfulness
To sow and reap and spin.
She bends her back in common task
To gather harvest in.
She comes with artist’s joyfulness
To make and shape and sing,
She gives her hands and from them grows
A free and lovely thing.
She comes, a child in humbleness
And trust is in her eyes,
And through them all of life appears
In wondering surprise.
She comes with sister’s carefulness,
Strong to support and bind,
Her voice will speak for justice’ sake,
And peace is in her mind.
She comes with power like the night
And glory like the day,
Her reign is in the heart of things,
Oh come to us and stay.
Kathy Galloway. lona Community 1989.
PROVERBS 8.1-31
A PRAYER FOR PENTECOST
Spirit of God,
flickering over our heads,
illuminating our faces,
inspiring our thoughts,
give us now, we pray,
WORDS OF JOY AND PRAISE.
Spirit of God,
filling our hearts with hope,
steadying our nerves with peace,
comforting our lives with love,
give us now, we pray,
WORDS OF JOY AND PRAISE.
Spirit of God,
come to us now –
surging through the darkness of our lives,
sweeping over our weariness –
so that, in this time of Pentecost,
the sparkling light of faith,
the rushing wind of hope
and the joyful sound of praise
may echo round the world,
may echo in the church,
and find their response in us.
Spirit of God, give us now, we pray,
WORDS OF JOY AND PRAISE. AMEN
John Harvey