We're heading into the summer holiday period, and it's time to recharge our batteries, so to speak. The Church's calendar reflects that, too. Those many festivals which we celebrate between Advent and Trinity Sunday are behind us, and we have now entered the relative calm of the liturgical period which the Church calls Ordinary Time (our green season) before the summer is once more behind us and we begin to think about looking forward to Advent once again.
Covid is still with us and we still need to be cautious, but I hope that we can all make some time to relax and recharge our physical batteries while we enjoy the pleasant, summer weather.
However, our lives go on, in good times and in bad, regardless of everything else. But our loving God knows and understands us better than we know ourselves, and he's aware of everything that's happening in our lives, be that good or bad. Jesus didn't promise us a life free of suffering, but he did promise that he would be with us always, loving us, helping us, strengthening us, and guiding us, through whatever life throws at us.
I'd like to share just a few verses (vv 9-12) from Psalm 139, one of my favourite psalms, which speaks of God's love for us and his eternal presence with us:
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night', even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
I hope and pray that, this summer and always, we'll all feel and know the boundless and unwavering love of God and his eternal presence with us in our lives, whether we're working, relaxing, away on holiday, or struggling.
May you all know the love and peace of God and feel his presence with you, this summer and always.
Every blessing
Annie