6 July 2022 A Candle in the Window Peter Millar
Words to encourage us in these times.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive were we started
And know the place for the first time T.S. Eliot
The Lord says ‘Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do... I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there. Isaiah 43:18
Real care means the willingness to help each other in making our shared brokenness into the gateway to joy.
Henri Nouwen ( 1932-1996), spiritual thinker and writer born in the Netherlands.
You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the whole ocean in a drop.
Rumi (1207-1273), well-known Sufi writer.
I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve but if need be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die! Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)
Our Secret Name:
As I look back on my own journey, I recognize that I have always been attracted to these stories in the Bible in which ordinary, often hidden, women and men begin to see who they really are, actually are, because God has touched their lives in one way or another. This encounter with our Creator propels them into a new place from which their understanding of reality, of their humanness, embedded in the divine, is transformed. We sometimes use the word ‘conversion’ to describe this change. Whatever word is used, it is this discovery of our ‘secret name’ in God – our purpose in living – which allows us to experience that kind of deep inner hope about which we read in the pages of Scripture. And as we move closer to our true selves, devoid of our masks, Christ’s hope takes root in our souls even when outward circumstances are tough and uncertain. Peter, from his book, Finding Hope Again: Journeying through sorrow & beyond – Canterbury Press, 2003, ISBN: 1-85311-438-3.
Barn owls have provided millions worldwide with recreation in a dark time.
During months of enforced isolation due to the pandemic Britons sought recreation where they could find it. Some passed the time by watching live footage of a group (known as a parliament) of barn owls in North Yorkshire. Nor was this an isolated eccentricity. The same webcam stream caught the imagination of millions across the globe and as many as 20,000 people a day still watch the owls’ nest on the farm of Robert Fuller, a wildlife film-maker.
Birdwatching can be a social, even competitive activity, or a purely solitary one. Its all-consuming nature may seem odd to those who have not caught the bug. In PG Wodehouse’s short story The Artistic Career of Corky the plutocratic and cantankerous Alexander Worple, who is in the jute business, devotes his spare time to it: “He had written a book called American Birds, and was writing another, which would be called More American Birds. When he had finished that one, he was expected to begin a third, and go on until there were no more American birds left”.
For birdwatchers in this country, however, there is nothing quite like owls. Barn owls are distinctive in appearance, with a heart-shaped face, golden buff wings and white under parts, but their best-known quality is the way they hunt. They descend on their prey on silent wings. And close observers have long seen a natural bond between human and the owlish. Robert Fuller’s strikingly successful efforts to instil a worldwide appreciation of the owls in the UK are admirable. And it is to be hoped that, as more normal times return, his audience explores the delights of ornithological discovery beyond the virtual world. (Adapted from a newspaper article)
Healing Words:
Spirit of the living God,
present with us now,
enter you, body, mind and spirit
and heal you of all that harms you,
in Jesus’ name. (Words used at the weekly Healing Service at Iona Abbey)
Peace Prayer:
Peace between me and each friend
Peace in the morning and at the day’s end
Peace in each hour and the whole day
Peace on my journey and all of the way
Peace in the work that I need to do
Peace in my life
Peace comes from You. (Anonymous)