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Good morning :-)
The Collect (special prayer for today)
O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
Today, in the Gospel, we hear of Jesus calling Matthew and also performing miracles.
Cx :-)
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Good afternoon... :-)
Yesterday’s sermon ended by saying …….” Christianity is not simply a matter of being respectable; it is a faith of love, repentance, forgiveness, and transformation. So where do you find yourself in this passage today?”
Hmmmm. So, love. “I absolutely LOVE that top you’re wearing!” “I LOVE my partner!” “I simply LOVE a curry!” “I LOVE my hair like this!”
The ancient Greeks had anywhere between four and eight different words for love (depending on the source):
- Storge: affection
- Philia or Phileo: friendship
- Eros: sexual, erotic
- Agape: unconditional, divine, selfless
- Ludus: flirtatious, playful, casual, uncommitted
- Pragma: committed, long-standing
- Philautia: self-love
- Mania: obsessive, possessive, addictive, dependent
All mean love, but differing types of love.
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The love of Jesus Christ is often described as unconditional, transformative, and self-sacrificial. Is this the type of love we have?
Cx :-)
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Good afternoon :-)
Another busy day! :-)
Christianity is not simply a matter of being respectable; it is a faith of love, REPENTANCE, forgiveness, and transformation.
The Weight of the Lantern
In Brambleford, each villager carried a lantern on the Lantern Walk. The heavier and dimmer it was, the more wrongs they had left unrighted.
Thomas Weaver’s lantern was nearly too heavy to lift. Shame pressed on him as he trudged along, until he stopped, turned back, and began knocking on doors.
“I was wrong. I’m sorry,” he told his brother, then the others he had hurt. With each apology, the lantern grew lighter, its glow brighter.
By dawn, Thomas understood: repentance wasn’t about erasing the past, but choosing to walk toward the light.
The short biblical definition of repentance is “a change of mind that results in a change of action.” Repentance involves recognising that we have thought wrongly in the past and determining to think rightly in the future.
Cx :-)
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