Vicar's Letter
LENT – How to focus?
Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us, come let us adore him.
My Dear Flock,
I’m writing this as my last job on Shrove Tuesday, finishing my last glass of wine for a while before going to sleep. When I wake in the morning, Ash Wednesday will be upon us…
I hope that the season of Lent has begun well for you all and that you have all carved out some time to be still and be closer to God. Do not feel guilty about allowing yourself to have some ‘time-out’ of life’s busyness, and relax in the Father’s company, just get ready to listen to him and don’t worry if it is challenging. The season will be demanding of us, but I pray that you have some good interactions with the scriptures and have a recharge as you journey the way of the cross. Pray hard and do look after yourselves.
During Lent I have a number of “introductions”. I have been invited to St Paul’s Cathedral for an induction and will also be travelling to Oxford for a few days for Diocesan training as I am a ‘new’ vicar to London. I’m sure to have some reflections following those meetings!
But I will also be meeting with my spiritual director and that is a chance for me to focus, open up to a colleague and friend, and to speak and reflect upon the joys and trials of ministry. I’ll be given advice, (possibly some penance) and most likely some guidance in praying, reading and for moving forward with different aspects of ministry. All of this will be done within the realms of much prayer.
We enter the wilderness and know we shall reach that garden, just like on that very fine morning, when light crept through the cracks of the rock, and He called out her name, and once again we shall have a new song to sing… I wanted to just share with you all a few things to think about this year, after we did some planning at the PCC a couple of weeks ago…
Of course we shall be celebrating our 90th anniversary this year, and we will especially be doing this the end of September and into October with a whole week of events and services – more to follow.
We shall be having a PCC AWAY DAY just after Easter.
We are going to use this as an opportunity to think through our mission and vision as a parish, both short term and long term for the years ahead. But we want everyone involved in this so in the next few weeks we shall be asking lots of questions and asking for ideas and input to be a part of this process, perhaps questions such as…
- What do we do well at St Paul’s, what are we celebrating?
- What might we do better or improve on?
- How can we continue to grow?
- What can we do to help all the people of Ruislip Manor grow?
Part of this is to explore STEWARDSHIP, which we shall be doing over the next few weeks too. So of course we shall be thinking about money and both the financial aspects of our church life, and how we generous giving to the Lord, but also we want to think through our gifts and callings from God – what skills, talents, and giftings do we have and how can we use our Time for the Goodness of God?
There is a full Lent program, so do take a copy of the leaflet and find some things on it to come along to.
The Gospel reading for Lent 2 is the great story of Jesus meeting Nicodemus, including the familiar verses that we do well to be reminded of…
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)
May you continue to have a Holy Lent, (Don’t get to Easter, without having ‘lived’ Lent!)
Blessings, In Christ,
Your Shepherd
Fr Tommy