Belonging!

 

Georges Seurat (french impressionist), A sunday afternoon at the island of the Grande Jatte 1886

Following from my post on indifference and the need to form loving       communities, last week, I was struck by this part of the new bishop of Portsmouth's ( UK) ordination speech:

" that human needs ever remain essentially the same:
the need to love and to be loved,
the need for a purpose and vocation in life,
the need to belong to family and community,
the need for mercy and forgiveness, for peace and justice, for freedom and happiness,
and most profoundly, the need for immortality and for the Divine.
All these fundamental desires, hard-wired into the human heart:
theology expresses in the word 'salvation,' and we profess that every child, woman and man on this planet can find that salvation. "

 A beautiful text from Saint Paul to the Corinthians, reinforce this message ( 12, 31 ...): I may speak in tongues of men or of angels, but if I am without love, I am a sounding gong or  a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy, and know every hidden truth; I may have faith strong enough to move mountains; but if I have no love, I am nothing...love is patient , love is kind and envies no one"

Just what I needed, it confirms my own chosen path to seek and give love in community, sharing my emotions and my path through this life!

 

The threat of indifference

by LS Lowry
This painting by LS Lowry (1887-1976) symbolises for me the cataclysm created by the industrial society; busy worker bees hastening through the streets to their work or home, living to work!  No time to give to chance encounters on the streets and be open to others. A chance glance at my book of quotations brought up this disturbing quote, by Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881):"If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. they would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it".

 Nothing much has changed in the two centuries after this was written; Sometimes I still feel that at a dinner party it is not so chic to talk about one's faith to nonbelievers. this makes it all the more crucial to show how christianity can give back humanity to the human race. It is all about caring, Jesus cared for us by giving up his life in a most cruel way.It is time for us to accept this gift and re form loving caring neighbourly communities. In these times of crisis, it warms my heart when someone takes the time to talk and enquire how one is doing. To receive a helping hand when you feel unable to cope. the gestures will provide the stepping stones to continue.

In the words of George Bernard Shaw, English playwright  (1856-1950): "The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity"

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A church with a tree

The holidays are over and what did we do? Did we take time to reflect on what life is about, Did we take time off from our busy loves especially during the holidays to pray and come closer to God?
I was in Greece, as my husband is Greek and this summer found it very hard to take the time to pray.  It was only when I went to visit this small church in the western peloponnessos, high up in the mountains, that I really prayed.The church is dedicated to Agia Theodora a byzantine saint from the 10th century. The story of Saint Theodora, is that when the army asked the family for a boy to become a conscript in the army, Theodora came instead as her family had no boys and her father was too old and too poor. She was convicted and beheaded on wrong charges and as she died she said that god would bear witbess to her innocence and faith by growing treeswithin the church where she is buried. the miracle is that 17 trees grow in this tiny church with no visible roots and throughout the last 10 centuries the walls hve not fallen down.
Every year in September pilgrims make the journey through the mountains for a mass and celebration in her honour. You can leave pieces of paper with your prayer and the priest will say them for you.

To me this simple little church with its trees reaching out to the skies and its roots in our earth symbolises our faith and belonging to the christian community. It gave me back the power to pray.