View from the Vicarage August 2024

Some words from Kahlil Gibran from his book The Prophet

‘Who can spread the hours before him saying ‘This is for God and this is for myself; This is for my soul and this other for my body?’.. ‘Is not religion all deeds and all reflection’?

Traditionally August is all about holidays, and the good thing about holidays is that hopefully we have time to think. We hopefully have the opportunity to gaze around us more, to observe, to be more dependent on the natural flow of life, and less on deadlines and time restraints.

The very word holiday derives from Holy Days, and originates from the early church setting aside days from the working year to visit shrines, and think about God and the saints. In the gospels, Jesus ‘went away to a quiet place to pray’.

When I was in Tamil Nadu, in Southern India a few years back, it was amazing to see vast family processions to the temples and shrines. Everyone was beautifully attired, despite the squalid conditions they lived in. Young men and boys in particular, had walked many miles barefoot to get to the temples to pray, and it was very much their annual holiday. The Hindu families use their holidays to get together as family, and to worship God together. The temples were filled with families having their picnics in the outer precincts, before going in to worship. It was a timely reminder to me that there is so much that we, as western Christians, can learn from other world faiths!

We all need to be refreshed, and that is why time away, and days off are so important. Even in retirement, I see lives so busy that a day off each week just does not happen. I think that it is very difficult to carry out the Gospel message to serve God and those around us, unless we do take time to stop and reflect on our lives and to ‘catch up with God’ in our hearts and minds.

Every blessing for some quiet time this month, and I hope to see you at the Marquee Markets each Saturday in August where this year there will be some Messy Church activities for children and a scavenger hunt, so please do come along and support this with your children and grandchildren.

Rev’d Anne