General Chat

Good morning :-)


Bless you Emma, it must be such a difficult time for all of your family. Sending love <3



The first verse of the hymn we read yesterday and a prayer to help us live it.....

Hymn: CHRIST’S IS THE WORLD in which we move,
Christ’s are the folk we’re summoned to love,
Christ’s is the voice which calls us to care,
And Christ is the One who calls us here.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ,
alive and at large in the world,
help me to follow and find you there today,
in the places where I work,
meet people,
spend money,
and make plans.
Take me as a disciple of your Kingdom,
to see through your eyes,
and hear the questions you are asking,
to welcome all with your trust and truth,
and to change the things that contradict God’s love
by the power of your cross
and the freedom of your spirit.
Amen.


Cx :-)

Good morning :-)


The second verse of the hymn from Sunday...



To the lost Christ shows His face;
To the unloved He gives His embrace:
To those who cry in pain or disgrace,
Christ makes with His friends A touching place.


Prayer:

Loving God,
there are times in each life
when there is no one.
No one with whom to share
a word,
a laugh,
a sad remembrance,
a gentle touch,
a fond embrace,
a kiss of love.
Bless each one who suffers
from such loneliness.
Enrich life with a friend
or gentle stranger
who will spend a moment
noticing
and loving.
In those times
your love shines through,
the world is reborn,
and Christ is known.
May I be a touching place for Christ.
So be it!
Amen.


Cx :-)

Good afternoon, I'm hoping you are all well <3

Good evening

Another interesting theme for the week. Thank you Cynthia. I had never heard the hymn "A Touching Place" before so I found it on youtube and had a listen. The words certainly made me think.

Sending a ((((hug)))) to anyone in need of a little extra support tonight

Good morning :-)


Fine thank you David....a little hassled, frazzled and confused, but fine :-D


Lovely to hear from you Vera and I hope all is well with you. I will confess that I haven't listened to that hymn yet - it was a new one on me too! :-)

The next verse of the hymn:

for the people we most avoid,
Strange or bereaved or never employed;
Feel for the women, and feel for the men
Who fear that their living is all in vain.

Our prayer for today:

Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.
Lord, help us to be touching places for you. Amen.


Cx :-)

Just a little snippet I read this morning from 'The Story of Civilisation' by Will Durant :-

'We are sometimes surprised to discover that followers of other faiths can be as civilised, humane & trustworthy as ourselves, if not more so'.

Good morning :-)

Nice one Dermot - thank you :-D Actually, there is so much truth in that. It's not only other faiths where this happens, it happens within one faith.....ours. I am told that only about 40 years or so ago, Anglicans and Roman Catholics in our village would walk on opposite sides of the road. Nowadays things are very different thank God. On our northern Walking Days, RCs, Anglicans and Methodists happily walk together proclaiming their faith.


The next verse of Sunday's hymn…


Feel for the parents who’ve lost their child,
Feel for the women whom men have defiled,
Feel for the baby for whom there’s no breast,
And feel for the weary who find no rest.

Prayer
Jesus, we seem to face far too much loss these days. Loss through death; loss through abuse; loss through disaster.
In times like these, when we are so weary we choose to rest our heads on your sacred shoulders. Weep alongside us. Lift our heads. Rejuvenate our vision. Bring us back to a place of play. Of wonder.
This world is dark, but we recognize right now, in this moment, that You are glorious light. Please, please shine down on us so we can see You at work. Replace our mourning with dancing. Hold our hands, our hearts, our dreams – help us to be a touching place for you. Amen.


Cx :-)

Good morning Cynthia, I hope you and yours are well :-D <3

Ive been looking at the John Cedars channel. He gives an

eye opening history of the JW's

They only acquired the name Jehovah's Witnesses under their

second leader Joseph Franklin Rutherford.

Good morning :-)

I think I will give that one a miss David. JWs are not considered to be part of mainline churches.


The last verse of the hymn we have been looking at...

Feel for the lives by life confused,
Riddled with doubt, in loving abused;
Feel for the lonely heart, conscious of sin,
Which longs to be pure but fears to begin.

Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, we come to You today to lift up those that are lonely and who feel deserted or left alone by those they love.. and pray that in Your grace and mercy You would draw near to all who are broken-hearted or crushed in spirit and deliver them from the difficulties and troubles that they are facing today.

Draw very close to them Lord.. enfold them in Your loving arms, quite their hearts and bring into their lives that perfect peace and gracious comfort that only comes from You.

Lord for all whose hearts are aching and alone.. we pray that You would draw close to them and make Yourself known and that we may be a touching place for you. Amen


Cx :-)

Thank you Cynthia for a wonderful week of posts
that I found uplifting. x

Good morning :-)


Don't worry David..... :-D Thank you Emma <3


The Collect (special prayer) for today:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things
temporal that we lose not our hold on things eternal; grant this,
heavenly Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, who is alive
and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.


The gospel tells the familiar story of The Good Samaritan

Cx :-)

Good morning :-)

A prayer from William Barclay - a Scottish author, radio and television presenter, Church of Scotland minister and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow. He died in 1978. His books are still popular with those studying for ministry or who are strengthening their faith.

Oh God our Father,
who commanded us to live in fellowship with one another,
keep us from everything which would make us difficult to live with today.
Help us never thoughtlessly or deliberately to speak in such a way that we would hurt another’s feelings or wound another’s heart.
Keep us from all impatience, from all irritability,
and from a temper which is too quick.
Keep us from eyes which are focused to find fault and from a tongue which is tuned to criticize.
Keep us from being touchy,
and quick to take offence, and slow to forget it.
Help us not to be stubborn and obstinate,
and keep us from selfishness which can see nothing but its own point of view,
and which wants nothing but its own way.
Grant to us all through this day something of the grace and beauty which shone upon our Blessed Lord Jesus.
Hear this our prayer, for Your love’s sake,
Amen

Cx :-)

Good morning :-)


Oh David! Something we could have all done without reading thanks..... :-(


Clergy visiting hospital wards has changed drastically so I believe. Everything is now so PC. Of course, there are those who would like to speak to a cleric and those who wouldn't, which is fair enough. Then you have the clergy who do hospital visiting and those who don't. I do know that clergy are still being called out to offer prayers at the point of death though.

----------------

We often hear the expression "I love you to the moon and back" - here's a prayer from someone who has actually been to the moon....

Apollo 8 Peace Prayer - Frank Borman
Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.


– Frank Borman, Apollo 8, 1968
Frank Frederick Borman II, is a retired United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so.


Cx :-)

David you should think before you put your
thoughts down.
I come on this thread to read Cynthia's posts like others do
not your ramblings.

Let’s not be too harsh on David. His last post may have shown lack of judgement but I expect we’ve all been guilty of that from time to time. I know I have.

On the plus side David’s posts often raise some interesting questions. Even the last one, which we could probably have done without, made me think about how we decide whether any event is due to mundane reasons or co-incidence or down to divine intervention. For what it’s worth, I didn’t reach a conclusion :-)

Good morning :-)

All is forgiven David. All Is well. :-D


Hmmm.....divine intervention? Maybe a topic for a later date :-D


Celtic prayers tend to be very popular.....

Into Your Hands

All that I am Lord,
I place into Your hands.

Everything I work for,
I place into your hands.

Everything I hope for,
I place into your hands.

The troubles that weary me
I place into your hands.

The thoughts that disturb me
I place into your hands.

Show me what blessing it is
That I have work to do.

And sometimes,
and most of all
when the day is overcast
and my courage faints,
let me hear Your voice saying,
‘You are my beloved one in whom I am well pleased.’


Cx :-)

Thank you Cynthia, and others :-D <3 <3

Do we not seek Divine intervention when we pray ?

Hello all

Amen to the Celtic prayer for this morning Cynthia.

David you have an inquiring mind and give food for thought.

Vera, I hope that your husband is making a good recovery now that you are back home and I'm hoping all is as well as it can be for your brother right now.

Emma, I do hope that your little great granddaughter is settling well at home after such a stressful time in hospital for baby Connie and all your family back then.

Sending out gentle hugs to all in need of one today. xx

Time and place David, as has been said already imho this is not the place for that discussion

Discussing the power of prayer is another thing.

I don't believe that prayer gets you what you 'want' necessarily.

When my mother had suffered a stroke and was dying my prayer that she would recover went unanswered. But maybe answered in terms of what was the best for her, because even had she recovered she would have had a slower but more devastating decline which she hated.

Putting it in the hands of God? praying for help rather than specific outcome? Does that work? I don't know, I am not convinced one way or the other...as yet. :-)

I do know that my mum often said "God give me strength" , though I'm not entirely sure she was expecting God to listen ;-)