Wednesday 21 February 2024

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope Lent has begun well for you. It was wonderful to see so many of you at our first online discussion last night and so many for Morning Prayer this morning. If you would like to join us for Morning Prayer, 8am, Monday to Thursday, ask me for the Zoom link.

For our second Lenten online discussion, next Tuesday, 27th February, 7.30pm, I will be explaining the thought behind lectio divina which is a meditative way of praying with scripture. We will also do it and not just talk about it! The same zoom link, above, will be used.

Green Lent
If you want to try to live more simply during Lent and find ways to positively engage more with creation and help to protect the environment, then you might be interested in these ideas from A Rocha (one of the charities we support at St Ursula's).

Prayer for Freedom: on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine
There will be an ecumenical event to pray for Ukraine on Saturday 24th February, 18:30, at St Peter and Paul, Old Catholic Church, Rathausgasse 2.
All are welcome.

Farewell Service for Bishop David
Bishop David is retiring at the end of this month and there will be a special online farewell service on Wednesday 28th February, 18:00 - 19:00. Everyone is welcome to join on Youtube. Here is a link with more information.

House Groups
I encourage anyone who is interested in joining a group to fill in their questionnaire as soon as possible and return it to me or to the church office. Do ask me if you want to know more. More details and the form are attached.

For Prayer and Reflection: Saying 'Yes' to God
Last week I concluded with some words by Maria Boulding, a contemplative nun who died a few years ago, and who wrote several powerful books about prayer and the Christian life. In the passage below she speaks about saying 'Yes' to God in our daily life and in our prayer and how the two are connected:

'The 'Yes' which we implicitly say to God in the multifarious activities and decisions of daily life is gathered up into the simple act of surrender to his love when we meet him in prayer. Conversely, the 'Yes' of surrender in prayer begins to exert a powerful effect on our lives. For most of us in the modern West life is fairly complicated. Each day seems to be composed of hundreds of pieces which we must co-ordinate; all our intelligence and energy are needed to cope with the demands life makes on us. When simple, contemplative prayer becomes a habit we discover that there is somehow a new unity, as though a hidden thread were pulling all these disparate elements into alignment. At the centre of our prayer we want the will of God, and this marriage of our will with his gives new meaning to everything else. There is a quiet pull, like the pull of the magnetic north on the compass needle. We still struggle with, enjoy or suffer hundreds of things, but we want only one.'

With love in Christ,
Helen