‘When the Advocate[h] comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 15 : 26 - 27

Readings this week :  Ezekiel 37 : 1 - 14; Acts 2 : 1 - 21; John 15 : 26 – 27, 16 : 4b - 15

Bishop Graham’s address for the Day of Prayer in the Cathedral on 22nd May 2021.

“We gather in this ancient place of prayer, this place of Benedictine foundation and hospitality, remembering that the very first word that Benedict wrote in his Rule is the word ‘Listen’. And that is essentially what we do today. We come before God to listen. To listen attentively. To listen to have our own ideas changed and transformed. Our egos shaped in another way. We come to listen to what God desires and longs and hopes for the life of this church. Because any vision…. Is somehow always incomplete because it’s just a reflection, a fraction of God’s desire for us. So part of our listening today is to listen to the wind of the Holy Spirit at this Pentecost time. St Bede wrote that we simply set our ship and pull up the sails to be filled with the Holy Spirit to guide us where God guides us. So today in a sense is a hoisting of the sails allowing the ship of this church to be guided by God into the future. A future that we do not yet know. That comes to us with hope and joy.

So we are called to listen ever more attentively to the God who seeks to bring transformation in Christ to us. Who longs for us to be a prayerful people, a pastoral people, and a prophetic people. Thus says the Lord, ‘See I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?’”.

Prayer for this week

God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

People to pray for

For the families of the Israeli hostages

For aid to reach Gaza

For the work of Christian Aid