Raw prayer

I heard today that a local youth I knew, Peter, died on Christmas Day, aged 17. He leaves his mother, Margaret and his father, Stephen. Remember them.

And as you remember, remember this...

At the bottom of the mountain, Jesus meets a boy with epilepsy and his family (I go back ot this incident often) and the father says 'help my unbelief', as any of us might, and the mother says nothing, as any of us might, and Jesus says to the disciples 'this comes right only with prayer' and that's what any of us might discover through the Holy Spirit at the bottom of any mountain.

Dying day

Tomorrow will be my dying day:
the day before yesterday was yours.
You didn’t buy a ticket,
you didn’t book a place
and yet there you were
suddenly at the front of the queue.
Never one to push yourself forward,
you had been propelled there
by a few ill-chosen breaths.
Of course it’s all behind you now,
while we that are left grow old
and still have to face the final hurdle;
waiting for the chance to catch a note
of that endless chorus you now sing
and hoping this will not break us.

For today, God of all,
give us peace, one more time.

JAL: 27.12.2009
In memory of Peter

Year of the Nurse 2010

It seems that 2010 is to be the Year of the Nurse - so says the Nightingale Declaration at http://www.nightingaledeclaration.net/.


Of course this is dear to me having been the daughter of one and th neice of another nurse. Anne, my mum (died 2007) is on the left and Betty, her sister (died 2005) is on the right. Both were nurses as you can see.

Here's a piece I wrote about them both a couple of years ago, a month after my mum's death, which is influenced by RB and the story of Martha and Mary:


Two Sisters

There were two sisters.
One was married and one was single and they lived together in the home of the married one.
One was extrovert, outgoing, practical. She would invite many people to the house, make lots of food and feed everyone. She would also help people with practical family problems in sickness and in health.
One was introvert, quiet, reflective. She would prefer to be on her own, reading a book or the paper, listening to the radio. If you asked her for help she would give it willingly; the washing or the ironing.
They seemed quite different.
They shared the same profession both being nurses, but they practiced it in different ways. One was the career nurse who had managed wards and even a whole hospital (in the days when the NHS was like that). Her quiet authority had transmitted itself to staff and patients alike. One was a nurse alongside other roles in family and community, sharing her skills and knowledge with anyone who asked, mentoring young people, supporting old ones. Her practical action helped many to cope with life’s ordinary challenges.
But they were also very similar: generous with their time and resources, they both enjoyed music and reading, and were very faithful to each other.

I knew them both and they both influenced my life. One, the practical extrovert, was my mother. The other, the reflective introvert, was my aunt. I am like them both; practical and reflective. Theirs was not a competitive relationship: there was no ‘better part’. Rather they each made a contribution to the whole of life, lived in the company of the Life Giver, each one giving what they were, wholly vulnerable.

JAL: 19.10.2007

Advent and sin

It seems Advent goes with sin like kippers go with custard (i.e. it's not to everyone's taste). Sin has become one of those dated words fewer and fewer ordinary people use. Maybe we can't scrap it altogether (I'm sure a bishop or two would have something to say about that) but maybe we can find some more relevant words to use. Someone I read about recently suggested 'abuse' was a good word to swap for sin. I'll think about it.

Meanwhile what about RB for Advent? There's all that exciting stuff about the end times - a bit like the far fetched plot of a dodgy video game. Then there's John the Baptist - now you're talking.

We did some RB on John the Baptist at the weekend. Some lovely things about John the Baptist have come up in RB like John being a Baptist because that's his name. Good thing he wasn't called John the United Reformer then wasn't it! But the best memory I have of John the Baptist is the tin of dried grass hoppers my mum won in a raffle when I was about 8 years old. Yes, I know he ate locqusts but they don't do them in tins it seems. This lovely unopened but fading tin of dried grasshoppers is still on my shelf to remind me of John the B and all his austere ways. I'm not sure they've not passed their sell by date but speaking personally my austerity measures only go as far as nonfat milk (that's the stuff with the red tops).