Dear Friends across our Parish
I hope you had a very Happy Easter despite us not being able to celebrate this most holy occasion in church for a second year running. I also hope that you were able to ‘join in’ with an act of worship either locally on Facebook or Zoom or via national TV or radio. This edition of the magazine has been held back in the hope that we will have more definite news about when and how our churches might reopen so please forgive the delay.
With so many different situations and difficult circumstances confronting us, it is sometimes hard to know what to focus upon as we come before God. We might feel like praying ‘Lord God do something to sort out this mess’ only to remember that God did do something-Jesus came and died and rose again for us, hence, the joy of this Easter season. Those diverse and painful situations and circumstances can be transformed by God’s grace through Jesus. Something else we miss or forget is that Jesus then shares the work of this transformation with us. Each Christian is a means of changing the world, not just a recipient of divine grace but an agent and co-worker with Christ. This is a wondrous, privileged and terrifying realisation!
Therefore, I share with you these reflections on The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven…
When we call God ‘father’ are we really behaving like loving and obedient children or are we hoping that ‘Our Father’ won’t notice our ‘naughtiness’ and that we will be able to get away with our godless behaviour? When we say ‘our’ Father do we think of the other children of God around the world or only of ourselves and people like us?
Hallowed be thy name…
We say we honour God’s name and keep it sacred but do we misuse it or abuse it?
Thy Kingdom come…
Are we ready and eager for the world we know to be turned upside down?
Thy will be done…
We say we want God’s will to be done but do we really mean it or do we want our preferences and self-interests to triumph?
On earth as it is in heaven…
Can we give more thought and prayer to spiritual needs in a world that thinks in mainly materialistic ways?
Give us this day our daily bread…
Plus a trolley full of food much of which we will never eat but throw away…
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others who trespass against us…
Do we hope we will receive forgiveness but hold onto anger at other people?
Lead us not into temptation…
But please can I carry on doing the things I like even if they are not always the things God wants me to do?………
But deliver us from evil…
When we pray this do we commit to stand against injustice and forms of evil committed against other people, or is this just a personal prayer?
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
‘Amen’ means ‘Let it be so’. Is that what is really on our hearts when we say this prayer?
As we each continue to pray this amazing prayer, may we do so with renewed conviction, given to us by the resurrection of Jesus , and may the celebration of Easter-that lasts seven weeks-set our hearts on doing our part to make the earth more like heaven.
Love and blessings
Canon Janice
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