Category: Prayer
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78. Simple Prayer
January 2020 Sister Wendy Beckett was a Roman Catholic contemplative who knew a great deal about art. You may have seen her on tv talking about it, or you may have read one of her many books on the subject. She also wrote about prayer, and there is a quotation that I attribute to her…
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74. Being moved by God
Sept 2019 I’m recently returned from a stimulating visit to Finland, where I met up with some old friends and made some new ones. Looking back on my days there I am aware of a number of moments that touched me deeply. I visited an art exhibition ‘Silent Beauty’ which I liked very much, and…
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71. Do the dead pray for us?
July 2019 I was praying for the dead one Sunday morning, and in particular I was holding my Dad in love before God. I don’t know why I was praying for him rather than anyone else, but I’d felt led to do so, and then I sensed him suggesting that I visit the local Quaker…
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70. The Lords Prayer
July 2019 The Gospels have two versions of the Lords Prayer, one in Luke and the other in Matthew. It is interesting to see them together, when it becomes clear that Luke’s version is shorter than Matthew’s. Luke 11:2-4 Father Hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Give us each day our daily bread And…
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65 Lost and Found
June 2019 Sylvia, my wife, is assiduous in putting food out for the birds in our back garden. In the winter, when its cold and food is scarce, its like Heathrow outside our back door as our feathered friends fly in from all directions, to take on nourishment from a reliable source. Sitting in the…
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58. Prayer Is…
May 2018 Prayer is anything that nurtures the relationship between us and God God in creating us and giving us the gift of life, has initiated and continues to nurture that relationship God is the primary pray-er, not us. Prayer is time consciously spent in God’s presence. All time is spent in God’s presence, whether…
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55. In praise of Christmas cards
January 2018 We shall soon be taking down out Christmas cards. I send a lot of Christmas cards, and we receive a lot too. We noticed this year that most of the cards we received and just about all the cards we sent had an explicitly Biblical reference. Visiting other homes during the season and seeing other peoples’…
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36. God’s candles
November 2016 I have four daughters, mature women, three of whom are dotty about small furry animals. One of them will cross a crowded street in order to fix an innocent passer-by with a winning smile and ask ‘Please may I say Hallo to your dog?’ Another, who lives alone, adopted a house cat called ‘Ash’…
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23. God speaks in many languages too
April 2016 God of course addresses us in an astonishing range of languages, but most of us only hear a few of them. Let us start by going back to the five ‘love languages’ we humans use. It is an obvious but often not recognised truth, that God speaks most obviously and often through the…
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22. Languages of Love
April 1916 Some years ago I read a book that suggested that there are five different ‘languages of love’ that human beings use: five different ways of our expressing love towards another. I guess that others might come up with a different list, but it named the five as: 1] physical touch: ranging from a…
