March 2010 - Rector's Letter

Where does you time go?

Lent has come around again and I am left wondering where time has gone? Days, weeks, months can fly past. Before we know where we are there is another birthday or anniversary. Lent is a good time to pause and consider what is going on around us and to discover that God is in the middle of it all. Jesus went in to the desert for forty days in order to pray, have time with God and to face the challenges that awaited him. We all need time to find some perspective on life, to rediscover the person God created us to be and to rediscover our creator God. This Lent, give yourself the precious gift of time, TIME TO SIMPLY BE YOU. Here are some ideas you may like to try.

Listen: Try simply listening. Listen to whatever sounds are around with complete attention for a few minutes. How many sounds can you hear? Is there anything you have not noticed before?

Feel: Hold a smooth pebble. Take some time to feel the smoothness of the stone. Look at its colour and texture. Feel its weight in your hand. Great forces have gone into the making of your stone. Now it is small and still. Hold it as you talk to God about what is in your mind.

Look: Let a candle, a cross, a picture or icon become a focus for your attentiveness. Or sit in the garden and let a tree, leaf etc. be that focus. Sit and look at it. Allow yourself to look at it rather than think about it. When you are ready, talk to God about what you see.

Breathe: Choose a short prayer or a few words from the Bible. Repeat it in time with your breathing. The Jesus Prayer can be used in this way “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, be merciful to me, a sinner”. Or simply, “Jesus”. Try to breath naturally, without over breathing.

An empty chair: Sometimes a chair becomes something to pile things on to—a bag of knitting, books, newspapers…… Take a chair and put it near the place where you are sitting. In your imagination put onto it anything you are finding difficult or heavy at the moment. Share it with God.

Put onto it anything that you are glad about. Appreciate it and enjoy God appreciating it with you…….

Or you may like to simply imagine Jesus sitting on the empty chair. Sit in his company. Talk with him if you want to. Tell him about your day. Listen to him as well.

May this Lent be a time for reflection, prayer and discovery for you all, so that together we may grow in faith and love of Christ.

The Rector