Skip to main content

October 2013 Prayer Column

Image
By

Cats will be cats

Some neighbours have been on holiday, and Jean’s been feeding their cats.  One’s deaf, the other’s devious, and both are catesquely contrary. In the morning they hide and won’t come out.  In the evening they play busy and won’t come in, however coaxed with food, yet next day complain about nocturnal neglect.  And care has to be taken to stop one eating the other’s food as well as its own.  You can learn a lot about prayer from cats.

For instance, have you ever noticed how frequently we go our own way and yet expect to be looked after, miaowing angrily or piteously to the Lord when things catch up with us?  And that bit about “Give us each day our daily bread...”: we don’t usually add “and our neighbours’ too”, but our actions might imply it.  And as to being deaf – well, aren’t we often deaf to what the Lord has to say to us?  Good at yowling our requests, and even rubbing ourselves against the Lord’s legs to get our own way (with a spot of affection, granted, as we glance meaningfully at the tins of goodies on the celestial shelves).  But less good at doing what we’re told.

It isn’t as if we’re entirely indifferent to God.  I’m not suggesting that.  But if we haven’t listened – and acted on what we’ve heard – then our ritual offerings are likely to be as welcome as dead mice on the doormat.  You expect cats to be cats, of course, and true to their nature.  But similarly,  aren’t Christians expected to be true to their new nature, in the Spirit of their risen Lord?

Roy Lorrain-Smith

A prayer for each week

Lord of community, who formed us to make relationships, with you and each other, thank you for neighbours.  Please help us to be neighbourly, according to the needs of the moment, and in the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.

Lord of communication, who gave us the gift of words, please help us to speak openly, honestly and caringly with one another, and to listen with the same attention as we hope for, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Lord of provision, who created us within a world of resources and harvest, please help us to provide for each other, at home, next door and across the global village, with thankfulness and compassion.  Amen.

Lord of the night and the day, who made us creatures within a world of time, please help us to live each moment of today under your guidance, gratefully, as you alone know all our tomorrows unto eternity.  Amen.

Your own prayers
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Message from the Link

By
D ISSUE 16 OCTOBER 2012 ear Friends How many times have you heard people say in your church ‘Well, I didn’t know about that!’  Quickly followed by, ‘Well, if you read the notices …’ Communication within churches can be wonderful, it can be a little frustrating and it can be never quite what we had hoped.  The same is true across the Circuit, and very soon we will be reviewing methods and means of communication.  Part of this review may include looking at ‘The Link’ and ‘Outlook’ in the light of our focus upon Mission.  For example, it may be that we move more towards what has happened and how it worked to encourage churches to think about the stories that they have to share, rather than being a notice sheet of things to come. Which leads me to ask, have we ever wondered about who it is we are trying to communicate to, and about what?  For example, there have been many adverts in ‘ The Link’ about coffee mornings and cake....
Post a Comment
Read more

Fairtrade Summer Fair - 31 May 2014

By
Did you know that it is Fairtrade ’s 20th birthday this year? Yes, 2014 marks 20 years since the first Fairtrade product was sold in the UK. In that time, Fairtrade supporters have helped make huge progress, so that millions of farmers, workers and their families now have a brighter future. To celebrate this milestone, we will be having a: Fairtrade Summer Fair at Calverley Methodist Church on Saturday 31st May from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.  Please come along and give your support. There will be refreshments, Fairtrade tasting, a quiz with prize and lots of lovely Fairtrade products for sale.
Post a Comment
Read more

News from Allerton Methodist Church

By
Allerton’s Community Play & Learn Hub In October we were approached by the Bradford Community Play Partnership to ask if they could use the church premises for their Allerton & Lower Grange Community Learning Hub. They had been running this from Ladyhill Park since 1st April but needed somewhere more suitable for the winter months. Supporting local families and linking with 5 local primary schools, 7 volunteers, including 3 of our own congregation, are working together to provide ‘Bags of Creativity’ during the pandemic. The group have provided over 5,000 packs to children, signed up over 700 children to a Summer Reading Challenge, engaged with 1,500 children in the Light Project with a physical literacy music lesson in the car park, with pallet Christmas trees, a grotto, forest school activities including making Bird Cake and incorporating: Exercise Counting, Measuring, Weighing Investigating natural materials Growing Sunflowers Reading Music The Hub will continue until Februa...
Post a Comment
Read more