Margaret says ‘Her prayers are very much appreciated and are obviously working since we are seeing signs of God at work. In the past year, we have been gradually making the session more God-focussed. We have a short talk after the story, whether it is a Bible story or not, a prayer before snack time and some Christian action songs at the end of the morning. We also introduced a Prayer Request box which was used by a few of the adults. Now they simply ask us to pray for their particular needs, which is even better.We’ve seen an increase in the number of families who regularly attend our monthly Messy Church events and in requests for infant and adult baptisms. One child, aged just two, has been asking to sing “Our God is a great big God” at another group she attends.’Shared by Margaret at our January 2024 Church Breakfast.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday It is called Ash Wednesday because we use ashes in liturgy that day. During the worship service we mark our foreheads with ashes in the sign of the cross. Ashes have typically been used as sign of repentance. The ashes also remind us of our mortality. The words spoken during the imposition of the ashes are “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These words echo the Word of God to Adam and Eve after the fall. They remind us that life is short, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Therefore we should live our lives today and every day in light of eternity. We mark our foreheads with ashes in the sign of the cross to remember our baptism after which we are also marked with the sign of the cross. Marking the forehead with the sign of the cross reminds us that we belong to Him. This centers the focus our Lenten journey on the Lord Himself, who has marked us as His own. The Ash Wednesday Liturgy reminds us that if we bring the ashes of our life to the Lord, in faith, that He will bring us to new life.
‘Highlights that stuck out for me were A’s talk of just being with God, … the great conversations on our table and the quiet and stillness during the last five minutes of prayer. It felt like everyone in the room was praying as one in the stillness, amazing.’‘I very much appreciated having the opportunity to spend time with members of our church family over breakfast and to pray together in a relaxed and informal setting.’‘The though of leading kept me awake in the night hours. As i prayed, the thought came to me that if teenager Mary could give birth to the Son of God, then I could chair one and a quarter hour breakfast! There was a real sense of God’s presence in the stillness at the end.’‘I really enjoyed the discussion and prayer time'.
The Oxford Language dictionary defines prayer as: “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity.”In other words, this defines prayer as what we say to God at set moments. I suspect that is roughly the definition that I had for a good chunk of my life, or at least I behaved as if it was. But I think it is a potentially problematic definition of prayer. Quite a while back, I realized that God “knows what [I] need before [I] ask him.” I prefer a definition of prayer given by Bishop Stephen Cottrell when he said “prayer is the lover coming into the presence of the beloved and saying: I love you.” Both the poetry and the theology of this definition appeal to me. “The lover”, says the bishop, is God and we are “The beloved”. To think of prayer this way has taken a huge burden from me because I know my shortcomings, but I also know who God is and that I can trust him. I am much more comfortable with prayer now. I use silence and contemplation in prayer after a busy day, when my mind is overwhelmed or I come to the presence of God in a moment of silence just seated wherever I am; and I love it. I am quite a restless person and so I like to pray as I go for walks, and find I am able to stay in prayer for longer. I have learned to love the thankfulness aspect of prayer too. Not just listing the things that I am thankful for, but pausing and reflecting on each thing, feeling the emotions that flow from it, savouring it for a moment or two and then thanking God again for it. Practices like these bring home to me the truth of a phrase I once heard: “prayer is the foretaste of heaven”. Prayer calms me down when I am overwhelmed, helps me persevere on life's journey and builds up positive feelings and emotions that make me resilient. Shared by Jackson Klein at our January 2024 Church Prayer Breakfast.
