These are the signs of the season…
Eyes and ears are opened.
Limpers and Lepers are welcomed.
Those who seem dead to our common life are born again.
Good News is shared with those who never thought they could afford or were worthy of it.
..and we are the ones who have been called to do this.
In the end it’s not about ‘wars and rumours of war’ nor is it about ‘one person being taken and the other left’. It is about keeping our eyes on Jesus.
It is about living Advent lives, watching and waiting and working for the Return of the King.
We have a King who forgives – we are called to be a people who forgive.
We have a King who saves – we are called to be a people who offer salvation.
We have a King who is innocent – we are called to be a people who, even imperfectly…aim to live lives of purity.
We have a King who remembers – we are called to be a people who will not leave anyone out of the arms of love stretched out on the Cross.
Hatred and darkness comes and will return again and again. We may feel, as did the Pevensie children in Narnia, that it is ‘always winter but never Christmas.’
But there is always a time of darkness before the dawn of Christmas. Christmas is coming, the reign of the Wicked Witch will end and we will find ourselves living with all those who have got home ahead of us who live now the sunlit uplands of Aslan’s own land.
Commonplace Christianity is often a very poor and trivial affair; an affair of ceremonies and opinions and feelings;
Precept and Practice – NOVEMBER 1 – The Pure in Heart Shall see God Is it not promised for ever to the pure in heart that they shall see God? Let any true man go into silence; strip himself of all pretence, and selfishness, and sensuality, and sluggishness of soul; lift off thought after thought, passion after passion, till… Continue reading Precept and Practice – NOVEMBER 1 – The Pure in Heart Shall see God
When we finally learn that the pain of death is the brith pangs of the life after life, then we will dance… and not care if we are naked!
Sainthood for Dummies!
To be a saint is the everyday task of the Christian. However tradition dictates that we can only become saints once we have died. Learning to die is the key to learning to live.
God’s heart goes forth to meet His erring children. The Good Shepherd goes forth to seek His wandering sheep.
As nature with her old mosses and her new spring foliage hides the ruins which man has made, and gives to the fallen tower and broken cloister a beauty scarcely less than that which belonged to them in their prime so human love may be at work too,
Suffolk Vicar 