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Praying Together 18th February 2024

Praying Together 18th February 2024

by | Feb 18, 2024 | Pray Together, St Patrick's Church Kenmare News

a lone woman looks out over a vast landscape

Lent 1

Collect

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin: Give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit; and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Peter 3: 18-22

Mark 1: 9-15

Lent. What are you giving up? More positive—What are you taking up?
Neither constitute the entire meaning of Lent itself, whether as a penance or self-punishment like a hair shirt (well, not quite that extreme), perhaps as a time of faithful recommitment, maybe a reminder of the season; perhaps all of these.

But that’s not the real point. In reality, in addition to the above (and arguably more significant) Lent provides a time to go out into the wilderness and prepare, even if that time spent in the wilderness is only for a few moments each day. A wilderness in solitude, without disturbance, facing temptation, self-searching, repenting, meditating, praying. Certainly, it is also a preparation for the dramatic events of Easter, when despair will be turned into celebration—but it’s more than that. It’s a time when we have the opportunity to hear the uninterrupted voice of the Holy Spirit equipping us for living as the body of Christ for every single day of our lives.

As Edith Stein says so movingly in the passage below, the world is in flames. Where can we go? The answer is in the power of a cross – and an empty tomb.

A meditation for Lent – Edith Stein

 

“THY WILL BE DONE,” in its full extent, must be the guideline for the Christian life. It must regulate the day from morning to evening, the course of the year, and the entire of life. Only then will it be the sole concern of the Christian. All other concerns the Lord takes over. This one alone, however, remains ours as long as we live. And, sooner or later, we begin to realize this. In the childhood of the spiritual life, when we have just begun to allow ourselves to be directed by God, we feel his guiding hand quite firmly and surely. But it doesn’t always stay that way. Whoever belongs to Christ must go the whole way with him. He must mature to adulthood: he must one day or other walk the way of the cross to Gethsemane and Golgotha.

Will you remain faithful to the Crucified? Consider carefully! The world is in flames, the battle between Christ and the Antichrist has broken into the open. If you decide for Christ, it could cost you your life. Carefully consider what you promise.

Before you hangs the Saviour on the cross, because he became obedient to death on the cross. He came into the world not to do his own will, but his Father’s will. If you intend to be the bride of the Crucified, you too must completely renounce your own will and no longer have any desire except to fulfil God’s will.

The Saviour hangs naked and destitute before you on the cross because he has chosen poverty. Those who want to follow him must renounce all earthly goods. It is not enough that you once left everything out there and came to the monastery. You must be serious about it now as well. Gratefully receive what God’s providence sends you. Joyfully do without what he may let you do without. Do not be concerned with your own body, with its trivial necessities and inclinations, but leave concern to those who are entrusted with it. Do not be concerned about the coming day and the coming meal.

The Saviour hangs before you with a pierced heart. He has spilled his heart’s blood to win your heart. If you want to follow him in holy purity, your heart must be free of every earthly desire. Jesus, the Crucified, is to be the only object of your longings, your wishes, your thoughts.

The world is in flames. Are you impelled to put them out? Look at the cross. From the open heart gushes the blood of the Saviour. This extinguishes the flames of hell. Make your heart free by the faithful fulfilment of your vows; then the flood of divine love will be poured into your heart until it overflows and becomes fruitful to all the ends of the earth.

Do you hear the groans of the wounded on the battlefields in the west and the east? You are not a physician and not a nurse and cannot bind up the wounds. You cannot get to them. Do you hear the anguish of the dying? You would like to be a priest and comfort them. Does the lament of the widows and orphans distress you? You would like to be an angel of mercy and help them. Look at the Crucified. If you are bound to him by the faithful observance of your holy vows, your being is precious blood. Bound to him, you are omnipresent as he is. You cannot help here or there like the physician, the nurse, the priest. You can be at all fronts, wherever there is grief, in the power of the cross. Your compassionate love takes you everywhere, this love from the divine heart. Its precious blood is poured everywhere, soothing, healing, saving.

The eyes of the Crucified look down on you, asking, probing. Will you make your covenant with the Crucified anew in all seriousness? What will you answer him?

“Lord, where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Edith Stein
Saint Edith Stein
Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon (public domain), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edith Stein (1891–1942) came from an Orthodox Jewish family. She became an atheist as a teenager, but at the age of thirty encountered the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Ávila, converted to Catholicism, and took vows as a Carmelite nun. Because of her Jewish ancestry she was executed at Auschwitz by the Nazis in August 1942.

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Praying Together 11th February 2024

Praying Together 11th February 2024

by | Feb 10, 2024 | Pray Together, St Patrick's Church Kenmare News

a tree growing on a rocky slope

Sunday next before Lent

Collect

Almighty Father, whose Son was revealed in majesty before he suffered death upon the cross: Give us grace to perceive his glory, that we may be strengthened to suffer with him and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory; who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

2 Kings 2: 1-12

2 Corinthians 4: 3-6

Marks 9: 2-9

‘He ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen’

… and perhaps Peter then said ‘Why not? Of course I should tell people what I’ve seen and heard!’

‘You will’ said Jesus. ‘But not yet. You’ll have to be patient. If you tell people now, at best, they’ll ask for evidence – some will dismiss you as deluded – and at worst, they will arrest you for lies and Blasphemy.’

Peter is to be the rock on which the Church is built – but he needs the full story before he is going to be capable of so doing. He has seen miracles. He has heard Jesus explain about the Kingdom of Heaven. He has experienced teaching about the coming Messiah. And now, he is present at the fulfilling of the prophecy of Elijah’s return before the day of the Lord arrives. All of these are things of wonder – but tempered by Jesus’ continuing to talk of His death. If Jesus is to die, how would Peter maintain his belief in the one who he proclaimed to be the Christ? It would erode just as the memory of Jesus would erode, and He would simply become understood as another in the long line of Jewish prophets.

The story has to be complete for Peter’s faith become integral to his very being – if Jesus dies and that is the end of it, so what? But resurrected, that’s what. It’s not the end. It’s the beginning of new covenant for all God’s created people. In the knowledge of Jesus alive and the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, Peter does now have the whole story and is equipped to be that rock.

It’s the same for us – we cannot build our faith on just one or two aspects of Jesus’ story. The fundamental truth we need to accept that He is risen from the dead and He is Lord, alive. Unless we believe that with our whole heart and mind, our faith is fragile. If we do believe – there is nothing we cannot do in His name.

 

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Praying Together 4th February 2024

Praying Together 4th February 2024

by | Feb 4, 2024 | Pray Together, St Patrick's Church Kenmare News

group of people crowded around the camera

Second Sunday before Lent

Collect

Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: Teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever.

Colossians 1: 15-20

John 1: 1-14

We probably know the Gospel passage well – it forms the finale of most of the traditional carol services, and is the foundation of our understanding of incarnation – God’s only Son is born as a human child with human earthly parents while also being the one who will bring light to a dark world.

We say that familiarity breeds contempt – and I don’t think we are too guilty of ‘contempt’ – but we are, I do think, in danger of missing the earth-shattering significance of the event in the midst of all the other wonderful Christmas stories. Paul tries to make sure we don’t.

‘in him all things in heaven and on earth were created’

ALL things, animal, vegetable, mineral. Me, you, him, her; earth, sky , sea; mountains and valleys, dogs, cats, elephants, apples, brussels sprouts. And even in the light of the immensity of all these, the most important, amazing truth is that right from the beginning, from the very, very, very beginning, He knew your face and loved you enough to be born to die for you so that you might live in light.

Imagine someone risked their life to save you from being killed, even though you had hurt them deeply in the past – you would go to great lengths to thank them and try to make amends. Yet we have to ask ourselves, do you go to those same lengths to thank the Lord Jesus? Or do we often take Him for granted? He asks for no reward, save that of loving His creation, His Father and our neighbours (all of them) as He loves – do we even do that?

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Praying together 28th January 2024

Praying together 28th January 2024

by | Jan 27, 2024 | Pray Together, St Patrick's Church Kenmare News

hot toast with butter

Epiphany 4

Creator God,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
We pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mark 1: 21-28

1 Corinthians 8: 1-13

Food will not bring us close to God.’ Says St. Paul. Clearly, in his day, there was no such thing as hot chips on buttered white bread with a generous lacing of salt and malt vinegar – otherwise known as the nectar of the Gods. * If there had been, he might have chosen another metaphor rather than food to explain that no amount of what we eat – or perform any other ritual – can get us closer to God. Only our faith in Jesus Christ can do that.

Paul is trying to explain that in continuing to consider physical food as a holy object, remembering when they offered it as a sacrifice with ‘magical’ properties for the giver, they get themselves in a bind. If they stop eating that food they used to offer as sacrifice to idols, they turn it into something more than it was. And if they carry on eating it as a gesture of faith – what we might call ‘signalling’ that they attach no importance to it – they do the same thing.

Food is just food. There is no such thing as pleasing to an ‘idol’. The only sacrifice God asks is that of a broken heart hungry for the closeness of truth and faith in the Saviour of us all. So, says Paul, eat or don’t eat. Stop making a fuss over things that don’t matter, and get on with loving your neighbour.

*Or even better, crispy smoked bacon on a toasted teacake eaten for breakfast on a windy morning on Southport beach.

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Praying Together 21st January 2024

Praying Together 21st January 2024

by | Jan 20, 2024 | Pray Together, St Patrick's Church Kenmare News

a horse and plough in a field

Epiphany 3

Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
Renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31

Mark 1: 14-20

 

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the week of Christian Unity. In Kenmare, members of our three Churches met for a time of Praise, Prayer and Pizza in the Gateway Methodist – and we were additionally blessed by the presence of a number of our Ukrainian friends, who happily joined in the signing and the time of open prayer. Our togetherness was a real-life example of the unity we experience at a personal level.

But It did make me wonder if Christian Unity simply means once-a-year worship and prayer together outside the constraints of tradition or denomination. It must surely mean more than that. We need to stop using our energy on idle debating the differences between us – nothing is likely to result in change (at least in the short-medium term). Instead we must regard unity as a challenge – that in collectively accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, we are obliged to join in active service of His creation, using our combined resources to address the real problems of the World – and goodness knows there are plenty of them. Homeless families. Unwelcome refugees. Revenge exercised upon children. Self-serving political ‘leadership’. Prejudice against those who are ‘different’. And many others.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of His God-given message of the service asked of us in His name: to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, release to the prisoners. And by so doing proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

So as we celebrate this week of Christian Unity, let us consider what service we could offer together, that we wouldn’t be capable of achieving on our own – the whole being much greater than the parts.

And then rather than talking about it, let’s make it happen.

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Praying Together January 14th 2024

Praying Together January 14th 2024

by | Jan 13, 2024 | Pray Together, St Patrick's Church Kenmare News

a horse and plough in a field

Blessing of the Plough

Plough Sunday has its roots in medieval times, when the parish church was often used to store a communal plough in the winter months, then being decorated and blessed before the rhythm of the agricultural season begins once more on Plough Monday.

Collect for Epiphany 2 (Plough Sunday)

Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty God, with whom we can do everything,
Without whom we can do nothing:
Open our eyes that we may see thee:
Open our lips that we may praise thee:
Open our hearts that we may know thee:
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

An Epiphany Poem

Spring ends when the ‘Back to School’ signs go up in shop windows
Summer ends when they start selling Christmas cards
Christmas ends when Tesco puts Easter Eggs on the shelves.
And Winter ends when the veil is torn in two.

Heaven and Earth – The Message Bible translation

milky way in the night sky

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

God spoke: “Light!”
   And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
   and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
   he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning— Day One.

God spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the waters;
   separate water from water!”
God made sky.
He separated the water under sky
   from the water above sky.
And there it was:
   he named sky the Heavens;
It was evening, it was morning— Day Two.

God spoke: “Separate!
   Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place;
Land, appear!”
   And there it was.
God named the land Earth.
   He named the pooled water Ocean.
God saw that it was good.
God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
   of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
   And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
   all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
   God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning— Day Three.

God spoke: “Lights! Come out!
   Shine in Heaven’s sky!
Separate Day from Night.
   Mark seasons and days and years,
Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth.”
   And there it was.
God made two big lights, the larger
   to take charge of Day,
The smaller to be in charge of Night;
   and he made the stars.
God placed them in the heavenly sky
   to light up Earth
And oversee Day and Night,
   to separate light and dark.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning— Day Four.

God spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life!
   Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!”
God created the huge whales,
   all the swarm of life in the waters,
And every kind and species of flying birds.
   God saw that it was good.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean!
   Birds, reproduce on Earth!”
It was evening, it was morning— Day Five.

God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:
   cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds.”
And there it was:
   wild animals of every kind,
Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.
   God saw that it was good.
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
   reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
  the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
   and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
   he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
   He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
   “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
   for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
Then God said, “I’ve given you
   every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
   given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
   everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
   And there it was.
God looked over everything he had made;
   it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.

Instead of a sermonette this week, here’s Psalm 148. On a day when we celebrate God’s creation, there’s nothing I could add…

Psalm 148 – Praise for God’s Universal Glory 

Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
   praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
   praise him, all his host!

Praise him, sun and moon;
   praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
   and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
   for he commanded and they were created.
He established them for ever and ever;
   he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.

Praise the LORD from the earth,
   you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
   stormy wind fulfilling his command!

Mountains and all hills,
   fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
   creeping things and flying birds!

Kings of the earth and all peoples,
   princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young men and women alike,
   old and young together!

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
   for his name alone is exalted;
   his glory is above earth and heaven.
He has raised up a horn for his people,
   praise for all his faithful,
   for the people of Israel who are close to him.
Praise the LORD!

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