PRAYER
I grew up being taught that prayer was a conversation with God.

It was a tradition that emphasised the spontaneous free speaking to God. Language with all its beautiful possibilities and obvious limitations was the way to pray. But, if I’m honest I should concede that quite often this conversation became a monologue of fancy words to praise God or, at its worst, a “shopping list” of requests. I knew this wasn’t right, but I didn’t know better.

To be honest, at some point, I stopped praying and eventually gave up prayer altogether. After a while, after a series of experiences, I re-discovered prayer again. I was learning not just from my own Anglican spirituality, but also from other enriching Christian traditions. I have found this to be an inspiring and challenging experience that has opened my eyes to new possibilities.

The way I pray and my understanding of prayer has changed as my faith journey has lead me to different places and experiences: from verbal Rococo to minimalistic silence; from contemplating an Icon or lighting a candle to absorbing the beauty of creation or engaging in the creative endeavour; from doing prayers to being a prayer. At the point in my journey where I am now I am more convinced as never before of the importance of prayer in our lives. Prayer is a way to connect with God, to connect with ourselves, and to connect with others. That is what prayer is at its core.

“It clearly appears that there are no races in the world, however rude, uncultivated, barbarous, gross, or almost brutal they may be, who cannot be persuaded and brought to a good order and way of life, and made domestic, mild and tractable, provided ... the method that is proper and natural to men is used that is, love and gentleness and kindness.”

Bartolomé de Las Casas
Apostle of the Indies
1484 - 1566
Commemoration 20 July

THE HISTORY OF LOVE
Ysgubor Llwyn-y-Ffynnon
5 May 2011 – 7.45 am

BOOKS FIND US
When is the time and we are ready, they find their way to us.

THE BOOK
In our penultimate day of holidays in this beautiful remote cottage in north Wales, it found me.
I was browsing one of the many bookshelves replete with books and the book pop out to me. I pick it up. I browsed inside and the words ‘Barth mitzvah’ caught my eyes. I felt the urgency to read it.

READ
I began to read while keeping an eye on Paquito [our French bulldog]
I breathe the fresh air of a new day and I read
I welcome the day with gracious and grateful heart...I read
I let the dramatic landscape to embrace me...I read
I make a cup of tea for Marie... I read
Paquito and I join her in bed...I read
I make breakfast...I read
We eat... I read
I do the washing up...I read
I go to the toilet...I read
Poland, Jews, South America, Peru, llamas, Argentina, Chile, Oxford, manuscripts, New York...I read

PAUSE 4.15 pm
We drove to MACHYNLLETH with the radio on; BBC 4 ...at the end of the show ‘Bookclub’ James Naughtie announced that next book for June's Bookclub will be 'The History of Love' by Nicole Krauss...
WHAT AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE!
Back to the cottage we eat fish and ships...I read
Marie dispensed me from all my domestic duties...I read
Paquito join me in the sofa...we read
We all sit in the sofa to watch ‘Chocolate’...I read.
Goodnight said Marie...I read

NEXT DAY
6 May 2011 – 6.30 am
I got up early...I read
I did all the same as yesterday...I read
We finish breakfast...I read...the last words...
I FINISH!
Leo, Alma, Charlotte, Zvi, Bruno, Bird, all stayed with me…
What a great book.

BOOKS FIND US
When is the time and we are ready, they find their way to us.

Gracias.

The Cross
The cross, I said to my congregation, is a paradox symbol of human despair and hope. The cross of Christ holds together in creative tension the distress and aspirations of the human soul, the dreams and failures, heaven and hell, life and death. To understand the real meaning of the cross we need to engage with this paradox of the cross.

Distress and hope are part of our human experience, shared by other fellow travellers in all times and places. Both are part of our life, journey, story and conversation with God. The experience of despair and hope is real in our life, as it is bestowed in the cross. Jesus invited us to carry our cross, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Jesus’ invitation is to embrace the cross that will bind us together with the distress and hope of humanity: the solidarity of the cross.

The Salvadorian cross that depicts scenes of everyday community life is a creative and clever way to raise awareness that our whole life, distress and hopes, are part of God’s economy in the cross. In the cross we hear our own cry, “Father why have you forsaken me?”
We hear the cry of the poor of the earth, “Father why have you forsaken us?”
In the cross we come together, we are bound together. In the cross we also hear whispers of new beginnings, the promises of a new tomorrow...possibilities.

After this brief introduction I gave to each person in the congregation a sheet of paper printed with the shape of a cross, an empty cross. Then I invited them to write inside the cross a word or to draw a picture of places, people or situations where they felt there is despair and distress. This could be their own, from others or both.

In reverent silence they did just that. Then I invited them do the same again but this time they would have to write or draw a picture of all the things they hope to see changing in themselves and the world.

In reverent silence they did just that. Then I told them that these things they have drawn or written in the cross are the things that matters to them, the things they feel passionate about, these are the things that make up the people they are.

“This is your cross”, I said. Then I invited them to write their names on the cross.
We spent some time in silence and stillness, meditating on our cross and in what we had done.

At the end some folded the cross and took it with them, others took my invitation: “During the music,” I said, “you are invited if, you wish, to place your cross at the altar in our basket of prayers.” And, in reverent silence, and solidarity, some laid their own cross for blessing, for humankind, for hope.

Passover Prayer
Long ago, at this season, on such a night as this, a people - our people - set out on a journey.
All but crushed by their enslavement, they yet recalled the far-off memory of a happier past.

And heard the voice of their ancestral God, bidding them summon up the courage to be free.

Boldly, they went forth from Egypt, crossed the Sea, and headed through the desert for the Promised Land.

What they experienced, they remembered, and told their children, and they to theirs.

From generation to generation, the story was retold, and we are here to tell it yet again.

We too give thanks for Israel's liberation; we too remember what it means to be a slave.

And so we pray for all who are still fettered, still denied their human rights. Let all God's children sit at his table, drink the wine of deliverance, and eat the bread of freedom:

freedom from bondage
and freedom from oppression,
freedom from hunger
and freedom from want,
freedom from hatred
and freedom from fear,
freedom to think
and freedom to speak,
freedom to learn
and freedom to love,
freedom to hope
and freedom to rejoice;
soon in our days,

Amen.

“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written” John 12:12-14

"En realidad solo hablo para recordarte

la importancia del silencio"

"Actually, I only speak to remind you

the importance of silence"

Chamalu