\u2018And that\u2019s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello. The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the\nextravagant love of God, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be\nwith all of you.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s how Paul ends his second letter to the church in Corinth. It seems quite relevant for the end of term! But I also like the way the Message version translates the last line: \u2018The amazing grace of the Master, the extravagant love of\nGod, and the intimate fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s a prayer and a promise for the future. But it\u2019s good\nalso at this point of the year to look back – to reflect on the year past. We\ndid a bit of that in our Chaplaincy team Awayday. We thought back over our\nexperiences as chaplains this year, and you might like to do the same:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take some time to let images, events, encounters from the\npast year come into your conscious mind. You may choose to let your thoughts\njourney chronologically through the year, or perhaps instead to let things\n\u2018bubble up\u2019 in a more ad-hoc way. You may like to jot down some of these\nthoughts\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then ponder, using one of these pairs of questions\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For which moments in the last year am I most grateful? For which moments am I the least grateful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When did I give or receive the most love? When did I give or receive the least love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When did I feel most alive? When did I feel most drained?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See what emerges, for you\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing that emerged for me, for which I am particularly\ngrateful, is sharing this Communion service with you each week. We may be a\nfaithful few – but we represent a wider group of those who sometimes join us –\nand for me, as we pray through this service together, we are somehow creating a\ncentre for all that we do, and opening up a channel for God\u2019s love to flow into\nthis place, here in the spiritual heart of the university. So thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday – always a challenge for\npreachers! Sometimes in churches I\u2019ve been in we\u2019ve woven together three\nstrands on a friendship bracelet, or three big ropes, to show how the life of\nGod is known to us in the weaving together of the love of the Father, the Son\nand the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But reflecting on the past year, I have another image, in a\nscarf I borrowed from Sarah, with a gold thread running through it. It\u2019s an\nimage of God\u2019s grace being threaded through all of the parts of our life –\nthrough the light and the dark parts, through our outer life and our inner life\n– through our life as individuals and through the life we have shared in\ndifferent ways as a community\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we begin to notice the ways in which we have known God\u2019s\ngrace in the past year, we can look ahead with greater confidence. There may\nwell be challenges and difficult times to come, but as Paul says \u2018the God of\nlove and peace will be with us for sure\u2019 – and in the year to come our lives\nwill be shot through again with the amazing grace of our Lord, the extravagant\nlove of God, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spend a few moments holding this past year, and all that has\nbeen part of it, before God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lord, as we look back, we acknowledge all that has been hard\n– the times when we have struggled – the hurts that still need healing – and we\nthank you for your grace at work even in all of this. May we continue to be\nopen to your amazing grace\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We give thanks for all that has been good and life giving –\nand especially for love, given and received. We give thanks for each other, and\nwe pray for each other – may we know more deeply the extravagant love of God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We thank you Lord, for our journey with you, this year, and\nfor your gentle leading in our lives. May we continue to walk with you, in the\nintimate friendship of the Holy Spirit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018And that\u2019s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}