As you may know, I have a quiet time every morning before I start on my day. I make myself a cup of tea, light a candle and spend some time in quiet prayer. I often have a book to help me in my reflection. I gain some valuable insight from whatever I am reading and am often inspired to write in my spiritual journal or do some prayer doodling, or some such activity. At the moment, I am reading a small book called “How to Worry Less about Money.” This may seem like a very odd choice for a spiritual reflection book. However, one of the traditional hymns we sing on a Sunday contains the lines ‘Have we trials and temptations?  Is there trouble anywhere?  We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.’ I have always worried about money, even when I have had no need to. I realised that I needed to change my attitude to money, so that I can be less anxious about my finances and enjoy what I have. Reading this book and doing the exercises it suggests in my quiet time means that I am bringing all of this intentionally before God.

There can sometimes be a perception that we can only pray to God about ‘holy’ or ‘worthy’ things. We forget that God is with us all the time, in all the places and circumstances of our lives. Psalm 139 reminds us that God made us and knows us, through and through. There is no point in having a ‘Sunday face’ for God. God knows what we are like the rest of the week! I am looking at my attitude to money as part of bringing my whole life to God. The book talks about using what money we have to create a life that helps us to flourish. It is not about having lots of money, rather it is about recognising the values that we hold to be important and what helps us to live a ‘good life’, then deciding how to spend our money accordingly. In a spiritual context, this reminds me that Jesus came to offer me ‘life to the full’ (John 10:10) – not material wealth, but a life that is rewarding and fulfilling. If I am not using my money wisely, or am not spending it on activities that help me to flourish, it is hard for me to live in the richness of all that Jesus promised. This means that I have to make choices about what I spend money on, in order to be able to do what ‘feeds my soul’ and therefore perhaps spend less or stop spending in other areas.

Perhaps there is an area of your life which you find hard to ‘take to the Lord in prayer.’ If so, a good first question to ask yourself is, ‘Why? – why don’t I pray about this?’ That might throw up some interesting insight as a starting point.  Remember that God already knows everything before you say it, so bringing it before God might just be a way of finally acknowledging something to yourself. That can be a great way of letting God into our hearts and lives.

God bless,

Cecilia

It has now been a year since members of the group Boko Haram broke into a boarding school in Nigeria and kidnapped over 276 girls. 219 of them are still missing.  An international campaign, ‘Bring Back Our Girls’, and intense pressure on the Nigerian government failed to produce any concrete results. Families and friends miss those girls every day and must be tortured by thoughts of what may have happened to them. Boko Haram means "western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language. For girls to be educated is a complete threat to what the group stands for.

The abduction of these girls is one of the situations may cause us to wonder where God is and what can be done. Hundreds of young lives cut short or ruined by sexual and other violence.  Great harm occurs when we allow ourselves to see the other person as somehow ‘less than’ us. It is easy to overlook another human being, treat them with indifference or perpetrate violence against them, when we dehumanise them and make them ‘less than’.  In America, some Black men were seen as ‘less than’ by the white police officers who shot them. In December, we commemorated the Christmas football game in the First World war, when British and German soldiers climbed out of the trenches, sang carols and played football together. Someone told me that the senior officers prevented such a thing from happening again, as it would have made it harder to fight and kill men who were no longer viewed as ‘less than’.

When we read of great figures in history who have overcome great adversity dealt out by other human beings, this is what we often find; the individual refuses to believe that they might be ‘less than’ – Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Emmeline Pankhurst, Troy Perry and many others all refused to believe what those in power told them, they refused to accept that they were inferior. Their confidence in themselves was an inspiration to others and so movements for change were born. As part of the process of change, some of those who once perhaps saw these leaders as ‘less than’ began to see them, and those around them, as equal human beings, worthy of being treated with dignity and respect. 

We cannot know what has happened to these young sisters of ours. We cannot help so many of those who will suffer around the world tonight, other than hold them in our prayers. However, what we can do is make sure that we don’t slip into the pattern of regarding other human beings around us, as ‘less than’. We are all created in the image of the same God.

God bless,

Cecilia

The re-telling of Jesus’ final few days on earth is always a powerful experience for me. Perhaps it is because I need to sit with the suffering and hopelessness of this cruel death, in order to really rejoice in the resurrection mystery. I think it also speaks to that big question ‘What would I do?’ If I was Pilate, or Peter, or Judas, or one of the other disciples, what would I do? In the story of Christ’s passion, there are redemption stories. There is Nicodemus, who is part of the establishment which want Jesus dead, yet he recognises the truth of who Jesus is and gives him dignity in death by looking after his body and placing it in the tomb. There is the thief who recognises that Jesus is not a common criminal and hopes that what he has heard about Jesus is true. He rewarded with the promise of paradise. The centurion who is responsible for guarding Jesus is deeply affected by all the events that occur immediately upon Jesus’ death and declares “Truly, this man was God’s son.”

 These stories of redemption even in moments of great pain and doubt are re-assuring. However, the point of Good Friday for me is not to be re-assured, it is to feel deeply uncomfortable. So much of the unattractive side of human nature is on display. There is the cruelty of the soldiers who mocked Jesus and created the crown of thorns they then forced him to wear. There is the cowardice of Pilate, who was prepared to let an innocent man die. There is the duplicity of the Pharisees, who found false witnesses to testify against Jesus in a kangaroo court. In some ways, we are not surprised by these acts. We can justify them somehow. We know that there are bullies who delight in tormenting those who are weaker than themselves, politicians who take the easy way out and those in positions of power who manipulate the truth to get the outcome they desire. We may not approve, but, heh, that’s human nature.

 No, the deeply disturbing behaviour for me in the Passion narrative is not any of the characters above, it is Peter. Peter the loyal, hot-headed, passionate man who swears undying commitment and then denies his Lord. Not once, not twice, but three times. I wonder what went on in his head after each time. We know that once he realised what he had done, he wept bitterly. Which comes back to the question “What would I do?” Would I keep on denying that I knew this person that I loved, I followed and I believed to be the Son of God, the Messiah?  You see, it is easy to dismiss the ‘pantomime villains’ of the passion, because we hope we will never be like them. Peter reminds me that although I believe that I am committed and faithful, it might not take much for me to turn away from Jesus, to turn away from trust in God. That is a very uncomfortable place to be in. Jesus’ death shows his human frailty, and ours.

God bless,

Cecilia