What's a prayer?

 Glorious things of thee are spoken. (Taken from psalm 87)

I think when the glorious colours of the autumn leaves take your breath away and you gaze in awe at such beauty, that's a prayer. The variety, the richness, the depth of colour shows God dressed in all his glory. Its God's touch lighting the world with colour and it renews our hearts with life. Its so wonderful when we can see that all of life is full of God be it the beauty of the autumn or in some dark place - God is in it.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                            The Glory of the Lord

Anzac day

 Jesus stood among them and said: Peace be with you.' John 20: 19

I needed to spend some time in my sacred space yesterday after coming home from the Ukraine Orthodox Church in North Canberra. There, in the church grounds, among the dying, fallen leaves of  the autumn trees were a multitude of wooden crosses draped in children's t-shirts splashed with red paint.  It was confronting, it sent images through my mind and a pain deep in my heart that was like a sharp dagger, I was stricken with a deep sadness.  As I reflected on the crucifixion of Christ, his suffering and death and then his rising again I though 'the Ukraine country and its people are  in the midst of their Easter Saturday.'  I wondered would humanity ever see that the way of peace is love. I pray God will change the heart and mind of the Russian leadership and Ukraine will have its day of resurrection.  The Sunday Collect makes this a possibility as we read: Living God, from whom no door is closed, no heart is locked: draw us beyond our doubts, till we see your Christ and touch his wounds where they bleed in others. This we ask through Christ our Saviour.

Peace to them who are far off and peace to those who are near.  Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                Ukraine Orthodox Church North Canberra.

The eye of God

 W love thy house O God, wherein thine honour dwells. The joy of thine abode, all earthly joy excels.(Hymn)

The night sky has  been a place of deeper beauty these last few nights when the moon was full and its light shone so bright through the darkness . As  I looked at the dome of sky above me with bright moon and sparkling, winking stars by the thousands I am in awe of our God.  The silence is profound, almost beautiful, creating a sacred space,  - but the moon, it was holding there above me like an eye looking down on our world.  This light in the darkness reminded me vividly of God's light shining in the darkness and was a clear visual of those words.  As my eyes stayed on the moon I also thought of how God described himself as 'I am'   I am is love, is peace, is serenity, is present and as I turned in for the night I heard the words within me: Sleep in peace - God is awake - he has his eye on you.

Jehovah - shalom. The Lord is peace.      Anne, servant of the Lord

                                                The eye of God

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Surprise me God.

For the joy of the Lord is your strength. Neh 8:10

I was caught by surprise by an unexpected visitor walking pigeon toed along the garden fence, a beautiful parrot, red and blue feathers glistening in the morning sun from a quick dip in the bird bath. It was close enough for me to see the perfect round shapes of the water drops on its feathers. I love the unexpected surprises that bring joy and delight especially in the morning when the mind is uncluttered. Its like fuel for the day when we catch a morning joy.  Samuel Longfellow said: Into our lives, in many simple, familiar homely ways God infuses this element of joy from surprises of life, which unexpectantly brighten our days and fill out eyes with light.

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways.

Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                    Joy in the morning

Sky blue with a yellow dot.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name; you are mine isaiah:43:1-3

I was reflecting  on the freshness of the rain washed morning and over the steam rising from my hot cup of tea in my hand my  eyes rested on a beautiful single flowering for-get-me-not in the garden,  sky blue with a tiny yellow dot on the middle like the sun shining in a blue sky and I recall the story of how God was walking in the garden of Eden and saw a blue flower and asked its name. the flower was a shy flower and whispered he has forgotten my name. God renamed the flower forget-me-not saying he will never forget it. (Christian folk lore)  Its a bit like the story of the sparrows who Jesus said he valued so much, but you even more so, or the fact that he can count the number of hairs on our head and his love is greater than that. His love for us who he has claimed as his, by name is vast, wide, immeasurable and like the tiny for-get-me not in the garden, he will never forget us. 

Jehovah - shalom. The Lord is peace.

Anne, servant of the Lord

For-get-me-not

A revolution of joy

Jesus said: Come  to me, all you who are  weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28

What I often say, what is happening to our world, the beautiful world that God created for us to love and enjoy and care for. So much pain and suffering and destruction, so much love and peace destroyed. The human side of me wants to take up arm, arms of climate change protesting, up a massive gum tree with a koala on my back, arms of anti war demonstrations shouting with my loudest voice, and literally arms but you know, in reality I am just one small person in a big picture so I instead try to sprinkle peace and joy around in my patch, where I am, to try and bring a smile to the faces of others such as those from the nursing home with their dementia who pass my place on their walk and admire the flowers in the garden and my  very special one eyed little dog and hand the problems of the world to God in deep prayer from my sacred space.( Now that's a powerful weapon!!) Max Lucado says: If you brighten your corner of the world and I do the same in mine, a quiet revelation of JOY might break out.

Peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near.  Anne, servant of the Lord.

A garden of delight.

A burning bush experience

 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Phil 1:3

God has done it again!  On Sunday I preached the sermon at church and I unusually felt less confident and anxious about it. I felt things were not right in my preparation and content but it was too late to do anything about that as I stood at the pulpit, except of course, to ask God to bring his peace and I thought of Julian of Norwich …..'All will be well, all manner of things will be well.' And, as Julian would say, 'it was so'' and as I got into my car to come home the bush in front of me was full of blue wrens. Sometimes our human anxiety crowds out God's peace, a thing he constantly reminds me of in the presence of these darling little feathered blessings of God's presence.

Jehovah - shalom.   The Lord is peace.

Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                A blessing.