Sr Mary Martha has a wonderful post today on birthday cake, little girl’s umbrellas and how to give children a reasonable chance of growing up in the faith.
I’m quite taken by the manger trick too.
You can ignore the most RC elements if you need to. There’s enough there even for the WWJD brigade.
no, not mine.
(and I suggest the person in mind omit the last stanza)
Don’t Say I Said
Next time you speak to you-know-who
I’ve got a message for him.
Tell him that I have lost a stone
Since the last time that I saw him.
Tell him that I’ve got three new books
Coming out soon, but play it
Cool, make it sound spontaneous.
Don’t say I said to say it.He might ask if I’ve mentioned him.
Say I have once, in passing.
Memorize everything he says
And, no, it won’t be grassing
When you repeat his words to me —
It’s the only way to play it.
Tell him I’m toned and tanned and fine.
Don’t say I said to say it.Say that serenity and grace
Have taken root inside me.
My top-note is frivolity
But beneath, dark passions guide me.
Tell him I’m radiant and replete
and add that every day it
Seems I am harder to resist.
Don’t say I said to say it.Tell him that all my ancient faults
Have been eradicated.
I do not carp or analyse
As I might have when we dated.
Say I’m not bossy any more
Or, better still, convey it
Subtly, but get the point across.
Don’t say I said to say it.
–Sophie Hannon
from Collected Poem
Well, the prayer session went so well, I am now convinced that it had nothing whatsoever to do with my planning.
The last set of sessions I did on prayer (last winter) had so far surpassed expectation that I did not let myself hope that it would ever ‘work’ so well again. And then today — in a very different group with a different entry point to prayer — God took over again and it all just happened.
It is such an extraordinary feeling when a group suddenly begins to pray. They trusted each other and shared deeply, despite the mix of old-friends and never-met-befores. Even the person I though was most likely to prefer a different approach could be seen smiling with sudden humour and compassion at someone else’s story and experience of prayer. You could see and feel and hear people experiencing something new of God, of themselves, and of the people they were praying for (and with).
Days like this make up for a lot of nonsense in the day to day running of a ‘parish’.
One of today’s tasks was to plan a set of prayer workshops that begin tomorrow in one of my congregations. Last minute as always. But I convinced myself that it was right to delay so that I could include a visiting ordinand in the planning process.
So, as darkness fell, I gave her a rough outline of where I was coming from and where I thought the congregation might be coming from, and we went our separate ways to think for 20 minutes, before comparing notes.
Despite the fact that this course has been in the diary for months, I have been struggling to know where to go with it. This is the fifth time I’ve done a course like this on prayer, and I keep hoping that one of these days I will be able to reuse, or at least adapt old material. But each time, I find that I can’t. Although the main goals are the same (encouraging and understanding and practice of prayer as relationship & being-with-God) the process is always different.
And for the first time, I simply didn’t know where to go. I’ve been dithering for weeks. When I sent the ordinand upstairs, I thought I was going to spend a very frustrating 20 minutes going in circles.
But not so. As soon as I picked up a pen and started writing down the obvious (‘prayer as relationship, talking/listening, do something practical, bridge unfamiliar with familiar) it all came pouring out. In ten minutes, I had a fully developed plan and rational for three sessions, including a detailed breakdown of approach and timing for the first week. It came so sure and fast, that I knew my intentions for open dialogue with the ordinand were shattered.
I went through the motions, of course. I listened to her many excellent ideas, and we considered various contexts in which they would be most helpful or most difficult. But by then I was sure that I knew what this congregation needed right now.
It’s reassuring to find that knowledge of a congregation is held in instinct even in moments when all feels adrift.
Now, let us just hope that tomorrow’s session proves me right, and I am not sent back to the drawing board. Instinct can be so beguiling.
wonderful exchange 