General Chat

Good morning all,

An Easter morning like none of us has known. I walked near the church yesterday evening on my exercise walk and it was strange not to see flowers showing through the windows. Usually there is such a wonderful show on Easter morning, after the bareness of Lent.
But the Easter message of Hope is still the same.

It's a strange world at the moment and yet there are many positive signs, especially in the way that communities are drawing on their strengths to help other people.

We are all in this journey together.


Brother, sister, let me serve you,
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I may have the grace to
Let you be my servant, too.


We are pilgrims on a journey,
And companions on the road;
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.


I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night-time of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you,
Speak the peace you long to hear.


I will weep when you are weeping,
When you laugh I'll laugh with you;
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we've seen this journey through.


When we sing to God in heaven
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we've known together
Of Christ's love and agony.


Brother, sister, let me serve you,
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I may have the grace to
Let you be my servant, too.

All day yesterday I had the hymn “There is a green hill far away” going round and round my brain. I haven’t heard it sung for years but I suppose the day brought it into my mind.

It will be a strange Easter indeed for many. There are so many sick and worried and so many grieving. I am keeping them all in my thoughts, especially Sue “Supercrutch”. Normal wishes for a happy Eastertide seem inappropriate but I wish everyone peace and hope for the future for, above all, it is a time of hope.

Hello all

"In the silence of Saturday there is HOPE in
the darkness."
These are very poignant words for today written by
Kay Arthur.

Sending out Holy Saturday Blessings wishing all who look in a Blessed and Beautiful day....... stay safe.

Good morning :-)


A very strange Good Friday indeed kandj.


Today is Holy Saturday, also known as Easter Eve or Black Saturday. It is the day when we remember Jesus laying in the tomb and His triumphant descent into Hell. At the end of today, the Easter Vigil is celebrated as we await the resurrection of Our Lord.

Christ was crucified the day before the Jewish Sabbath on what is called the Day of Preparation when observant Jews cook food and do other tasks in advance because they aren’t allowed to work on the Sabbath.

According to another Jewish tradition, bodies are buried the same day the person died, so Jesus was hastily entombed before sundown on the Day of Preparation. The next day on the Sabbath, according to the Jewish law, everyone was under mandatory rest, which meant no work could be done.

Dear Father,
On Holy Saturday I pray for the personal times in my own life when I have suffered deep and unthinkable loss. In my darkest times when I am still in shock and mourning the death of part of my life as I’ve always known it, give me a glimmer of hope.

Just as on Holy Saturday when Christ rested in the grave, help me through the stillest and stagnant days of my physical, emotional and spiritual life. Give me endurance and expectancy as I cling to Your Word, to the promise you made in Your Holy Scriptures:

“All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37, NIV).


Cx :-)

Hello all

No Walk of Witness today for Good Friday. It's going to confuse me no end.

Not liking a closed church and not being able to be in there for the Watch by the Cross service today.

No hot cross bun with a cuppa either. Really strange

Good morning :-)

So we have come to this most special day.....

Good Friday is the most difficult day of Passion Week. Christ's journey turned treacherous and acutely painful in these final hours leading to his death.

According to Scripture, Judas Iscariot, the disciple who had betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, was overcome with remorse and hanged himself early Friday morning.

Meanwhile, before the third hour (9 a.m.), Jesus endured the shame of false accusations, condemnation, mockery, beatings, and abandonment.

After multiple unlawful trials, he was sentenced to death by crucifixion, one of the most horrible and disgraceful methods of capital punishment known at the time.
Before He was led away, soldiers spit on him, tormented and mocked him, and pierced him with a crown of thorns.

Then Jesus carried his own cross to Calvary where, again, he was mocked and insulted as Roman soldiers nailed him to the wooden cross.


Cx

kandj .......... thank for that. I thought that there would have been some arrangement.

Also good news about Boris being moved back into a general ward. Fingers crossed for him ......... and everyone else.

Hello all

Just back from the clap for the NHS along with other neighbours. I feel that it is the least I can do.

Sylvia, I read that the Queen has been forced to send the traditional Maunday money by post this year owing to the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved from ICU back to a general ward for close monitoring, which is good news for him and for all his family.

Has there been any word about whether Maundy money will be distributed to "aged pensioners"?

There obviously will not be a Maundy Thirsday with the Queen or anyone congregating. But I wondered if they had found a way to do it distantly?

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Good morning :-)

I forgot to go and look at the Pink Moon......I had seen about it but........sigh....

Today is Maundy Thursday when we commemorate the Last Supper of Christ with the Apostles.

During the meal Jesus took bread and wine and shared them with his disciples. Christians continue to share bread and wine as part of their worship in church.
The Last Supper was probably a Passover meal – the meal which Jewish people share together to celebrate the time when God delivered Moses and the people from slavery in Egypt.

During the Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples' feet. This act has sometimes been followed literally in history as a good way of reminding rulers that they are here to serve their subjects.

The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.



Luke 22.14-20
14 When the hour came, he took his place at the table and the apostles with him. 15 He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ 19 Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ 20 And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Food plays an important role in our humanity. The meals we share not only give our bodies energy but also build community and relationships. At Holy Communion – the heart of Christian worship – we remember the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples before he died.


Many of us miss meeting together to take part in our Holy Communion services. :-(


Cx :-)

kandj ............

I'm glad you mentioned the moon.

It has been incredibly bright the last few nights, and the skies are clear over here as we are having lovely sunny warm weather.

Tonight will be the full moon, and it has been said that it will be the largest Supermoon of the year, so it will appear huge.

It is called the Pink Supermoon. I read somewhere the other day that it was called the Pink Moon by First Nations on this side of the Atlantic because some flowers in full bloom at the time were pink.

Unfortunately I don't know what wild flowers were meant.

I went out on Monday for the first time in 3 weeks .......... OH drove me to the local coffee shop, we picked up take-out coffee, tipped it into our travel mugs, and then drove to a small neighbourhood park in the middle of apartment land. It has a small play area which has been closed, and a largish area of grass with just 5 benches very well-spaced around that area. There was hardly anyone there, 3 of the benches were vacant, so we sat in the sun for about half-an-hour.

It was just so nice to be out in the sun.

Yesterday we repeated the experiment, and this time we saw several of our friends near the coffee shop or in the park, and had a little chat with them, making sure that we kept more than 2 m away from them.

Life will go on!!!

Keep safe, stay home, and keep your distance.


I think of the Jewish people celebrating Passover today, the Christians celebrating Easter Sunday, and the Sikhs celebrating Vaisakhi on Monday ............... all having a very different time this year as all normally include celebratory meals with family and friends.

Hello all

I have an unopened jigsaw gathering dust but might be tempted to open this at some point. For now, I keep myself busy crocheting blankets for the homeless and have just passed two over last week.
I enjoy gardening and reading and have recently had a book delivered from Amazon as the library's closed

Thinking of people from the Jewish faith as they aren't allowed to get together with their families to begin the Passover Festival week of celebrations.

Has anyone else noticed the brightness of the
Full Moon at night? Totally awesome in my view.

Snap Cynthia me too, a jigsaw every day for me, I cannot
contain myself :-D

Good morning :-)

And what excitement has everyone got planned for today? I may do a jigsaw :-D


Today is Holy Wednesday, also known as ‘Spy Wednesday’. It is remembered as the day Judas Iscariot planned to betray Jesus.

Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present. (Luke 22:3-6)



The Lent Course :

Isaiah 11.6-9
6 The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

When the crowds cheered as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, they were hoping for a king, the Messiah, whose reign would reflect Isaiah’s vision of a peaceable kingdom, with people and animals living together in harmony.

This vision contrasts sharply with our own age when one in four mammals now face extinction. Underlying current unprecedented levels of loss of biodiversity is consumerism. Humans are causing the problems, but humans, as well as other animals, are suffering the consequences.

We need to buy and use less to take better care of the natural world and free up resources for those who need them. Ask yourself: do I need this?

Cx :-)

My thoughts and prayers to all affected by this virus. x

Hello all

A beautiful sunny day for Holy Tuesday, let's enjoy it.

I don't know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day,
I don't borrow from it's sunshine,
For its skies may turn to grey.
I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said
And today I'll walk beside Him
For He knows what lies ahead.
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand,
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

Amazing words by Alison Krauss which inspire me and I hope that they may help to inspire you too.

Keep well, stay safe today everyone.

Hello all

A beautiful sunny day for Holy Tuesday, let's enjoy it.

I don't know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day,
I don't borrow from it's sunshine,
For its skies may turn to grey.
I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said
And today I'll walk beside Him
For He knows what lies ahead.
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand,
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

Amazing words by Alison Krauss which inspire me and I hope that they may help to inspire you too.

Keep well, stay safe today everyone.

Good morning :-)

Lovely to hear from people on here....... <3

We remember in prayer our Prime Minister as he battles this awful illness.....


Today is known as Holy Tuesday. There are various thoughts on what happened on that day - this is one of them. Jesus curses the fig tree.

Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Continuing towards the end of the Lent course.....

Genesis 1.26-31
26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ 29 God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.


While the other animals created on the sixth day are made “according to their kind”, humans are made “in God’s image”.

Humans are chosen by God to bear his image and be his representatives. Being God’s image-bearers equips us for the job of being God’s caretakers and gardeners, caring for the land and our fellow creatures. That gives humans a particular place before God. But the whole created order is caught up in God’s plans for redemption, not humans alone.

Reflect today on these words of Pope Francis: “Human beings, endowed with intelligence and love, and drawn by the fullness of Christ, are called to lead all creatures back to their Creator.”


Cx :-)

Hello all

Thank you Emma and Tabitha, I'm pleased you liked the HSR poem, her words seem appropriate now.

I'm finding it interesting walking around the streets to see different posters and drawings in people's windows. All done to encourage us at a difficult time.

Prayers now for Prime Minister Boris Johnson whose condition has worsened and he has been moved into the Intensive Care Unit.

Sending ((hugs)) out to those in need today.