Click - Parish of Greater Whitbourne

Page 8
The Parish Magazine
Letter from the Bishop of Hereford
"Seven days without prayer
makes one weak." Allen E
Vartlett
"We have to pray with our eyes
on God, not on the difficulties."
Oswald Chambers
"He who runs from God in the
morning will scarcely find Him
the rest of the day." John Bunyan
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit
Himself intercedes for us with
groans that words cannot
express.” Romans 8:26
"Of all the duties enjoined by
Christianity, none is more essential
and yet more neglected than
prayer." Fenelon
Jesus said, “When you pray, say,
‘Our Father…’” St. Luke 11.4
When our Bishop’s Council was
Once upon a time, there was a
very clever spider, who spun a
world-wide web which made anybody
able to catch any fly anywhere.
Then along came an equally
clever, but more ambitious, spider
who said: “ Flies are fine, but
I’d like to try for bigger game;
why not discover the secrets of
the world of butterflies and build
a net that is invisible, but strong
enough to catch and hold them
The Brockhampton Estate is one
of four National Trust properties
in the county looking for volunteers
under the ‘Your time, our
place’ campaign. It will be opening
seven days a week from
March 5 to November 6 this year
for the first time, so volunteers
are urgently needed.
There’s a huge variety of roles
looking again at our diocesan priorities,
we decided that the two
absolutely fundamental areas to
work on are:
“Growing in our personal relationship
with Christ.” and
“Strengthening our confidence to
live and express it.”
Prayer is central to both. That is
why I have begun with a few quotations
to encourage us in our
emphasis on prayer and to
remind us how absolutely fundamental
it is to who we are, as well
as to what we do. As Martin
Luther put it, “As it is the business
of tailors to make clothes
and cobblers to make shoes, so it
is the business of Christians to
pray.” Or, if you prefer, Pope Pius
XII wrote, “A person without
prayer is like a tree without
roots.”
It is essential that we pray and
give time to it, time to God. Once
A fable for Epiphany
till they deliver their secrets?”
So he did this; and the peacocks
and red admirals and painted
ladies and even the monarchs
and purple emperors were then
captive. But they were so furious
that the lashing of their wings
finally broke the net and the
death’s head hawk moth led the
others in crying out for the blood
of this super-spider, who threatened
their very existence.
So the super-spider tried to hide
NT volunteers needed
available from gardeners,
rangers and countryside helpers
to fundraisers, room guides and
events assistants. Hours are flexible.
again, I am calling for Ash
Wednesday (9th March) to be a
Day of Prayer so that we may be
encouraged in the way of prayer
not just in Lent but all the time. I
am referring to it this month so
as to give more time for organizing
“welcomers” and resources in
our churches to help those who
are able to “drop in” for a while
to pray.
Our prayer is needed every day,
in our own homes especially. We
need to pray as we can, not as we
can’t, in the way that suits us, not
someone else. We can learn to
pray from the Bible, from other
people, from books, from quotations,
from sermons, and from
study groups. We learn best, not
by reading about prayer, but by
praying, because the Spirit of
God teaches us.
Bishop Anthony Priddis
Bishop of Hereford
with a friend and to this day the
death’s head gang have not been
able to catch him.
But if and when they do, they and
he will all meet the King of Kings,
who designed and made them all
and put each one in his or her
appointed place. And what do
you think He would say to them?
I.T. Illiterate (name and
address supplied)
Helen Jaundrell, Campaign
Manager, said: “If you’ve got a
few hours to spare we’d love to
have some of your time at our
place. Our volunteers are incredibly
important to us as we simply
couldn’t open the doors without
their superb support, great ideas
and enthusiasm.”
If you are interested and would
like to know more please email
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/yourtimeourplace
or call the hotline
on 0121 753 7752 for an information
pack.