Monday 30 January 2012

Prayer time - time for prayer

Thessalonians 1 v 11 – 2 v 2
The passage contains the phrase ‘We pray continually’ and I must admit I don’t. In the passage quoted Paul is speaking to the church in Thessalonica, but , some 2000 years later, I today sent a version of these words to someone as an encouraging message , but at least I was honest enough to say ‘I pray for you’ rather than climbing to the heights of ‘pray continually.
We live in a small village. It is supposed to have a bus service, but all too often it is simply easier to walk into the next village where one can get a bus into town. It takes half an hour, plus a few minutes waiting at the level crossing - half an hour when one is unlikely to meet more than one or two people and half a dozen horses – so plenty of time to pray. When the children were younger I used to get my prayer time in while washing up and when coming back from taking them to school . Now I have a rather different life style and do have time for a proper morning quiet time, but that is no reason for my not to pray as I walk.
You may think you are too busy to pray very much, but we all have these times in our lives – waiting for a train or hanging out the washing, queuing for coffee or the cash machine. I admit these times may be quite short and are likely to be interrupted. Also you have to remain aware of what is happening around you – whether moving forward in a queue, or crossing a junction, but surely something is better than nothing.

Monday 12 December 2011

Priest to be?

When I was just a little girl
Do you remember the song ‘When I was just a little girl I asked my mother ….?’ It is sometimes called ‘Que Sera sera’ and I think the singer was Doris Day. It is about a little girl enquiring of her mother about the future ‘Will I be pretty, will I be rich? ‘
I’ve just been watching a link with an elderly nun singing the same song. She apparently used to ask ‘Will I be bishop? Will I be pope?’ You can guess the answers she got - one line I remember from the video clip was ‘The future is for men to say.’ The sister concerned was young a very long time ago , but not a lot has changed as far as her church is concerned. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Ub6WT-eWs&feature=share