DERELICT SUNDAY - FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT

We had a great service at Church this morning - with two new songs learned and a great sermon from Susan about being in exile.  If we are honest, most of us know nothing about being in exile if we think about it in its literal sense, but of course, many of us might be in exile physically or spiritually because of something we have done or not done, or it might even be a self-imposed exile.

In our Church, we only share Communion once a month, on the first Sunday although because of the Coronavirus, and the need to be careful about hygiene, instead of the chalice, we used small glasses and the bread was already cut so that we didn’t need to handle it as we would normally do, by tearing a piece off a large loaf.  

I had taken a shot of Dorothy, the Mother of a friend at Church, and intended using that, because it was such a lovely photograph of her, but then we went out for a drive and on our way up towards the Hackpen White Horse (see extra), we saw this beautiful rainbow after a heavy shower of rain, and there just happened to be a derelict tree stump at the side pf the road where Mr. HCB stopped the car, so I’m sure she won’t mind being relegated to the extra spot!  

When I asked Dorothy’s permission to use this photograph, I did mention that we usually went out looking for dereliction after Church, so she laughed and said that we could use her instead - but I disagreed that she looked even remotely derelict - in fact, she looks marvellous for her age, in fact, you would never think she was 91 years young.  She is such a wonderful Christian lady and it is a joy to see her whenever she visits her son, so thank you, Dorothy for brightening up my day.  Mind you, I did tell Dorothy not to leave her scarf around, otherwise it might find its way round my neck, as it’s my favourite colour!

Susan reminded us that Fasting for the 40 days of Lent reminds us of when Jesus fasted in the desert - when His fast included no water, no food and no-one around Him.  I had already said in the service that I have given up - or am “fasting” from Facebook during Lent, but no-one else admitted that they had given anything up.  In fact, I have also decided to do some Random Acts of Kindness during Lent as well as giving out hearts, as I have never believed it is just about giving things up, as I’ve said before.

Some words from Pope Francis sum up how we can fast during this Lent period:

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
Fast from worries and trust in God. 
Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
Fast from bitterness and fill you heart with joy.
Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others
Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.