May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Host of God guard us.
Against the snares of the evil ones.
Against temptations of the world
May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!
May Christ be in us,
Christ be over all!
May Thy Salvation, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and evermore.Amen.
St Patrick
What are you doing? I said. I'm invisible, he said, Do I have to spell everything out for you all the time? & since he was invisible, I decided I could ignore that.
Story Teller
For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.
For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of "knowing everything."
For every woman who is tired of being called "an emotional female," there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle.
For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity.
For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who must worry about his potency.
For every woman who feels "tied down" by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood.
For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being.
For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking.
For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation, there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.
Nancy R Smith
‘The cross is not a rescue like the Exodus from an evil situation but salvation in and through a evil situation, first confronting it, then bearing it, then transforming it. It is as if evil is the raw material out of which new life is forged.The news of the gospel is not moral perfection nor sinlessness, it is forgiveness.’Through forgiveness and love evil is reversed and can be changed into good.‘Jesus is less interested in the causes of evil but in its transformation’
Michael Willson
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
George Bernard Shaw
"Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel
‘We talk about love, freedom, happiness, and so on, but unless our Churches are seen really to be places in which people are free and courageous, then why should anyone believe us? Jesus spoke with authority…and his authority was surely his manifest freedom and joy. His words made an impression because they were embedded in a life that was striking, reaching out to strangers, feasting with prostitutes, afraid of nobody’
Timothy Radcliffe
Religion is living with God. There is no other kind of religion. Living with a Book, living with or by a Rule, being awfully high-principled are not in themselves religion, although many people think they are and that that is all there is to it. Religion has got a bad name through being identified with an outward orderliness. But an outward orderliness can be death, dullness and masochism. Doing your duty may be admirable stoicism; it isn't religion.
Bernard Canter
There were safer places;
more comfortable places;
palaces and wealthy places.
Yet you chose a daughter of the soil
who would have otherwise
lived a good and honest life;
grown and harvested crops,
cooked and washed and cared for others
and been forgotten,
to be your temporary home;
to be exalted for all time.
"My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed."
When does an ordinary life
become extraordinary?
A mundane day
become revolutionary?
A moment in time
change history?
When God enters in,
forgives sin,
allows us to
begin again.
When we repeat
those words of Mary:
"May it be to me
as you say."
¨First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.¨
Mahatma Gandhi
Rowan Williams
The gospel must be forwarded to a new address because the recipient is repeatedly changing his place of residence.
Graham Cray (quoting a German Theologian!)
You are welcome - whatever your ethnic or cultural background, however you look or dress, whether you are a man or a woman, gay or straight, whether you earn a pittance or you're worth a fortune, whether you have kids, can't have kids, don't want to have kids, whether you are full of faith or riddled with doubts, whether you feel hopeful or fearful. Gregarious or withdrawn - YOU ARE WELCOME.
Dave TomlinsonVicar: There seems to be something wrong with this microphone.
Congregation: And also with you
'I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect, has intended us to forego their use.'
Galileo
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.
Joan Chittister (Rule of Benedict)
I don’t think the important thing is to be certain about answers nearly as much as being serious about the questions.
When we hold the questions, we meet and reckon with our contradictions, with our own dilemmas, and we invariably arrive at a turning point where we either evade God or meet God.
When we hang on the horns of the dilemma with Christ—between heaven and earth, between the divine and the human realms—it creates liminal space.
All transformation takes place when we’re somehow in between, inside of liminal space.
Richard Rohr
A few people may remember the words you said.
More will remember the things that you did.
But everyone will remember the way you made them feel.
Anon
Prayer is largely just being silent: holding it instead of even talking it through; offering it instead of fixing it by words and ideas; loving it as it is instead of understanding it fully.
That may be impractical, but the way of faith is not the way of efficiency. Much is a matter of listening and waiting, and enjoying the expansiveness that comes from such willingness to hold. It is like carrying and growing a baby: all women do is wait and trust, and hopefully eat good food, and the baby is born.
Richard Rohr
"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
Marilyn Monroe
"I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life the flame that heals our soul energizes our spirit and supplies passion."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
