MONDAY 19th DECEMBER

                                                              In the Crispin Chapel


Blessed are you, sovereign Lord, merciful and gentle
to you be praise and glory for ever.
Your light has shone in our darkened world
through the child-bearing of blessed Mary.
Grant that we who have seen your glory
may daily be renewed in your image
and prepared like her for the coming of your Son,
who is the Lord and Saviour of all.
Blessed be God for ever.

               Take Note telling us that that they want some figgy pudding and they want it now!
                                                    Coffee: church hall  11.30 yesterday.


Yesterday...

It took a long time to distribute communion at the 10 o'clock service yesterday - after the choir had received and were back in their seats, two full hymns and a long piece of organ music - a measure of how many people were there to enjoy the worship a week before Christmas. And in the evening the church was full again to hear the Lessons and Carols. In a world where human frailty is so exposed, maybe God is back on the agenda...?  For Christians, as Robert Bridges once memorably wrote in a hymn, 'All our hope in God is founded...'


Today...

We'll be taking the Good News of Christmas to the mean streets of Weston Favell from 17.30 starting from outside the church. Viewed one way, it's guerrilla evangelism, viewed another we'll be raising money for the East Park Hostel for the Homeless Trust. Wrap up well, bring your voice and a torch. Carol sheets provided.


And tomorrow...

A new Prayer Space in the church for use during Open Church. Take ten minutes to calm the mind. You'll work all the more efficiently for it.


Intimacy

I only have brothers.
My sisters never made it to their teens.
A fever took Hannah.
Eliana? Oh, a wall collapsed.
I'll spare you the details.

So, a womanly cousin,
A confidante, a comforting companion,
Was what I wished for.
But what I have - is Mary.

Twenty-five years between us.
An accidental circumstance.
I as dry as dust.
She as dew on grass.

She copies me.
And yes, you'll say, this is flattery.
But understand this.
In speech, in style, the way I walk,
The things I like: everything is colonised,
So I am forced to be unlike myself.

I marry an older man. So does she.
And now, a final irony,
She also is with child.
My moment of triumph,
My completion, my affirmation,
She steals from me.
A miracle in my life
Outbid by a greater one in hers.

Oh, these two strange children, bonded in blood,
How will they be vindicated?
How be understood?

                             Vince Cross

Antiphon:

O root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples:
before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer:
Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.