Remembering
Vicar's letter
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Remembering |
Vicar's letter |
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All Christian prayer and worship includes remembering. We remember the past to change the present and transform the future. Every Sunday, the first day of the week, we remember God’s great acts of creation and re-creation, the making of this wonderful world and the death and resurrection of Jesus which changes everything. In the autumn in our churches we have a rich variety of specific remembrances: our county infantry regiments, our county, the harvest, the consecration of All Saints Church, St Matthew, St Michael and the angels, St Luke, St Simon and St Jude, the communion of saints that are our patrons, those we have known who have died, those who have died in war. This leads into Advent, our preparation to celebrate again the coming of God into the life of the world.
These are not empty remembering; they not only give a specific shape and rhythm to our lives but they remind us of events and persons who have helped form us. By our remembering we become thankful for all that we have been given and so increase our dedication to helping make our world a better place; we become those who help form the future and so build a better future, a future more in line with God’s kingdom.
Christian spirituality is to do with those matters that help enrich and change for the better our lives. All our remembering; our nightly remembering of the day just past, our remembering of what God has done leads us to say to God: thank you, I am sorry, please help. Remembering turned into prayer not only deepens our intimacy with God but open our hearts to him so he can give us all those gifts of grace he longs for us to be endowed with.
This autumn, as ever, let us be attentive to our remembering so that God’s grace may break more fully into this world through us, his friends.
Christopher Morgan - Jones
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