What a way to spend... er, Easter, Holla Mohalla, Passover, Ramadan, Thaipusam, etc

[johnofgwent]

Well, you must do as you will Toots but I fear it will make scant difference.



I'll be joining you but mainly because the tablets leave me with zero appetite and a few more days if this and I will 'waist' away...



Certainly it will be a while before "20 stone of angry viking works as a description of me again".

 

But as I said to the young(ish) chap,  well certainly 15 years younger than I, who came round from the local anglicans when I was last flat on my back with cellulitis, I'm not a great fan of God but the wife is 20 miles away and being run ragged  by the girls so if you have news of the outside world and in particular who is facing off against france next week for Wales  I'd love a chat.



He did say he would pray for my recovery, I thanked him. I'm sure it made him feel he had helped.



The thing that really wound me up a while ago was hearing an atheist made a formal complaint about a (catholic?) nurse who promised to pray for them at mass.



It wound me up because if they are so atheist then they know it's all rubbish so why get so worked up. I mean, if they were a dedicated satanist who had sworn their soul to the great horned one in return for earthly delight I can understand them getting pissed at the Catholics trying to nullify the deal, but someone whose belief system centres on the sure and certain knowledge the believer is a deluded fool does not to my mind have much to complain about if they practice what is viewed as their foolishness....

[T00ts]

On Good Friday there will be a worldwide fast - either 2 meals or 24 hours depending on ability - together with private prayer to ask for an end to the virus etc. I shall be joining it.

[Barry]

This is what Tear fund sent around:



'We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.' (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)



Scripture tells us that our faith can move mountains. So what do we do when the mountains do not move? What do we do when healing doesn't come? When the disaster is not averted? When people we've spent our lives praying for never find God?



What do we do when a virus turns the whole world upside down?



The brokenness of life cannot be ignored. And God didn't ignore it – he became part of it. Jesus knew all about grief and pain: he was rejected by his home community, betrayed by one of his friends, and faced an unimaginably terrifying death. He prayed for God to take that suffering away from him.



Yet he also accepted it. He never deflected his pain onto other people or wallowed in victim-hood. In the midst of his greatest pain, he reached out to the criminal being crucified next to him (Luke 23:40-43). How could he do this? Because he knew that after brokenness comes resurrection.



There will be mountains in our lives that do not move. But we can take heart from the fact that, one day, out of the pain, something brand new may come to life.



Dear God,

Give us the strength to deal with brokenness in a healthy way; give us the patience to hold fast while we wait for moments of resurrection. Help us to not return the pain that we are dealt, but transform us into instruments of greater love. Amen.



Gideon Heugh

[T00ts]

I'm sure that most faiths will encourage calm reflection. Some will have positive messages while others may well dwell on the sins of the earth. For my part I will join the positive reflection camp and continue to pray for all.

[patman post]

There cannot have been such a worldwide event as that caused by novel coronavirus for at least 70 years.

Is there a common, or singular, calming explanation that leaderships and senior clerics of the major religions offering to their adherents...?