In the last few days there have been terrorist attacks in Maiduguri, Ankara, Istanbul, Brussels.
People from all around the world and all traditions stand in solidarity with those places under attack.
Eternal God
hear the cries of your people
as we stand in solidarity
with those under attack.
Protect the innocent,
comfort the needy,
confound the wicked.
Give strength to the rescuers,
determination to peacemakers,
courage to law-enforcers,
strength to the weary.
Amen.
Oh suppose the sleep over! The bible readings to read – the stories to tell! The living re-tellings it would invite.
And suppose the exhaustion on Easter Day… and Monday
Thanks Rosemary.
BTW, after you had finished polishing the eagle this morning and had gone, I discovered that we have a pelican.
The pelican has not been polished, however, Rosemary, none of us being quite that tall.
I do suspect I would like the all night vigil if we ever did it.
Where is the pelican??!! Up somewhere?? Oh, I would love to polish a pelican.
I’d love to sit up half the night reading aloud and telling stories – but I fear the exhaustion. But I would never, ever resist if invited. As long I was invited and allowed to read and tell stories. It could be so fabulous. Unique. Deep. Newsworthy. (and those are all the lures I have to throw.)
You do realise my first words are now liable to be not ‘alithos anesti’ but ‘where is the blessed pelican?’
I think that those of us who know where the Pelican is must keep our counsel and give Rosemary the pleasure of Pelican Spotting on Easter Day.
What treat could be more lovely?
Still pelican searching – it is tough on those N rather than S – if you see me with my monocular don’t laugh – oh. all right then, go on, do laugh!
Ooh, is it a Pelican in its Piety, which I gather was a popular Christ-symbol in medieval europe and also amongst the Larry Graysons?
Not only is she a Pelican in her Piety but I actually found that we have two.
I also found that it’s possible to Pelicans in their Piety right under Rosemary’s nose and she won’t necessarily see them.
Someone suggested to me a while ago that we should have an inventory of the flaura and fauna represented in the iconography of St Mary’s. I suspect such a task would be a revelation. There’s a badger, for example, which few see but me.
I am chronically unobservant – I notoriously fail to see things right under my nose. Last week I failed to see the pepper grater. It was upright on a table of less than two foot diameter. There was a table lamp, a plate and the pepper grater. I could not see it. It is sad on one whose speciality is religious architecture, isn’t it? But Low Sunday shall be find the pelican day.
Rosemary, I’d have nudged you in the right direction yesterday morning if I hadn’t rudely run off just as our conversation got to pelicans. (The pleasure of the hunt is all well and good, but it can get to the point of being an exercise in frustration.)
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I do like the fact that we have an angel with rainbow wings perched above the High Altar in St Mary’s. Just saying.
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