STEALING IN THE LORD'S NAME

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren. You then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing do you steal?

They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but, my own vineyard I have not kept!

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

A righteous man walks in his integrity -- blessed are his sons after him!

You husbands must conduct your married life with understanding.

If... any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God -- who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty -- and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him.

In Christ, you were... set free from the sins of the flesh... and in him are sharing the miracle of rising again to new life -- and all this because you have faith in the tremendous power of God, who raised Christ from the dead .... God has now made [you] to share in the very life of Christ.

(Ephesians 4:28, RSV; 1 Corinthians 6:8, RSV; Romans 2:21, RSV; The Song of Solomon 1:6, RSV; Proverbs 13:22, RSV; Proverbs 20:7, RSV; James 1:5, Phillips; Colossians 2:11-13, Phillips)



God got my attention in an unexpected way while on a three-day retreat with a small group of fellow clergy.

We participated together in a relational Bible study based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and, drawing from the data of the biblical record, background studies and our own imagination, we explored together many aspects of the characters in the story. The priest, Levite, injured traveller and the Samaritan were all carefully analysed with the purpose of enabling us to identify fully or partially with one or more of them and relate the parable to our own lives.

However, although as a group we had overlooked considering the robbers, I found myself identifying with these who had selfishly and ruthlessly hurt and stolen from the innocent traveller. I came under deep conviction concerning the many people whom I had robbed of my time and love over the years.

After that group meeting I spent three hours in solitude in the retreat chapel letting God address me. I listed the names of those from whom I had stolen my quality time and my care and concern. Heading the list was my wife and then my family. My notes of the ways I had taken from them what was their right included: quality time to listen, to talk, to commune, to pray, to enjoy each other, to do those things they wanted to do. So often I have offered them the fag-end of my energy instead of my freshness, alertness, enthusiasm and joy.

My reflection led me to the disturbing awareness that all this failure to make significant space for those dearest to me brought into serious question my motives for my ministry. Was this neglect due to living in obedience to God's will or was I acting out of motives to satisfy my own needs for self-actualisation or selfish egocentric drives?

In that chapel I had a solemn encounter with God which led to confession, acceptance of forgiveness and a renewal of my covenant with God.

That evening I wrote a long letter to my wife listing the hurts I had caused her and asking forgiveness. Later that letter made a profound impression on her. She said, 'Only the Holy Spirit could have revealed these things to you.' There was forgiveness and the beginning of healing and enrichment of our love. Later I wrote to my eldest son -- and there was a similar work of grace.



If you really want to gauge the quality of your spiritual life, check your love dimensions. Not how often you read the Bible, or how much scripture you have memorised... but whether the people with whom you are living regard you as a lover -- a person reflecting the love of Christ which he sheds into our heart.

Howard Hendricks, in The Work of An Evangelist

When the family of the Christian leader, especially if he has to be away from home a lot, knows that they matter enormously to him, then the Gospel he talks about begins to become good news at home. Children need to be loved, and loved, and loved. Loved without strings attached. Loved if they don't go to church. Loved when they are a pain in the neck. Only in that way can they understand at gut level about the love of the Father which pursues them undiminished whether they hear or whether they forbear (Ezekiel 2:5)... Each of us will have our own different ways of expressing love and care for the family. But unless that is a high priority, we will find that we may gain the whole world and lose our own children.

Michael Green, in The Work of an Evangelist

I opened Thomas Kelly's Testament of Devotion... He caught my attention by describing perfectly my condition and the condition of many I knew: 'We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfil them all. And we are unhappy, uneasy, strained, oppressed and fearful we shall be shallow... We have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power. If only we could slip over into that Centre!... We have seen and known some people who seem to have found this deep Centre of living, where the fretful calls of life are integrated, where No as well as Yes can be said with confidence. This ability to say Yes and No out of the divine Centre was foreign to me... To say Yes to pleas for help or opportunities to serve usually carried an aura of spirituality and sacrifice. I could say Yes easily, but I did not have the ability to say No. What would people think of me if I refused?... As we yield to the Centre everything about us becomes focused, synoptic. This yielding is nothing more than the experience of the great commandment to love God with all our being. A French Christian, Marie of the Incarnation, wrote in 1628, 'My spirit was more and more being simplified... In the depths of my soul... these words were continual: "Ah! My Love, my Well-Beloved! Be blessed 0 my God!"... And since that time my soul has remained in its centre which is God.'

Richard Foster, Freedom of Simplicity

Faulty values and choices in the past have closed many options in the present and the future... The central reason for reappraising your lifestyle and values is not the fear of having a heart attack or suffering some other disaster. Rather it is to make sure that you are on the road you really want to travel -- the road that will allow you to use the years ahead creatively, productively, and joyfully, whatever life brings. A better future is more likely to occur by choice than by chance.

Howard Clinebell, Growth Counseling for Mid-Years Couples

One day I was working at a boring job and a friend came to join me. He loitered about for nearly an hour, perched on the edge of the table, smoking a cigarette and talking occasionally of nothing in particular. When he had gone I was filled with a special joy because I realised that he had deliberately wasted an hour with me; it was not that we were discussing something of importance or that I needed consoling: it was a pure and unsolicited gift of time. If we think about it, for busy people time is often the most precious thing they have to give. Doctors, priests, those who counsel, will always 'spend' time with those in need. They may sit up all night with someone who is distressed; they may pass long hours in listening to problems, or in giving advice; but this is all time deliberately spent. We only deliberately waste time with those we love -it is the purest sign that we love someone if we choose to spend time idly in their presence when we could be doing something more 'constructive'.

Sheila Cassidy, Prayer for Pilgrims

In a world full of strangers, estranged from their past culture and country, from their neighbours, friends and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found... The term hospitality... should not be limited to its literal sense of receiving a stranger in our house... but as a fundamental attitude towards our fellow human being, which can be expressed in a great variety of ways. Hospitality... means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place.

Empty space tends to create fear. As long as our minds, hearts and hands are occupied we can avoid confronting the painful questions to which we never give much attention and which we do not want to surface. Occupation and not empty space is what most of us are looking for... Being busy, active and on the move has nearly become part of our constitution... Preoccupation is in fact a greater stumbling block than occupation... We indeed have become very preoccupied people, afraid of unnameable emptiness and silent solitude... Preoccupations are our fearful ways of keeping things the same, and it often seems that we prefer a bad certainty to a good uncertainty. Our preoccupations help us to maintain the personal world we have created over the years and block the way to revolutionary change.

So we can see that creating space is far from easy in our occupied and preoccupied society. And still, if we expect any salvation, redemption, healing and new life, the first thing we need is an open receptive place where something can happen to us. Hospitality, therefore, is such an important attitude. We cannot change the world by a new plan, project or idea. We cannot even change other people by our convictions, stories, advice and proposals, but we can offer a space where people are encouraged to disarm themselves, to lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and to listen with attention and care to the voices speaking in their own centre.

Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee:
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.

George Matheson, The Australian Hymn Book



My God, you are immortal, invisible, incomprehensible in your greatness, and mysterious in your almighty power. But because you are my Father, I am not afraid. I bow in awe before you but I speak with confidence and familiarity as child to parent.

I confess I have, somehow, not yet brought into balance all the elements clamouring to be ordered in my complicated existence. My life has become an unlikely plot, a conspiracy I helped begin but do not, any longer, hardly control at all.

Give me grace to find the space to allow you to get my undivided attention, then to listen unhurriedly and follow your guidance willingly.

Fill me anew with your Spirit so that I may experience an intimate connection between my spiritual life and my temporal needs.

Enable me to keep adequate space for all who enter my life this day, especially those who walk closest with me.

Take this day into your own keeping. Control, direct, instruct and sustain me. Totally transform me by your Spirit of love. May each life I touch be blessed because you are the secret centre of my life. Amen.



A Benediction

May your spiritual experience become richer as you see more and more fully God's great secret, Christ himself! Now to him who is able to keep you from failing and to present you before his glory without fault and with unspeakable joy, to the only God, our saviour, be glory and majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord... Amen (Colossians 2:2,; Jude 24,25, Phillips).

Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 191-196

LOST AND FOUND

Luke 15:1-10, 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Losing something can be trivial – mildly frustrating – or deadly serious, even life-threatening. It all depends on the value of what you’ve lost.

Lost people are in the news headlines all the time. This week? Adventurer Steve Fossett, lost somewhere in the Nevada Desert, Madelaine McCann, a little girl lost – probably abducted – in Portugal (and now her parents – parents! – are suspects). A while back, three men in a boat somewhere off the Queensland coast, who have never been found.

We write songs, tell stories and make movies of people lost: David Livingstone, apparently lost in the middle of ‘darkest Africa’; an ‘ancient mariner’ lost at sea; aviator Amelia Erhart; explorers Burke and Wills; Little Boy Lost; the Chamberlain’s baby lost in the Northern Territory desert, ‘Lost in Space’…

We joke about being lost: men aren’t lost, they’re trusting their navigational instincts (women ask for directions). As a young taxi-driver in Sydney while at University, I was lost at least once every shift.

We lose objects all the time (more so, I can tell you, as you approach ‘threescore years and ten’). I’ve lost a car three times: once when it was towed away because I was slow with hire purchase payments; another time in the Disneyland carpark (is it the largest in the world?) until with two little girls 7 and 9 we found it at 2 am!; and at the airport: I’d found a free spot out there, but one weekend they changed the parking rules and had towed my car away…

Losing things isn’t funny: a surgeon discovering after an operation that an instrument’s gone missing; if I lost my diary I think I’d lose my mind (it’s in there!); losing an important email (PTL for Google Desktop!); a loved one losing their memory; a parishioner I knew whose mother was lost, found with another identity in Adelaide. We’ve ‘lost the plot’ in Iraq…

Jesus’ parents lost him when he was 12. (One of our Sunday School hypotheticals: ‘Did Jesus ever lose anything?’ Silly question, like our other one: ‘Did Jesus the healer ever sneeze?’).

Psychologists tell us there are two kinds of lostness: ‘developmental’ and ‘situational’. We grow through various stages in life, and all of us experience a constant cycle of attachments/detachments, closeness/distance, togetherness/ separateness, loss of innocence when we collide with reality… It happens when a baby is born: they lose the security of intrauterine life; and it happens when we get older and various bodily functions don’t work as well any more.

But there’s also ‘situational’ lostness: which can happen to any of us at any time. I have clients whose grief is frozen: they’ve never gotten over the loss of a loved one. We must learn to ‘bury the dead’ twice: physically, and in terms of the grieving process. (We also must get over the grief of what our parents ‘were not’ for us…).

Jesus told three ‘lost and found’ stories in Luke 15: about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and two lost sons. This morning I want to make a couple of comments about the first story, and particularly about Luke’s setting for it.

Kenneth Bailey tells us that a single shepherd probably would not have owned 100 sheep – maybe 15 or 20. Here we have a clan or extended family and the ‘chief shepherd’ would have had ‘hirelings’ to help him look after this number of sheep. But it’s the shepherd-in-charge who goes looking for the lost sheep: note that!

Bailey says that when a sheep is lost in this part of the world it often lies down and refuses to budge. So the shepherd has to place it on his shoulders: he starts rejoicing even in prospect of a long and exhausting trip home. A wandering sheep was lucky it wasn’t attacked by wild beasts. In the meantime the other sheep have been moved from the ‘wilderness’ to the village, and the clan has a party to celebrate the whole event.

But did you notice the setting? Luke says Jesus was eating and drinking with ‘tax collectors and sinners’ – disreputables! – and the religious folks didn’t approve. These three lost and found stories are book-ended with not-so-subtle ‘digs’ at the Pharisees’ awful theology and attitudes: the elder brother in the third story is your prototypical Pharisee.

Now Jesus wasn’t merely consorting with sinners: he was acting as host, ‘welcoming’ these people. So he asks ‘Which one of you…?’ which was a naughty question for these people: they despised shepherds as well.

I was preaching once to a small very conservative congregation. They had big black Bibles and severe expressions. That night I involved them in a dialogue. I asked them to list all the good qualities of the Pharisees: they knew about Pharisees, but obviously hadn’t thought too much about Pharisees being ‘good’: after all, they were Jesus’ main antagonists.

They offered a brilliant list, which I wrote with chalk on a blackboard: most Pharisees knew their Bibles off by heart (our Old Testament); they were prayerful; they tithed (often up to a third of their income); fasted twice a week; were martyrs for their faith in Yahweh and their allegiance to the Torah; they attended ‘church’ regularly; were moral people: many could not remember breaking any of the commandments; they were ‘evangelical’ – they believed all the right doctrines (like resurrection); and Jesus said they were evangelistic missionaries – even crossing oceans to win converts.

There was a hushed silence in that little church. ‘Anything wrong?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ replied the extrovert in the front row. ‘What is it?’ ‘That’s us!’ he said. ‘Is it?’ I responded. ‘If so, we’re in trouble, because Jesus said these Pharisees were “children of the Devil”.’

So what’s wrong with these Bible-believers? Well, look at the two diatribes against the Pharisees in the Gospels, and note particularly Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42. Their list didn’t include the ‘most important’ thing of all: justice/love. They didn’t understand the heart of God, who loves lost people, sinners, especially the little people on the margins of society…

They also don’t understand the varieties of ‘lostness’. One can be lost through no fault of one’s own: like the lost coin. Many sinners were actually ‘sinned-against’: my wife who visits women in prison each week says the vast majority are victims of sexual/physical/emotional abuse. Or you can be lost because you’re dumb/stupid – like the lost sheep. Or, as with younger prodigal, you can get lost through deliberate willful choice.

But there’s another category of lostness: the Pharisees, like the elder brother, were lost and didn’t know it. They arrogantly categorized everyone else as lost. I meet these people all the time: they assume they’re ‘saved’ because they believe all the right doctrines: the ‘heterodox’ are lost and going to hell…

You see, the ministry-description of Jesus (and it’s ours too) is to help folks ‘name’ their ‘lostness’ and to bring good news that God is searching for them in their wilderness.

And lostness is something we all experience all the time. The spiritual masters tell us that ‘conversion’ is more an ongoing process of repentance and change and spiritual growth, rather than a ‘one-off’ experience. Now those liminal or peak experiences do happen sometimes, but it’s the little ‘lost and found’ episodes which count most.

Let me finish with two examples, one from a story about Jesus, and another from my own experience as a not-yet-fully-converted Pharisee.

When they brought the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8) what did Jesus say to her? After ‘Where are your accusers?’ he said something no Pharisee can say: ‘I do not condemn you’ – Pharisees have a ‘ministry’ of condemning others - followed by the Pharisee’s common mantra: ‘Go and sin no more!’ With Jesus, as John Claypool often said, ‘acceptance preceded repentance; with the Pharisees it was the other way around.’ The acid test of the Pharisee, ancient or modern, is this: when someone comes to mind who has committed, say, a sexual sin, do we always associate the person with their sinning, or view them as a loved child of God?

I don’t know about you, but the Pharisee in me rank-orders people according to their sinfulness or heterodoxy or some other ‘not-like-me’ criterion. I’m passionately committed to social justice, but not to violence: so I tend to despise the scruffy protesters police toss into paddy-wagons. I have several homosexual friends, but I’m uncomfortable when they greet one another in church with a passionate kiss. When I hear about Taliban fighters in Afghanistan getting killed, I tend to categorize them as human vermin who should be destroyed, instead of people loved by God…

Jesus welcomed sinners, he hosted a party for them, they were his friends… How many lost publicans and sinners are numbered amongst our friends?

Rowland Croucher
September 2007.

THE MOVING FINGER WRITES...

The moving finger writes...(Edward Fitzgerald)

Enoch walked with God.

Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua.

Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!

Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. Before him (Josiah) there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might... nor did any like him arise after him. Johoram... departed with no one's regret.

Abraham, my friend.

Abraham... was called the friend of God.

Antipas my witness, my faithful one.

(Genesis 5:24; Deuteronomy 34:10; Joshua 24:31; 2 Samuel 1:23; 1 Kings 22:52; 2 Kings 23:25; 2 Chronicles 21:16,20; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23; Revelation 2:13 -- all RSV)

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Browsing through cemeteries and studying the epitaphs on tombstones might be considered a rather morbid pursuit, although occasionally one might discover a delightful example of unconscious humour, such as this inscription in an English churchyard:

Erected to the memory of Adam Abrahams, drowned in the Severn by a few affectionate friends.

Here the bad grammar occasions the humour, whereas the head-board of a grave in the Sparta Diggings, California, compounds bad spelling and grammar with extraneous detail:

In memory OV

JOHN SMITH, who met

wierlent death neer this spot,

18 hundred and 40 too. He was shot

by his own pistill;

It was not one of the new kind,

but a old-fashioned

brass barrel, and of such is the

Kingdom of heaven.

More often than not there is a genuine appreciation of the person who has died, sometimes shading out into extravagance, although, even here, a bitterness developed through long experience sometimes emerges, as in this epitaph at Grey Friars, Edinburgh, Scotland:

Here snug in grave my wife doth lie; Now she's at rest and so am I.

Very rarely there may be found an objective thought which

rises above fulsome praise or barbed criticism. In Caermathern Churchyard, in Wales, for instance, there is an inscription:

Praises on tombs are trifles vainly spent.

A man's good name is his best monument.

It is the duty of man so to live that he leaves behind a pleasant memory of himself.

Thomas Carlyle

This is important. What is said of us when we depart this life reflects the overall impression for good or evil which we make upon others by our multiplied words and actions during our lifetime. But the title of this meditation hints at a higher, more comprehensive and final judgment:

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on; not all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Edward Fitzgerald, Omar Khayyam

Scripture underlines and personalises this weightier responsibility: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

Man's judgment is necessarily imperfect, subjective and prone to change, but God's verdict on our lives is absolute and unchangeable. Hence the challenge which comes to us as we meditate upon the many 'epitaphs' in the Bible. Granted that the foundation of our acceptance by God is our faith in the completed work of his Son, Jesus Christ, what are we building, day by day, on that foundation?.

For no other foundation can one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay stubble -- each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.

1. Corinthians 3:11-13

The divine testimony is that Enoch, Moses and Abraham had the closest possible relationship with God; that Joshua's influence was so decisive that it influenced the succeeding generation, as well as his own; that Josiah was unique amongst the kings of Judah for his unswerving commitment and loyalty to God. David's reference to Saul might seem gratuitous but there was no doubt about the loveliness and pleasantness in Jonathan's life.

In stark contrast, who would welcome a verdict like that on Jeroboam, the first king of the northern tribes after the disruption which followed the death of Solomon,/. Almost every subsequent reference concerning him highlights the fact that he was largely responsible for leading Israel into sin. Perhaps even sadder is the verdict on King Jehoram, who 'departed with no one's regret', which is paralleled in an inscription on a tombstone at Painswick, in Gloucestershire, England:

My wife is dead, and here she lies;

Nobody laughs and nobody cries;

Where she is gone to, or how she fares,

Nobody knows, and nobody cares.

Jehoram lived unloved and died unlamented; there was nothing in his life which invited respect or remembrance.

What will others think and say of me? What will God's all-comprehending and absolutely just verdict be? I am reminded that the unit is not the life but the moment; that the ultimate judgment will be based upon the multitude of impulses, thoughts, words and actions that make up each day; that there is a now when I can resolutely set my will to honour God by my filial love, loyalty and total obedience; a now when I can serve my fellows with a sacrificial love and commitment which mirrors Christ's own self-giving. The children's hymn expresses these truths simply, yet meaningfully:

Growing every day in awe,

For thy Name is holy;

Learning every day to love

With a love more lowly.

Walking every day more close

To our Elder Brother;

Growing every day more true

Unto one another.

Leaving every day behind

Something which might hinder;

Running swifter every day,

Growing purer, kinder.

Lord, so pray we every day

Hear us in thy pity;

That we enter in at last

To the Holy City.

Mary Butler

God's 'Well done, good and faithful servant' will be given not for isolated flashes of brilliance or occasional successes, however stupendous, but for that daily constancy of life which results in steadily increasing Christ-likeness. This is possible for the humble, one-talented believer as well as for the multi-talented. At Ataikola, in what is now Bangladesh, there is a monument erected to the memory of a pioneer Baptist missionary, Miss Ellen Arnold, with an inscription which sums up this attitude:

Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life'.

Miss Arnold walked that Way, taught that Truth and lived

that Life.

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Father, help me to realise that this day brings with it priceless opportunities of fellowship with yourself of growing in grace and in the knowledge of your Son and of coming alongside other people to help, encourage and strengthen them.

Grant me the grace to open myself completely to your Holy Spirit, that he may lead me into all truth; the truth of your Word and the truth of a daily life which glorifies you. May no one be caused to stumble by any word or action of mine; may no-one be the poorer because of my neglect or thoughtlessness. Touch my mind so that I may think for you; touch my eyes that I may see my fellows as you see them; touch my lips so that my words might comfort, encourage or rebuke as necessary; touch my hands so that all tasks might be performed well; touch my heart, my innermost being, so that your love might control me.

Help me, dear Lord, so to live this day that with truth I may be able to say, with the One whom I seek to follow, '1 have finished the work you gave me to do'. And guard me from the spiritual pride which can so easily follow work done successfully in your name and strength, for to you I owe everything, including the will to desire and the strength to achieve.

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A Benediction

Lord, go with us into this day and grant us, moment by moment, the enjoyment of your presence, a sensitivity to the promptings of your Holy Spirit and an awareness of the rich provision you have made for us to live victoriously, this and every day. Amen.

Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 251-256

A FAITH THAT DOES JUSTICE

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies -- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.

(Isaiah 1:11-17; Romans 3:21-26 -- both RSV)

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Many Christians are puzzled about the implications of the gospel of Christ for their society. Where the Old Testament speaks so clearly about social justice, and denounces oppression and alienation, the New Testament seems to be not so outspoken.

Yet increasingly, Christians are becoming active in social and political concerns, especially in democratic nations where they have the freedom to do so. This freedom is in stark contrast to the Christians in many countries under totalitarian or Marxist regimes who suffer not only personal hardship but also great restriction in living out the gospel. Out of this contrast comes a desire for many Christians in free countries to engage in authentic social action. But how to do

In Isaiah's time it is perfectly clear that God was not willing to accept the sacrifices of his people, or listen to their prayers, unless they brought their community life into line with God's laws of righteousness. They had to turn away from evil, create justice in the community, and support the weak.

Behind this of course is the assumption that God was in touch with his people, and that they were in a relationship with him. In fact, to know the Lord is to do justice and show compassion, because we automatically reflect his character in our behaviour. So the Lord says to Jeremiah: 'Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me' declares the Lord (Jeremiah 22:15-16).

To know the Lord Jesus is likewise to reflect his character in our world. For God the Father justifies the person who has faith in Jesus, and this demonstrates his own character of justice and righteousness. The New Testament compulsion to social action and social justice is no less than the Old Testament obligation.

The Old Testament reveals a God who has a passion for justice, while Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail. For the Christian, a passion for justice cannot therefore be dismissed as 'the politics of envy' if it is seeking to establish what is right, fair and good.

Brian Wren, Education for Justice

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Old Testament justice topples over on behalf of those in direct need. This justice is not the same as fairness, as though everyone started from the same line. It is not portrayed by the blind-eyed goddess of justice. We owe that picture of justice to the Greeks. The blind goddess properly stands over the law courts. She does not look to see if the plaintiff or the defendant has the greatest needs; she is blind. She dispenses even-handed justice. She assumes that she is settling a dispute between equals. In the Bible the righteous God is not blind; his eyes are wide open. Because he is against sin, which distorts relationships between his children, he pushes away the oppressor and is active on behalf of those in special need. He sees the need of widows, orphans, foreigners, the oppressed and he acts for them.

David Sheppard, Bias to the Poor

The Christian pursuit of justice will be action rooted in solidarity with all persons, especially the poor. It will be action conformed to the demands of mutuality and reciprocal interdependence expressed in the norms of social justice. It will be action which acknowledges the claim of every unique individual to those material and social goods necessary for the satisfaction of basic human needs: food, clothing, housing, health care, social security, decent working conditions, etc.

David Hollenbach SJ, The Faith that does Justice

In the life, death' and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the world experienced a new redemptive action by God. It was a free act of God, an act of grace offered to all, the perfect sacrifice to overcome sin. It is a new and perfect demonstration of the justice of God which triumphs over the powers of evil. We are invited to respond with faith in Christ as Lord and with just relationships with our neighbours.

Changing Australia

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Lord, we sit in the comfort of our homes where we have space, and warmth and peace, and often we don't want to know about the problems of others.

We put down the newspaper and turn off the television when we see uncomfortable facts we'd rather not know. Forgive us our lack of care and help us to understand the real problems of those who have no proper home of their own... or no family to belong to... or no friend to turn to.

Help us to move through understanding to action so that we shall continually look for ways by which we can help to bring about your kingdom on earth. Help us to use our time, our minds, our energies, our money, through work, through friendship and through community action, to help those in this nation and elsewhere who are without food or shelter or clothes and therefore without hope.

And as we go about caring may they find the God who is the source of all caring. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Benediction

Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Australian Prayer Book

Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 242-245

ENTERING THE QUIET

The effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness,
quietness and trust forever.
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:17-18;

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time on and evermore. Psalm 131;

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy
One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
blessed are all those who wait for him.
Isaiah 30:15,18;

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught. He said to them, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Mark 6:30-32;

But those who wait for the LORD
shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31;

Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand how I have
gone wrong. Job 6:24;

He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; Psalm 23:2;

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1;

But Jesus was silent. Matthew 26:63;

I commune with my heart in the night;
I meditate and search my spirit:
Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable.
I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds. Psalm 77:6,7,12;

Let the arrogant be put to shame,
because they have subverted me with guile;
as for me, I will meditate on your precepts. Psalm 119:78;

On the glorious spendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works,
I will meditate. Psalm 145:5;

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Matthew 6:1



The bishop of Belley, Jean Pierre Camus, wanted to know if Francis de Sales was really as holy as he seemed to be. So he drilled a hole in the wall of his bedroom in the episcopal residence to spy on him.

What did Camus discover? Only that Francis was the same in secret as he was in company. He saw the saint creep out of bed early and quietly in themornings so as not to wake his servant. He saw him pray, write in his journal, read the office, answer some letters, then pray again. The beautiful manners, the unruffled compassion, the courtesy and humility were all on display through the peephole as they had been in the pulpit or at the dinner-table.

Francis de Sales lived a life of congruence: he was what he seemed to be. His life with God, his personal serenity, his love for others: they were all in harmony.

How does anyone get to be that way? The answer is simple, but the process is life-long: develop a wholesome spirituality!

Spirituality is mainly about how I relate to God. 'Spirit' in the Bible = breath, life. The opposite of spirit is not matter, but death. 'Spiritual' worship is the offering of all we are to God (Romans 12:1). As we noted in the last chapter, it's about my 'desire', how I pray (the very best index of who I really am).

The spiritual life cannot be nurtured without discipline. In this chapter we'll look at four disciplines - solitude, silence, study and journaling. Next chapter we'll look at four more: fasting, simplicity, confession, and service.

1. Solitude is being alone with yourself, and with God. It is not the same as loneliness. Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfilment.

Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. But loneliness and clatter are not our only alternatives. We can enjoy solitude in cities; it is possible to be a desert hermit and never experience solitude.

In his Life Together Bonhoeffer wrote: 'Let [the one] who cannot be alone beware of community ... [and whoever] is not in community [should] beware of being alone.' So we need both community and solitude: each is necessary for the enrichment of the other.

If we take seriously the discipline of solitude we will at some stage pass through what John of the Cross calls 'the dark night of the soul'. It is a time of apparent desolation, but in reality God is at work in divine surgery, bringing us to a profound stillness, so that he may work an inner transformation upon the soul.

Thomas Merton observed: 'It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them.'

Solitary time with God can be in a retreat (say, for two days or eight days etc.) but above all it ought to be daily. Daily solitude is not a luxury; it is a necessity for spiritual survival. If we do not have that within us, from beyond us, we yield too much to that around us.

Find time each day to meet with God. Make a chapel or oratory somewhere, perhaps a corner of your bedroom, away from interruptions (put the telephone answering machine on), where you do your prayer and Bible/spiritual reading, not sermon preparation).

Begin your 'quiet time' with a Bible word, phrase or prayer (Be still....', 'Maranatha', 'Lord, have mercy on me a sinner'). 'Occupy yourself in it without going further. Do like the bees, who never quit a flower so long as they can extract any honey from it' (Francis de Sales).

'Lectio divina' is the slow, reflective reading of the Bible. Scripture is God's personal word to me - for my 'formation' not just information. I read it reverently, ready to be 'converted' again and again, willing to be led where I may be reluctant to go, believing that God has yet more light and truth to reveal to me. I try to learn to 'meditate on the Word day and night' (Psalm 1:2).

The Daily Office is an excellent structure for daily devotions. Try the daily office in any modern Anglican prayerbook. The Daily Office, says (Baptist) Stephen Winward is absolutely scriptural, God-centred, depends on an ordered use of Scripture (including difficult and challenging passages), is corporate, educative (we're in touch with prayer traditions centuries old) and 'obligatory' (even though the discipline is sometimes hard). Of course, as the Protestant Reformers emphasised, it can be mechanical and formal, but it doesn't have to be.

2. Silence. St. John of the Cross, the great teacher about mystical prayer, wrote: 'The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this word he always speaks in silence, and in silence it must be heard by the soul.' Silence is 'the royal road to spiritual formation' (Nouwen). It is not just the absence of noise, but an opportunity to listen to the still small voice of the Spirit.

An exercise practised by all the spiritual masters is that of attending to the sounds around you. Why not stop now: what do you hear? Thank God for whatever those sounds represent.

3. Study. In meditation we attempt to let a word or phrase of Scripture speak to us. When we do 'Bible study' we bring our minds to bear on the text, to get into its meaning. Meditation is devotional, study is analytical. Bible study is the disciplined reading of Scripture to try to understand it. Meditation will relish a word; study will 'unpack' its meaning.

This process demands humility, as we can easily impose our own meanings on the biblical text, or organize doctrines within the narrow structure of our own biases. The central purpose of study is not doctrinal purity (though that is no doubt involved) but inner transformation. Bible study is far more likely to produce a Pharisee than meditation on Scripture. In Bible study we are 'over the word' organizing it, criticising it; in meditation and contemplation we are 'under the word': it becomes a critic of us. The Pharisee is a 'proof-texter' - fitting biblical texts into predetermined doctrinal frameworks.

4. Journaling is a useful way to record the promptings of the Spirit in your life. A spiritual journal is a written response to reality: a record of one's inner and outer life (including dreams), a way to inner growth, reflection and healing. In your journal you write down, in your own way, anything of importance to you - your feelings about life, and your relationships with others and God. Through the centuries men and women have 'journaled' in times of loneliness, crisis, ecstasy, transition and conflict. Your journal will help you with one of life's great adventures - the discovery of who you really are. You can then befriend the self you discover, and later re-traverse the journey again with thankfulness.

Only you should read your journal, unless you permit extracts to be seen by others, especially your spiritual director.

These four disciplines, regularly practised, will help you `Let go, let be, and let God'; you will experience a peace that passes understand- ing, not because you sought that peace directly, but in the process of discovering who you are in the quiet presence of God, you will be better able to negotiate a truce in those areas within where there was war before.



Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence...

T.S.Eliot, 'Ash Wednesday 1930', in Selected Poems, London: Faber, 1944, p.90.

Christian spirituality is a 'spirituality for combat' that goes deep within in order to venture beyond where others dare to go. It is a life of harmony that is caught up in a rhythm between the outer and the inner, between solitude and compassion, between the desert and the city. It is open to those who in the midst of activity are able to see possibilities for ministry in response to the 'still small voice' of God. 'To be a Christian and to pray are one and the same thing,' writes Karl Barth. 'It is a matter that cannot be left to caprice. It is a need, a kind of breathing necessary to life.'

James C. Fenhagen, Ministry and Solitude, New York: Seabury Press, 1981, p.70.

Do not give up; do not despair; do not be tempted to think it is all a waste of time. Humanly speaking it may be a waste of time, but then how much time have you wasted on waiting for someone you think you love? And there is no one better to waste time on than God. You may think you will have all eternity to love him, and could here and now be better employed doing a good work. But again, the simple message which God speaks is the paradox that if you give him more time, you will have more for other work.

Michael Hollings, Hearts Not Garments, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982, p.16.

St Benedict said Oratio sit brevis et pura: `Let the prayer be brief and pure.' Though the time of meditation may be long, anything we say to God arising out of it will have a quality of simplicity. We prefer to listen to God than to make God listen to us. Throughout the Bible God is reproaching people for not listening to him; he does not complain that they do not speak to him.

Margaret Hebblethwaite, Finding God in All Things, London: Fountain Paperbacks, 1987, p.94-95.

When we rest we acknowledge that all our striving will, of itself, do nothing. It means letting the world pass us by for a time. Genuine rest requires acknowledgment that God, and our brothers and sisters, can survive without us. It requires a recognition of our own insufficiency and a handing over of responsibility. It is a real surrender to the ways of God. It is a moment of celebration when we acknolwedge that blessing comes only from the hand of God. This is why rest requires faith. It is also why salvation can be pictured as rest. When we rest we accept God's grace: we do not seek to earn, we receive; we do not justify, we are justified.

Paul Marshall, 'Work and Rest', Reformed Journal, June 1988, p.13.

[The attitude of the desert] is a going out of oneself to encounter the absolute and true reality of things... Authentic Christian contemplation, passing through the desert, transforms contemplatives into prophets and militants into mystics.

Segundo Galilea, 'Politics and Contemplation', in Geffre and Gutierrez eds., The Mystical and Political Dimensions of the Christian Faith, New York: Herder and Herder, 1974, p.28.

There is considerable value in corporate silence... The quantity of verbal interaction is not the only, or necessarily the best, indicator of fellowship. We know well the experience of words failing us when we try to communicate heights or depths of emotion or thought. There is a peculiar and beautiful eloquence in a person's wordless presence in community... Time and again retreatants told me that the most significant and helpful feature of their retreat was the silence. Often they wish there had been more silence...

Ross Kingham, Surprises of the Spirit, Canberra: Barnabas Ministries, 1990, p.32.

In one way or another, verbally, imaginatively, physically, intellectually, with whatever faculties are operating at the time, we say to Christ, `I want to be with you. Let me follow you and spend this time with you, and then perhaps I will begin to understand what it is that I really want'

The whole purpose of the [Ignatian] Spiritual Exercises can be summed up in terms of id quod volo: the Exercises are a way through which we find out for ourselves what it is that we want most deeply.

For everyone, ultimately, the answer is the same. We want God, because that is the way we have been made. `You have made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you'.

Margaret Hebblethwaite, Finding God in All Things, London: Fountain Paperbacks, 1987, p.76-77.

A man who had been unable to pray for years began a retreat by imagining himself at Bethlehem but found he could not enter the cave. Feelings of unworthiness, and of simply not being welcome, blocked his fantasy at that point. He and his director interpreted this, not as an inability to `make the contemplation', but as a sign that he was praying; and he continued to imagine himself barred at the entrance to the cave in his repetitions of the contemplation. After two days of this, during which the resentments and hopes of his whole past life welled up within him, he reported that he was invited to go in. The fantasy, with the block and its resolution, was so much the man himself that it became the carrier for a real encounter and meant the turning point of his spiritual life.

Robert Ochs, God is more present than you think, New York: Paulist Press, New York, 1970, p.62.

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in `muchness' and `manyness', he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C.G.Jung once remarked, `Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil'.

If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture - including our religious culture - we must be willing to go down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation. In their writings, all of the masters of meditation strive to awaken us to the fact that the universe is much larger than we know, that there are vast unexplored inner regions that are just as real as the physical world we know so well. They tell us of exciting possibilities for new life and freedom. They call us to the adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980, p.13.

Some of my most profitable experiences of study have come through structuring a private retreat for myself. Usually it involves two to three days. No doubt you will object that given your schedule you could not possibly find that kind of time. I want you to know that it is no easier for me to secure that time than for anyone else. I fight and struggle for every retreat, scheduling it into my datebook many weeks in advance. I have suggested this idea to groups and found that professional people with busy schedules, labourers with rigid schedules, housewives with large families, and others can, in fact, find time for a private study retreat. I have discovered that the most difficult problem is not finding time but convincing myself that this is important enough to find the time.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980, p.60-61

The main part of the exercise: I make a note of the most important steps in my growing relationship with God (about eight is a good number). These steps, or stepping stones, may be single events, or they may be periods of growth. They may be explicitly religious, or they may be connected to the human process of maturing that I did not think of in terms of God at the time. I make a brief note of each as it occurs to me. Afterwards I can order them chronologically, so I have an idea of the overall shape of my life. There may also be steps backward, or anyway sideways.

When I have done this I am in a position to see what in my life I want to thank God for. I take time over this, being grateful for all that now seems positive in my history.

Only after I have done that do I look at the ways in which I have fallen short. Remembering the events that I am now grateful for, how could I have given more room in my life for the things that really matter?

Margaret Hebblethwaite, Finding God in All Things, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1990, p.165-6.

`In the world to come', says the Rabbi Zusya, `I shall not be asked: "Why were you not Moses?" I shall be asked: "Why were you not Zusya?" `Know yourself' has long been a spiritual directive. `Be yourself' is an additional emphasis of today...

John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, pp. vii.

When I first started practising the spiritual disciplines I read the works of great leaders - St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Francis Asbury, St. Teresa - and I tried to imitate them. It was a miserable failure until I learned that God wants to work with me as an individual. Now I can read these spiritual giants and be helped by them, but I must not try to do everything the way they did.

Richard Foster, 'Doing It God's Way' in La Vonne Neff et al (eds), Practical Christianity, Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988, p. 296

Five ways to make spiritual disciplines a part of life:

1. Dave a daily devotional time.

2. Consider having some kind of personal retreat at regular intervals. For the past year I've been taking one day a month... I get away to a retreat place and spend time praying, meditating, reflecting, and making entries in my journal.

3. Get involved in some kind of cell group.

4. Use family time to develop spiritual disciplines. The way you do this will obviously depend on your situation...

5. Join with other church members in regular corporate worship.

Howard Snyder, 'Make the Spiritual Disciplines a Part of Life' in La Vonne Neff et al (eds), Practical Christianity, Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988, pp. 296-297.

The Christian life is lived out in the tension between self-discipline and the free gift of grace. Yet slavishly giving ourselves over to a discipline of prayer doesn't mean we will automatically experience joyous intimacy with God. A discipline of prayer may easily become a routine of life-killing legalism, all form and no substance. When piety becomes rigidly legalistic, many negative things may happen... One of the mysterious paradoxes of the Christian life is that it is in the practice of spiritual disciplines that we enter into the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Again I repeat, there is nothing mechanistic about prayer. We can't manipulate or control God with it, but it places us before him so that when he wills, he will come to us.

Kenneth Swanson, Uncommon Prayer, New York: Ballantine, 1987, p. 54



Lord, while I am searching for you, you have been seeking me. I pray for silence and stillness to apprehend you, for you are not to be found in noise and restlessness. Your beautiful creation - trees, flowers, grass - grow in silence. The stars, the moon, the sun move in silence. As we receive strength in silent prayer so we shall give to others in our active life. Teach me, Lord, that what I say or what I do is less important than what you say to me and what you do in me. Words and deeds which do not share the light and life of Christ increase the darkness and death.

O gracious and holy Father, give us
wisdom to perceive you,
intelligence to understand you,
diligence to seek you,
patience to wait for you,
eyes to behold you,
a heart to meditate on you,
and a life to proclaim you
through the power of the spirit
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Benedict, cited in Praying with the Saints, Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1989, p.26.
.....

A Benediction:
Go into the desert and there find your God in the silence; go into the depths of your being, and find your real self; in disciplined self-examination allow God and yourself to come together. Make your confession to him and receive his forgiveness. Then go into the world in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.



Now: Make a serious, personal covenant with the Lord, writing down in your journal a commitment to meet with him regularly, and outlining a way of approaching that 'quiet time' that is suited to you.

Buy Kenneth Swanson, Uncommon Prayer, and read it through fairly quickly, then spend several months slowly reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline.

Contact a local retreat centre, and ask for their program. Book yourself into a retreat or course each year.

Some Spiritual Exercises: In your journal, write responses to these:

1. Imagine you are the woman healed in Mark 5:21-34 or Peter at the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-52): how do you feel?

2. Make a list of the main events of your life. Why are they important?

3. Answer the question: 'What is my desire'?

4. 'The second greatest tragedy is to have never been loved. But the greatest tragedy is to be loved and never know it.' Write a love-letter to the Lord.

5. What would you do on the last day of your life?

6. Write - honestly - your own funeral oration. What will the pastor say about you, do you think?

Rowland Croucher

WHERE IS YOUR STING?

Where is your sting? - (I Corinthians15:55)

There in the land of Moab, Moses the servant of Yahweh died as Yahweh decreed; he buried him in the valley opposite Bethpeor; but to this day no one has even found his grave.

Where could I go to escape your spirit? Where could I flee from your presence? If I climb the heavens, you are there; there, too, if I lie in Sheol.

There is a season for everything... A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting... A time for killing, a time for healing... A time for tears, a time, for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing.

Where is your plague, Death? Where are your scourges, Sheol?

Happy those who mourn; they shall be comforted.

After Jesus had taken the vinegar he said, 'It is accomplished'; and hanging his head he gave up his spirit.

As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them'; and with these words he fell asleep.

Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known.

Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more... I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better.

Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised.

Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection, If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'

(Deuteronomy 34:5-6; Psalm 139:7-8; Ecclesiastes 3:1-4; Hosea 13:14; Matthew 5:4; John 19:30; Acts 7:59-60; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Philippians 1:21 and 23; Luke 2:29; John 11:25-26 -- all JB)



'Are you prepared to kill?' recruit to the armed forces was recently put on the spot with this question, to test his commitment to serve. Equally relevant and even more searching would be the question, 'Are you prepared to die?' In an armed encounter, you will not always be the lucky one. Or is death such a bad escape after all?, 'Death, where is your sting?,'

On the subject of death, the Bible is clear, firm and uncompromising. Moses, David, Simeon, Stephen, Paul and many other biblical characters welcomed its approach. Jesus pointed to a greater life beyond death and offered himself to Martha, Thomas and others, as the 'way' to eternity.

Many Christians today, particularly those engaged in pastoral ministry, live in regular contact with this dying. As a process or an event, it's often shunned in modern Western society. Information is withheld, pretences maintained, farewells foregone. What is the role of the pastor at the death-bed? To be emotionally involved or professionally immune? Yet he or she is the one person who can inject warmth, truth and hope into the experience of those who are watching, waiting and dying.

We can, of course, learn so much about death and dying from the Two-thirds World. Asians, Africans, Pacific Islanders, mostly live closer to the possibility of death -- and so perhaps grasp more fully the meaning and purpose and value of life. Certainly they have less fear!

Death is probably most difficult to accept when it occurs far away, in situations where there can be no watching or waiting or sharing. Grieving at a distance is a hard experience. It drives you back to a sense of utter dependence on the God who 'gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ'.

A doctor said to me recently, 'Having been through the interesting process of dying with so many patients, I can hardly wait to share the experience myself!' Death is an adventure, a vital staging-post, on our pilgrimage. Yes, I am prepared to die!



Nine officers were killed by IRA mortar bombs last week in the worst attack against the Northern Ireland police since the present troubles began. Another officer, a Roman Catholic, was shot dead this week as he was about to enter a church for mass, bringing the total of killings in the province to eighteen in just over two weeks.

The Guardian, March 10, 1985

Death in itself, is nothing; but we fear, to be we know not what, we know not where.

John Dryden

What's brave, what's noble,
Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us.

William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death.

Tennyson, The Two Voices

Why should man be in love with his fetters, though of gold? Art thou drowned in security? Then I say thou art perfectly dead. For though thou movest, yet thy soul is buried within thee, and thy good angel either forsakes his guard or sleeps. There is nothing under heaven, saving a true friend (who cannot be counted within the number of movables), unto which my heart doth lean. And this dear freedom hath begotten me this peace, that I mourn not for that end which must be, nor spend one wish to have one minute added to the uncertain date of my years. It was no mean apprehension of Lucian, who says of Mennippus, that in his travels through hell, he knew not the kings of the earth from other men, but only by their louder cryings and tears: which were fostered in them through the remorseful memory of the good days they had seen, and the fruitful havings which they so unwillingly left behind them: he that was well seated, looked back at his portion, and was loth to forsake his farm; and others either minding marriages, pleasures, profit, or preferment, desired to be excused from Death's banquet: they had made an appointment with earth, looking at the blessings, not the hand that enlarged them, forgetting how unclothedly they came hither, or with what naked ornaments they were arrayed.

Francis Bacon, Essay on Death

It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes. The ashes of an Oak in the Chimney are no Epitaph of the Oak to tell me how high or how large that was. It tells me not what flocks it sheltered while it stood, nor what men it hurt when it fell. The dust of great persons' graves is speechless too, it says nothing, it distinguishes nothing: as soon the dust of a wretch whom thou wouldest not, as of a Prince thou couldest not look upon, will trouble thine eyes, if the wind blow it thither; and when a whirlwind hath blown the dust of the Churchyard into the Church, and the man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Churchyard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again, and to pronounce, This is the Patrician, this is the noble flower, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebeian bran. So is the death of Jesabel (Jesabel was a Queen) expressed; They shall not say, this is Jesabel; not only not wonder what it is, nor pity that it should be, but they shall not say, they shall not know, This is Jesabel.

John Donne, Death the Leveller

Should this be found I want these facts recorded. Oates' last thoughts were of his Mother, but immediately before he took pride in thinking that his regiment would be pleased with the bold way in which he met his death. We can testify to his bravery. He has borne intense suffering for weeks without complaint, and to the very last was able and willing to discuss outside subjects. He did not -- would not -- give up hope till the very end. He was a brave soul. This was the end. He slept through the night before last, hoping not to wake; but he woke in the morning -- yesterday. It was blowing a blizzard. He said, 'I am just going outside and may be some time.' He went out into the blizzard and we have not seen him since.

Robert Scott, Death of Captain Oates

The disease may, however, be one of those from which there is no certainty that the patient will recover. I am reminded of an old friend, a woman of boundless energy and optimism. One might have wondered if her faith, when she was in good health and engaged in a full and useful life of spiritual service, was only the reflection of her simple and confident nature. I saw her later, immobilised on her bed of pain. In answer to her direct question, her doctor had informed her of the inevitable diagnosis he must make of her condition. She was preparing herself joyfully for death. She was more radiant than ever. Visitors flocked to see her, and found in her a testimony that was more striking than she had given in active life and health.

Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn

~~~~~~~~~~~~

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, who at this evening hour didst rest in the sepulchre, and didst thereby sanctify the grave to be a bed of hope to thy people; make us so to abound in sorrow for our sins, which were the cause of thy passion, that when our bodies lie in the dust, our souls may live with thee; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, our God, world without end. Amen.

The Office of Compline

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire to work and speak and think for thee; still let me guard the holy fire and still stir up thy gift in me.

Ready for all thy perfect will, my acts of faith and love repeat, till death thy endless mercies seal and make the sacrifice complete.

Charles Wesley



A Benediction

Go forth upon thy journey, O Christian soul; in the Name of God the Father, who created thee; in the Name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who suffered for thee; in the Name of God the Holy Ghost, who hath sanctified thee.

May thy portion this day be in peace and thy dwelling in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 129-134

SACRAMENTS

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. I have baptised you with water; but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. And when Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The one who believes and is baptised will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.

Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But when they believed Philip, who was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, 'Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptised?' Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptised.

When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And baptism which this prefigured, now saves you - not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, 'Take this and divide it among yourselves; And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.'

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them.

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often a you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

John 6:51; Ephesians 4:5; Luke 3:3; Mark 1:8; 1 John 5:6; Matthew 3:16; Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 8:12; 8:36; 18:8; Colossians 1:12; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21; Luke 22:19,17,20; Luke 24:30; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29; 1 Corinthians 10:16.



A sacrament is 'an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.' The word comes from the Latin sacramentum, the term used for the coin given to a soldier to signify his oath of loyalty when recruited to serve the Emperor. His allegiance was to Caesar as lord. In the Christian sacraments, we pledge our loyalty to Christ: 'Jesus is Lord' (Romans 10:9).

For people in tune with the Infinite God everything is sacramental. Teilhard de Chardin has said, 'Because of creation and even more because of incarnation there is nothing profane for those who know how to see.' God's grace gifts are many and varied - our very life, the world of nature and of other people, prayer, the Scriptures, the Christian community, corporate worship. These are all 'means of grace'.

But the Lord serves us especially in 'the sacraments' of water, bread and wine. They are special reminders of God's grace to us, unworthy as we are. He pledges in them his loyalty to us. His steadfast love is with us forever.

Baptism. Water, of course, is the common element for cleansing. When 'pagans' wanted to join the Jewish faith they were baptized, cleansed, with water. John the Baptist told religious Jews they, too, needed to be baptized as a sign of their repentance. This they naturally found hard to take.

Jesus was baptized by John, then Jesus' disciples baptized converts during his ministry. At the end of his life he commissioned his disciples to make disciples everywhere, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20).

Baptism is associated in the New Testament with a rich variety of meanings: the washing away of our sins (Acts 22:16); putting off the old life like soiled clothes, and putting on Christ, like a new, clean garment (Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:22-24); being buried and raised with Christ (Colossians 2:12). Baptism, like the waters in Noah's time, is linked with our salvation (1 Peter 3:21), so we, like him, should be godly in a corrupt and sinful world. Baptism is the sign of the new covenant God makes with us, our children, and all that 'far away' (Acts 2:39, Colossians 2:11-12). It is an act of faith (often of real courage, too) before witnesses. It's a proclamation, a dramatization of Christ's work for sinful humanity (Romans 6). Baptism means we are now owned by Christ (the words 'in the name' signify ownership) (Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48 etc.). Baptism is associated, too, with 'baptism in the Holy Spirit': two aspects of what Paul calls 'one baptism' (Ephesians 4:5; see also Titus 3:5, John 3:5, Luke 3:22, Acts 2:38, 1 Corinthians 12:13). Finally, baptism is the door into the church.

Baptism is not really an individual event. You don't baptize yourself. You are asking to belong. You are coming into a new community. Paul says we are 'baptized into Christ' (Romans 6:3) and baptized into the Body of Christ, the Church (1 Corinthians 12:13).

So baptism is an 'acted creed'. 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven' ought to be our response at every baptism. Baptism is the rite of entry into the church. It is ordination for ministry. It ought to be the time when a person receives the fullness of the Spirit, and before the congregation is assured of his or her 'Spiritual giftedness'. The baptismal service should have some sort of creed or covenantal statement to express the body of beliefs and commitments of the church into which the candidates are being baptized. The Apostles' Creed was originally called the Baptismal Creed.

The mode of baptism, the amount of water used and the age of the baptized may vary from church to church. The more important factor is that one is baptized in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The time is coming, hopefully, when more churches will recognize each other's baptism in this way.

If you have not been baptized, why should you? Not to save you - we are saved by God's grace and our response in faith, not by anything we do (John 3:35, Ephesians 2:8,9). The best reason for being baptized is that Jesus, your Master, commands it (Matthew 28:19). He himself was baptized to 'do all that God requires' (Matthew 3:15). Every step of obedience you take (and this is certainly a major one) strengthens and encourages you to follow Christ still further.

The Lord's Supper, or 'Eucharist', is really high drama, and refers to the memorial feast instituted by Jesus just before he died. As he celebrated the Passover with his friends, he gave them bread and wine, saying 'this is my body', 'this is my blood'. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 suggest that the Lord's Supper had become a focal point of worship in the early churches. Justin Martyr in the early second century in his First Apology states that Christians met on the first day of the week to worship and 'break bread' together. With very few exceptions this sacred meal has been practised in all Christian denominations to the present day.

'Eucharist' means 'thankfulness': this service is a thankful remembrance of our Lord's death for us. Roman Catholics use the term 'Mass', from the Latin missa, a 'service' or perhaps 'feast'. The early Christians thought of Christ in terms of the past ('remember me'), present ('you proclaim the Lord's death'), and future (till he come') (1 Corinthians 13:13, Hebrews 13:8).

The Communion is not just a private affair between an individual and Jesus, but a public act of the entire assembly, a public sign of our intention to be united with each other (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Anglican article 28 offers three aspects of the Lord's Supper: # it is a sign of Christian love; # it is a symbol of Calvary, and the provision, through Christ's death, of forgiveness of sins and a new life; and # it is a means of grace. By faith we believe that when we receive this sacrament our lives are strengthened and our faith renewed. As the bread and wine are assimilated into our bodies, so, by faith, the person of Christ enters again spiritually into the life of the communicant.

You ask, 'But what if I don't feel I'm good enough?' That's a serious question, and you are invited to confess your sins and accept again the forgiveness of Christ before you partake of the sacred elements. But if we have to wait until we are sinless to participate, none of us would qualify!

There is great value in a weekly celebration of the Eucharist: in Acts 20:7 coming together for this purpose on the Lord's Day is mentioned as though it were a matter of course. There may also be other occasions where Christians can meet around the table of the Lord. At the time of the Communion we might make another opportunity to get right with one another. Sometimes let us move around and say something meaningful to another: a word of encouragement, confession, maybe a plea for forgiveness.

Do it differently sometimes, and think about what you are doing. For example, for churches where people come to the front to receive the bread, why not take it to them, symbolizing the good news that grace meets you not after you become worthy, but in order to help you become worthy? Perhaps servers of the wine could position themselves around the meeting-place, and people go to them. That is, as grace is given to us freely, we have to be willing to receive it: I will get up and go and claim the gift Christ offers. If the elements are normally served to the congregation, let them come to the front to receive them sometimes. Or serve each other. Or sing some meaningful worship-songs during communion.



A sacrament is when something holy happens. It is transparent time, time which you can see through to something deep inside time.

Generally speaking, Protestants have two official sacraments (the Lord's Supper, Baptism) and Roman Catholics these two plus five others (Confirmation, Penance, Extreme Unction, Ordination, and Matrimony). In other words, at such milestone moments as seeing a baby baptised or being baptised yourself, confessing your sins, getting married, dying, you are apt to catch a glimpse of the almost unbearable preciousness and mystery of life.

Needless to say, church isn't the only place where the holy happens. Sacramental moments can occur at any moment, any place, and to anybody. Watching something get born. Making love. A high-school graduation. Somebody coming to see you when you're sick. A meal with people you love. Looking into a stranger's eyes and finding out he's not a stranger.

If we weren't blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, London: Collins, 1973, p.82-83.

Ignatius says, When eating, think of Jesus. Zen says, When eating, think of eating. Are these two approaches so different? Is not Jesus our food? Is not every food symbol of the Eucharist? Is not God present in all we eat? Is not every action of ours an act of faith? Do what you do, and eat when you eat. Jesus is with you.

Anthony de Mello, in Carlos G. Valles, Mastering Sadhana, New York: Doubleday, 1988, p. 99.

Through these visible re-enactments, God's grace is awakening and empowering our participation in the life of Christ. We are born in Christ in baptism, and through Holy Communion we are nurtured, sustained, and, it is hoped, eventually sanctified (made mature in holy living) in Christ...

The sacraments presuppose that God has met us in history and that this meeting calls us to regular recollection and re-enactment in order to experience God's real presence in our midst. The grace of God is offered to us in and through these sacraments in a way that we cannot grasp by our own moral efforts. Protestants revolted against what they perceived to be superstitions of medieval penance and sacramentalism. Yet never do the Protestant confessions lose sight of the basic idea that grace is being offered, and, by faith, communicated to the believer in baptism and Holy Communion by Christ's own ordinance. They are means of grace.

Thomas Oden, Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983, pp. 106-107.

[The early church fathers Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Cyprian, Augustine, Ambrose, Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom etc.] thought in terms of one sacrament - one visible, tangible means by which we are brought to God. That means is Jesus Christ. He is the sacrament par excellence. The fathers never argued for salvation by the sacraments. Rather, the sacraments of water and bread and wine, they said, are the visible, tangible signs of Christ's saving action.

Robert E. Webber, Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals are Attracted to the Liturgical Church, Waco, Texas, 1985, p.48.

Baptism consists of getting dunked or sprinkled. Which technique is used matters about as much as whether you pray kneeling or standing on your head. Dunking is a better symbol, however. Going under symbolises the end of everything about your life that is less than human. Coming up again symbolises the beginning in you of something strange and new and hopeful. You can breathe again.

Question: How about infant baptism? Shouldn't you wait until the child grows up enough to know what's going on?

Answer: If you don't think there is as much of the less-than-human in an infant as there is in anybody else, you have lost touch with reality.

When it comes to the forgiving and transforming love of God, one wonders if the six-week-old screecher knows all that much less than the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, London: Collins, 1973, p.5-6.

The differences between infant and believers' baptism become less sharp when it is recognized that both forms of baptism embody God's own initiative in Christ and express a response of faith made within the believing community... The practice of infant baptism emphasizes the corporate faith and the faith which the child shares with its parents... The practice of believer's baptism emphasizes the explicit confession of the person who responds to the grace of God in and through the community of faith and who seeks baptism... In some churches which unite both infant-baptist and believer-baptist traditions, it has been possible to regard as equivalent alternatives for entry into the Church both a pattern whereby baptism in infancy is followed by a later profession of faith and a pattern whereby believer baptism follows upon a presentation and blessing in infancy. This example invites other churches to decide whether they, too, could not recognize equivalent alternatives...

Commentary (12) on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111, World Council of Churches, Geneva, 1982, p. 5.

What the Church of England does not do, but any of the Baptist Churches do, is to administer an adult rite to those already previously baptized, and it is that principle which distinguishes between the two denominational traditions and not the principle as to whether adults should be baptized or not. All Christians are agreed that adults who come to faith in Christ and have not been baptized should then be baptized.

Submersion or dipping is the Church of England's first and preferred option. Every candidate ought to be shown that this option is not only open to him or her, but is the Church of England's preferred option... It is an 'option' - not a necessity - and its usefulness and desirability must be worked out between minister and candidates on each occasion, and it is not absurd to have one font or baptismal tank with some candidates undergoing dipping and others receiving pouring (just as adult and infant candidates may also be mixed together, though that is not necessarily to imply that only adults should be submerged, or only infants have water poured on them).

Colin Buchanan, Adult Baptisms, Bramcote Notts: Grove Books, 1985, pp. 4, 20.

The presence of Christ in the ordinary events of our lives and his presence in the sacraments are not in opposition to each other. In the sacraments we celebrate in a special ritual way the love of Christ we experience in our lives. In turn, these celebrations help us become more aware of the presence of Christ in all our human experiences...

The sacraments are external realities that first touch our senses. Through the messages that reach and get through our senses Christ 'speaks' and 'touches' the depths of our being... [But] if we have not had happy, enriching experiences of breaking and sharing authentic bread around a table of love, then how can that sign speak to us at Eucharist? If the celebration of the Eucharist obscures as much as possible the sign of a shared meal (an altar instead of a table, people scattered in a large building rather than gathered in an intimate community, tasteless wafers instead of loaves of wholemeal bread) is not the experience of Christ in the meal sacrifice diminished accordingly?

William P. Roberts, 'New Riches in Old Signs' in Praying, Kansas, No. 12, 1985, pp. 11, 12.

The road from the Last Supper in the Upper Room on the night when Jesus was betrayed to modern eucharistic faith and practice in the Christian church has been long, tortuous and diverse. Along it, Christians have been persecuted by the State and by each other. Sometimes they have worshipped in joyful assurance of their Lord's presence and in confident expectation of his triumphant return. Sometimes Christ's presence in the sacrament has been hidden and distorted by magic and superstition. Sometimes, great Christians have struggled with lofty words to explain and lay hold of the sublime truths conveyed in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Often Christian understanding has been partial and shallow. After centuries of neglect many Protestant Christians are rediscovering the importance and centrality of the Eucharist in worship. After centuries of suspicion many Catholics and Protestants are feeling the urge to break bread together again, and to heal the rifts which have divided them for so long.

Donald Bridge and David Phypers, The Meal That Unites?, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1981, p. 166.

An increasing number of Christians feel that a united communion service is the most expressive demonstration of true Christian unity, since it means... we welcome to the Lord's Table those whom we believe Christ has received even though we may have differing views on such matters as church order.

To practise 'open communion' is not to deny real and meaningful denominational differences, but it is to recognize that churches other than one's own are also part of the body of Christ. The invitation to partake should surely be extended to all true believers and the onus thereafter is upon the individuals concerned.

Gilbert W. Kirby, Too Hot to Handle, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1978, p. 36.

To eat this particular meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic humanness, which involves our need not just for food but for each other. I need you to help fill my emptiness just as you need me to help fill yours. As for the emptiness that's still left over, well we're in it together, or it in us. Maybe it's most of what makes us human and makes us brothers.

The next time you walk down the street, take a good look at every face you pass and in your mind say, Christ died for you. That girl. That slob. That phoney. That crook. That saint. That damned fool. Christ died for you. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, London: Collins, 1973, p.53.

Breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death which gives eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Irenaeus, quoted in Margaret Pepper (ed.), The Pan Dictionary of Religious Quotations, London: Pan Books, 1989, p. 166.

O sacred feast in which we partake of Christ: his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours.

Antiphon from the Vespers of Corpus Christi in Tony Kelly, Touching the Infinite, Blackburn: Collins Dove, 1991, p.129.



Father accept us, as we offer and present ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a holy and living sacrifice; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Alternative Great Prayer of Thanksgiving B, Uniting in Worship, Melbourne: Uniting Church Press, 1988, p. 108

O God, by your word and Spirit bless and sanctify [the] bread and [the] wine, that they may be for us the communion of the body and blood of Christ, and that he may ever live in us and we in him.

Jesus, you are the bread of life; those who come to you will never be hungry; those who believe in you will never thirst. You are the living bread from heaven; the bread you give us is your own flesh, and you give it for the life of the world.

All who eat your flesh and drink your blood live in you and you in them; for your flesh is the food we need, your blood is our salvation; all who eat your flesh and drink your blood have eternal life.

Look to Jesus in the wilderness, breaking bread and feeding the multitude.

A New Zealand Prayer Book, Auckland: Collins, 1989, p.124.

Thou art thyself both he who offers and he who is offered, he who receives and he who is distributed.

Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, quoted in Margaret Pepper (ed.), The Pan Dictionary of Religious Quotations, London: Pan Books, 1989, p. 166.

Lord, grant that your faithful people may continually desire to relive the mystery of the Eucharist and so be born to lead a new life. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Daily Mass Book, Brisbane: The Liturgical Commission, 1990, p.38.

Grant, O Lord that I may receive your precious body and blood to make me holy, to enlighten and strengthen me, to ease the burden of my many sins, to protect me from the traps of the devil, to overcome my sinful and evil habits, to subdue my wayward urges, to help me to live your commandments, to increase in me your divine life, to bring me into your kingdom.

John Chrysostom, cited in Praying with the Saints, Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1989, p.49-50.



A Benediction: May God Almighty bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord: In the name of Christ. Amen.

Rowland Croucher