a ministry scrapbook
“O Holy Spirit, giver of light and life, free us from all that is
matter-of-fact, stale, bored, tired; all that takes things for granted.
Open our eyes to see, and excite our minds to marvel.”
For Pentecost – from ‘A Procession of Prayers’ (ed John Carden – Meditations and Prayers from Around the World)
>Getting ready for Sunday one job is to prepare a weekly newsletter. We call it Network and we try to have a picture/photo as a focus for the Sunday. This one isn’t one we are using on Sunday, but it’s one that refreshed me. It’s called Pentecost by Chris Shreve. Pentecost is a great Jewish festival which has become the festival of the Holy Spirit for the Christian Church. John Pridmore writes in the Church Times, and referring to Pentecost and the Holy Spirit points out that fire, water and wind are all metaphors for the Holy Spirit, and that they are all things that flow.
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Good to meet friends Roddy Evans and Jim Lynn from Belfast on St Patrick’s Day, 10 years since the Good Friday Agreement. They have come over to take part in a series we have called Living Hope. Both have played their part in the peace process in Northern Ireland and seeing beyond revenge. They are both living hope. Roddy is Anglo-Irish and Jim is Roman Catholic, so I guess what was inspiring was not just their talks but their friendship which is based in their shared membership of the Clonard Bible Study group.
This prayer is supposed to be from St Patrick:
May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.- Against the snares of the evil one.
May Christ be with us!May Christ be before us!May Christ be in us,Christ be over all! May Thy Grace, Lord,Always be ours,This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
>When I go to church to pray this is what I do:
I shift some books around, put waste paper in bin, rearrange furniture, sit down, stand up, fiddle.
Except if I am not on my own, when this is what I do:
read the psalms, read the Bible, pray for the peace of the world and those who I know who are in trouble.
When I jog, this is what I do:
entertain random thoughts which seem to rearrange my priorities and set my mind on higher things, and as if that wasn’t enough prayer, a “You lift them up, I put them down” prayer as the road rises up to beat me.
When I want to pray, what should I do?
Go for a run, I guess, or at least, when I go to church, give thanks for the others who help me to pray.
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“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
~ Thomas Merton
The biggest temptation comes with our children. Their birth becomes even more miraculous when we realise how different they are from us. When we respond to questions about which parent they got this that or the other quality or characteristic from with “they didn’t get it from either of us” we are admitting our wonder at creation.
The myth of Narcissus illustrates the tragedy of self-love. Waterhouse’s painting (from the Walker Gallery) shows Narcissus helplessly in love with himself and totally oblivious of Echo’s desire.
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“Indaba” is Zulu/ Xhosa thing — the IzinDuna come together to do mutual business in a way which enables each to be heard, and wisdom to emerge from the group. It’s rather like a monastic chapter. It’s radically different from either Institutionalism, where people pretend to agree to save public face, Imperialism, where Billy the Bully rules OK, or Fascism, where you leave your brain at the door and the Führer tells you what to do because he’s always right.Indaba is a noble ideal. It’s how the early Churches worked, often amidst bitter controversy, as every Patristics student is amazed to discover. Then, slowly, between the fourth and eleventh centuries, like formaldehyde, institutionalism and Roman imperialism seeped in. The reformation was a reaction to all that. Indaba is a gloriously messy concept. It annoys Anal Retentives, Bullies and Fascists, as well as lazy journos who can only understand punchups.It’s counterintuitive, but indaba, if you stick with it, raises spirits and offers hope to the world.
>Another crisp day for a run – like skating on ice. A bit greedy this morning, trying to run further than I could, and halfway round thinking what a long way there still is to go. That’s always dangerous. The thought comes with tiredness and the temptation is to up the pace and get it over with. Far better to take care with each step and to get there in the end. Who siad life’s a marathon?
>Sometimes we feel that people have to have the “last word” in an argument. It is so annoying! Sometimes I have to do presentations – and I apologise for all those occasions when I’ve appeared to want to have the “last word”. That’s the way it happened in my educational background – lecturers who seemed to have everything buttoned up. What they said really was “the last word”, and there was no chance of comeback or developing what had been presented. The impression given was that you had to go away and “learn your lesson”.
I would rather be giving a “first word” – something to set trains of thought going.
And that’s got me thinking about the first word and the last word. The first word is the Word by whom all things came into being – and the last word is also spoken by God. A word of triumph – “it is completed”. Kingdom come – on earth, just as in heaven. The first and the last – alpha and omega – but thanks be to God who allows us to get a word in edgeways, even if we do make a hell of a din.
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Do you fill a space or create a space?
Grits and Grains 
