Suggestion for Daily Use

Follow the ‘Daily Prayer’ at the side+++Suivez le ‘Prière Quotidienne’. Read the bible passages and then the meditation. Pray, tell God how you felt about the reading and share the concerns of your life with him. Maybe you will continue the habit after Lent. Lisez les passages bible et après la méditation. Priez, dites à Dieu que vous avez ressenti à propos de la lecture et de partager les préoccupations de votre vie avec lui. Peut-être que vous allez continuer l'habitude après le Carême. Daily Prayer Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. Luke 4.1-2 Now is the healing time decreed For sins of heart, of word or deed, When we in humble fear record The wrong that we have done the Lord. (Latin, before 12th century) Read: Read the Bible passage. Read the meditation Pray: Talk to God about what you have just read. Tell him your concerns - for yourself, your family, our church family, our world. Praise him. Pray the collect for the week – see next pages. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Prière Quotidienne Jésus, rempli de l'Esprit Saint, revint du Jourdain et le Saint-Esprit le conduisit dans le désert où il fut tenté par le diable durant quarante jours. Luc 4.1-2 Maintenant le temps de la guérison est décrété Pour les péchés du cœur, de la parole et des actes, Lorsque nous nous souvenons avec humilité Le mal que nous avons fait au Seigneur. Lire : Lisez le passage de la Bible. Lisez la méditation. Prier : Parlez avec le Seigneur de ce que vous avez lu. Parlez-lui de vos préoccupations pour vous-même, votre famille, notre famille de l’église, notre monde. Louez-le. Priez la collecte pour la semaine. Voyez les pages suivantes Mon âme, bénis le Seigneur ! Que tout qui est en moi bénisse son saint nom. Mon âme, bénis le Seigneur, et n’oublie aucun de ses bienfaits !

05 December 2015

Harassed and Helpless

Saturday 5th December
Psalms 146.4-9                      Psaumes 146.4-9




When I was a child, my family lived in Jerusalem, Israel for two years. While we were there, violence was commonplace; from our back garden we could hear the gunshots and mortars exploding from the nightly skirmishes in nearby Bethlehem. At one point after several attacks happened near to where my parents worked and my brothers and I attended school, when my family were all feeling discouraged and alone, a friend of my mother’s saw a flock of sheep near an area where guns were being fired. Every time a shot rang out, the sheep would scatter and panic. The shepherd would then take his staff and walk to each sheep and touch it, and the sheep responded to his touch by quieting and becoming still. They trusted their shepherd, and even though the entire process had to be repeated every time a round was fired, the shepherd never tired of reassuring them. 

In today’s passages, we are reminded both of the shepherd that we need and the hope that he brings. The promises of the kingdom of God are particularly poignant in Brussels today - in a time when we feel unsafe and unsettled, the Lord promises that injustices will be made just, that wrongs will be righted, and that we will be guided in the way we are meant to go. Let us be bringers of this kingdom of justice and mercy today, walking in love and not fear. Let us cling to our shepherd our audacious faith and hope.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

Amen.

Natalie Jones

No comments:

Post a Comment