lurchersontheedge

Day 13 saw a trip to Sutton Coldfield. The signs for Lichfield set me thinking. Lichfield is the home of Chad’s great Cathedral, and March 2nd is the feast of Chad.

After the celebrations of March 1st of David, Patron of Wales, I did wonder about the commalities of the two saints: simplicity would be one, commitment to community (monastic) would be another.

So, as Day 13 ends: how committed am I to community?

Almost immediately after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, Mark has Jesus begin to redefine what Messiah is. Jesus is the one who follows the way of the cross. This would have been scandalous to the first hearers of Jesus and also sat uncomfortably with those listening to Mark. Messiahs did not die.

As importantly for those of us following Jesus today is that Jesus begins to redefine discipleship. It would be costly. The early followers of Jesus, like us today, had to unlearn many things.

It is like learning a language. I am learning Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus i pawb means Happy St David’s Day to all. I can do this with relative ease now. A year ago, I would have been tempted to begin the sentence with Hapus… and end up saying St David is happy. With learning a language, I have to unlearn how I think it should be done. This is perhaps the hardest act in learning anything new; you need to reconfigure the old.

Lent is a good time to engage in that reconfiguration.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus i pawb

May Lent continue to be blessed

my steps

The Archdeacon of Bangor when reflecting on ministry offered the following thought: most of us are caught between grace and guilt.

That set me thinking. I, being me, wanted to reject the notion completely. Upon consideration, he is right. It is also food for thought during Lent. Many of us have given things up or taken things on. All of them will be to some extent worthwhile; and yet sometimes I do things because I think I ought to or have to (guilt) rather than in response to the overwhelming love of God

Today, St Cybi’s, Holyhead played host to children from Ysgol Parchedig Thomas Ellis, Ysgol Llaingoch and Ysgol y Parc as we marked the beginning of Lent.

I realise for the purists we are a week late. That is because of the little matter of Lent beginning during half term.

Lent is a journey. I guess it can start at different points. The children all left with a bag containing sand and a card with the words, ‘you are a person who is loved by God and God is pleased is with you’.

My Lenten devotions start with that particular truth, and the sand reminds me that much of what I know about God has often be fashioned in adversity.

Dancing waves

I wonder how your Lent is going so far?

I hope that you are being gentle with yourself. I think that is absolutely key to keeping a good and holy Lent. In the past, I have set myself lots of targets, failed, felt guilty and sometimes pretended that I had not really set them.

It is good be able to simply carve out time.

Yesterday, I watched the waves in Trearddur Bay. The sun dancing upon the crest of the sea, and for a moment, I managed a sense of stillness.

You don’t need to be confronted by the power of nature to be stilled. I am stilled as I remember my home towm, the steel city of Sheffield.

I am stilled as I read the Scriptures and attempt to pray. Perhaps, as we begin to enter the second week of this holy season, I will remember to be still a little more.

Buttermere Lake

I am afraid these are not the thoughts of a profound thinker, but my own as I watched the sunrise with my faithful hounds today; Pippin and Samwise.

Lent can be a bit like that. It is a journey, and by going on the journey we do not know how it will end. In a sense, that is not true, it will end of Easter Day. But in another sense, it is completely true, we do not know how it will end, as we do not know how we will have changed by living through Lent.

I realise that appears to be quite a deep thought for this time on a Sunday morning. However, I am going to leave it there: for today I am going to enjoy the moment.