Where there is love, there's a quiet peace.

'So faith, hope,love abide, these three:but the greatest of these is love.' 1 Corinthians 13:13

What a week ahead of us for reflection.....Holy week. I find my thoughts are many at this time. I think of Palm Sunday and the entry into Jerusalem. The feast of the passover......Good Friday, Easter day and I wonder how Jesus was feeling. We know that there is to be a good outcome from this journey, that even though he will die, he will also rise again and be with us. But how lonely, how abandoned to be doing this alone with no one alongside who understands.

My thoughts this Holy week are on those amongst us who have a particularly hard journey through life, and I am thinking of those with disabilities and how we can lead them into a place of 'life.' It was such a blessing yesterday to invite a person with disability into the sanctuary to help with the distribution of the palm crosses. It was a feeling I couldn't explain. All I can say is God was very real, very alive and very present in that sanctuary this Palm Sunday and I was so richly blessed. God poured his love upon us and we walk away at the end of the service.....changed.

A life had been acknowledged and included.

A resurrection had occurred.

Think of your journey this Holy week and who it is you might lead through to resurrection this Easter.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

The cross of love

All glory praise and honour, to you redeemer king. Tis 333

Every time I open the front page of my prayer book, there it sits, an old faded, greying palm cross. I gaze at it and reflect and remember. I remember a journey.

My journey.

Christs journey.

I remember making palm crosses as a child. A wonderful activity of gathering palm branches and sitting around tables in the parish hall with a group of ladies from church. There was lots of chatter and laughter and it was the day before Palm Sunday. I remember it as one of the many treasured steps of my faith journey.

As I look at this palm cross I think of the crosses of life.

The crosses I have had to bare

The cross that enabled me to bare them

The cross that saved me

The cross of love.

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world proclaims his sacred name.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ

Anne

Church.........anywhere, everywhere

' We love thy place Oh God, wherein thy honour dwells.' Hymns A&M242

Isn't it wonderful when we come to a place in ourselves where we can see that 'church' is not just the four walls of a building. I like to think of 'church 'as a place where God dwells and where God is talked about, and where the peace of God resides and the example of Christian life is lived and love abounds and 'God talk 'happens.

I am a lover of church buildings and culture as places to worship, grow and be nourished as the family of God...but for those who do not yet know of that family or feel they don't belong in it, then the means of having 'church' with them, where we can bring the love of Christ into their lives, are unmeasurable......just think about it starting with your own home and family and those whose path you cross today:

At the family dinner table when grace is said and others prayed for.

At the bedside of the sick or dying.

On our front porch when we welcome the stranger or chat with the neighbour.

In the garden......with God.......now that's a cathedral!!

In the op shop.

Caring for the unloved and unwanted...........Anywhere that brings God into being.

An Indian born Theologian, Ravi Zacharias said this:

Of all the disciples who floundered and stumbled, Peter was at the forefront. Yet it was to him that Jesus issued the pastoral call: ' Feed my sheep.'

Are we not all disciples with that same pastoral call?

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

Daily blessings

' Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord. Isa 24:15

The large skeletal like tree was silhouetted against a horizon of deep, deep red rising from the east that carried itself across the sky in various layers of colour until it blended into a very pale pink and blue............a glorious morning painted by the sunrise and it was almost shouting......'the heat of the day is coming.' But for now, still, cool, quiet........peace.

Its so lovely to enjoy the sacredness of the morning before the day heats up and I am taking from that experience three key words into my day........still, quiet, peace.......................Oh, and I might add one more........................... stay cool!!

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

a bible with Jesus on the front

' Love one another as I have loved you.' John 13:34

The words on the desk calendar took my notice as if it was written in bold print: 'Love one another as I have loved you,' it said. Then followed the words: 'it may seem impossible to do, but if you will try to trust and believe great are the joys you will receive.' and you know.......that is so true.

I live in a neighbourhood when there is a very large and dysfunctional family that terrorises the neighbourhood yet I have always 'looked out for them.' Yesterday one of the 9 children rang my doorbell and quietly and politely and right out of character asked me if I had a bible he could have . Once I recovered my momentary surprise I said I would get him one and produced a Good News New Testament. He looked at it for a moment and said 'thank you' in a very quiet voice and then looking at me said,' this is lovely but can I have one that has Jesus on the front so I can see him.'

What is it that melts us inside when we know we are bringing the love of Christ into a life, a life that's broken, abused and rejected.......I think its the fact that through sharing Christ we bring hope. I think its because we are doing what Jesus asked us to do.....Love one another.

Yes, I did produce what he was looking for..........a lovely picture book of bible stories with more pictures than words, anf Jesus on the front!

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

my cathedral/your cathedral

' In your presence there is fullness of joy.' Psalm 16:11

I was reading a verse by Steiner Rice, 'My garden beautifies my yard and adds fragrance to the air, but its also my cathedral and my quiet place of prayer.'

The morning gifts take my breath away. Soft, soft morning mist, gently rising, hovering over the dew laden grass, glistening in the early morning sun, pink clouds over head, sun kissed and a choir of birds at the feeding tray........my cathedral.

Its so easy to turn a special place into a cathedral. Its those places where we 'hover' with God and he 'hovers' with us be it in our garden, gazing out a window at a blue wren on the grass, overlooking the vineyards to the magnificent mountains or walking a beach at the start or end of a day. Special places, God filled.

Turn a special place for you, into a space, for you and God.......your cathedral.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

colours of the masters palette

'For each perfect gift divine, to our race so freely given,graces all of your design, flowers of earth and buds of heaven.' TIS 137

Have you ever looked 'deeply' at God's creation. I mean really paused and look hard, in wonder, at the shape, the design and most of all the colour. We can miss so much in the business of life. I had plenty of time to reflect and 'look deeply' at the garden from my recovery room and confronting me every day was this glorious, soft pink bottle brush bush. For ages I would just look at its beauty and ponder on the things of God.

Imagine the colours he must have on his painting palette .......how big must the options of colour be.......imagine it....... dobs of blue, red, green,purple,yellow, black,pink and many many more, to dip his brush in and just simply create and colour.

What is colour? To me its an image of joy

Its a rich blessing from God to brighten our day and to give us pleasure.

It never ceases to amaze me that our mighty God, in all his majesty and power and dominion can think of such small things, as our pleasure and enjoyment.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ

Anne

My fourpenny Jesus

' Even the darkness is not dark to you........' Psalm 139:12

I once read a story of a small child who found a statue of Jesus in a bric-a-brac store, his arms were outstretched as he had come off his cross. The store owner sold it to her for fourpence and it was with her the rest of her life, in the good times, the lonely times and in the darkness of the London Blitz, constantly reminding her that Jesus was with her always.

I had a similar experience. I found a small Holy Family icon in St Vinnies amongst the castaway bric-a-brac of peoples unwanted goods and I brought it for a dollar, you know, its the 'hinged' version ,and being a visual person I tend to carry it with me and so I took it to hospital for my recent surgery and placed it on my bedside table. The first morning after surgery and in a haze of drugs and excruciating pain, in that space of day between night and morning, I could see the outline of the icon but couldn't see the images on it yet I knew they were there.

I was hit with an overwhelming peace and comfort as I thought of Jesus, not visible to us, yet always there. Always present even though we cant see him.......always beside us.

You know, I reflect on the purpose of Icons.......how their images draw us closer in reflection on God and I value this little one that had been abandoned, simply for that reason. It will always be a visual reminder that Jesus, in giving his life for me, for you,will never abandon us, he is always with us.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne