- It is on Thursday 19 June 2014 this year.
- It is always on a Thursday.
- It is one of the most extravagent and lovely religious festivals that human beings have devised.
- Thomas Aquinas is said to have invented it to bring the focus back to Jesus Christ in churches which were rather keen on his mother.
- It is about gazing in wonder – and we don’t do that nearly enough.
- Our Lord himself comes and wanders amongst his people – just like in real life!
- Abraham (as Bishop Kevin was always wont to say) would have understood this feast
- We scatter flower petals hither and yon to make a suitable pathway for God to come amongst us
- It smells. Lovely.
- The service takes place at 7.30 pm in St Mary’s on Thursday evening – please bring flower petals to the sacristy by 7 pm if you can
4 responses to “Prayers at a time of tragedy”
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It’s hard to imagine that only a few hours ago I was in your beautiful church in that wonderful city that sometimes I think of as mine. My heart and my prayers go out to all the families of the bereaved and injured tonight.
“Rest eternal Lord, grant unto them and may light perpetual shine upon them” -
Amen. And yet again the people of Glasgow showed themsleves at their warm-hearted best, with unsolicited offers of practical help.
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Thank you for this prayer Kelvin.
Here in Australia the week before last, a guy dressed as a Muslim (and was in fact one) held a lot of people hostage in a very posh but well-patronised cafe in the business/law precinct the city of Sydney. He had a lot of irrational demands. It was a very well-planned and he held up the people and the city in terror for 12+ hours. He was actually a bully and unhinged mentally. In the end the police broke in and in the ensuing gun battle 2 people were killed by the gunmman then the gunman himself.
We lie quietly here in Australia with relatively little racial violence (but lots of domestic violence -the gunman had heaps of charges)
We understand this incident does not equate with what happened in your city
or to the schhool-children in Pakistan but it stunned us.So I thank you for your skill to put this simple prayer together.
Tom-
Thanks Tom – we were all watching and praying along with those in Sydney last week. These events are world events. Paradoxically they bring us together.
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