Words of Light and Hope from Jane McLarty
Words of Light & Hope for 7th July 2024 By Jane McLarty LLM
By the time you read this we will have voted and the result of the election will be known. As we look to this fresh start, for whoever wins, we might think of Solomon’s words to God on becoming king of Israel: ‘Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.’ (1 Kings 3:9) One important part we can play in the life of our country is to pray. To encourage us, here are some words from writers on prayer: Sister Wendy Beckett What happens when people ask us to pray for them? Perhaps I can only tell you what happens within me. I have heard the request and it has changed me. I am now a person that knows that X wants a baby, that Y is sick, that Z is locked in an unhappy marriage. I say, ‘Yes, I will pray for you,’ and I mean it. But what I mean is that this person, this me, who now has this knowledge, gives herself to God and in the giving, I give all these problems. Jonathan Sacks (formerly Chief Rabbi) A people, a person, who can pray is one who, even in the darkest night of the soul, can never ultimately lose hope…Are prayers answered? From personal experience I know that they are – but rarely when we expect, or in the way we expect. Sometimes the answer is no. But prayer itself helps us understand why the answer had to be no. George Herbert: Prayer (1) Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age, God’s breath in man returning to his birth, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage, The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r, Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear, The six-days world transposing in an hour, A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear; Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss, Exalted manna, gladness of the best, Heaven in ordinary, man well drest, The milky way, the bird of Paradise, Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood, The land of spices; something understood.
