Prayer is like watching for the kingfisher

Prayer is like watching for the kingfisher 

by Ann Lewin

Prayer is like watching for the kingfisher.

All you can do is

be there where he is likely to appear, and

wait.

Often nothing much happens;

there is space, silence and

expectancy.

No visible signs, only the

knowledge that he’s been there

and may come again.

Seeing or not seeing cease to matter,

You have been prepared.

But when you’ve almost stopped

expecting it, a flash of brightness

gives encouragement.

Leap of faith

Love is not....

Just listening

Sands of time

As the sands of life
ripple around our being,
may we be blessed
by the treasures that are revealed
when we push beyond the familiar
to the depths of Your presence.
Amen

When it rains

The capacity to be alone

Peace Prayer

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love. 

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

It is in self-forgetting that we find;

And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

In the depth of winter

Coming in out of the wind

I don't know about you but often when I wake up in the morning all the busy thoughts of the day come rushing into my head. Immediately I'm thinking about what I have to achieve or do before I get to bed that night. Rushing headlong into the day isn't necessarily the best move.

C S Lewis in 'Mere Christianity' describes an alternative approach:-

"The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.

All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind."

I love that phrase 'coming in out of the wind'. If we feel that we are being buffeted about day by day we too can come in out of the wind.

To pause, to stop, to switch off. 

To take time to just be. 

To be still. 

Gaelic blessing for the New Year