April Prayers

The Passion Flower has been chosen to head the April prayers.

It was adopted by  15th & 16th century Spanish missionaries, symbolising the Passion or suffering that Jesus experienced in the days before his execution. Its physical structures 

• The tendrils represent his  flogging
• The flower's radial filaments, represent the crown of thorns.
• The ovary is chalice shaped, recalling the Last Supper.
• The three stigmas represent 3 nails with which he was crucified 
• the five anthers stand for the 5  wounds .
•  blue & white colors of some species represent Heaven & Purity.
• the flower is open for three days, symbolising either the 3 years of Jesus' ministry.or the 3 days from the Crucifiction to the Resurrection
• In Spain it is named 'Thorn of Christ' , In Germany its many names include "Christ's crown",  "Christ's bouquet", "Jesus' passion" & 'Mother of God's star').

Holy Week & Easter

For Christians this April is something of a roller-coaster of a month. 

We near the end of Lent, a time of preparation as we have remembered Jesus' time in the wilderness,  preparing for his 3 year ministry.   

We move to Palm Sunday (12th April this year) when we remember his triumphant arrival in Jerusalem towards the end of his ministry. 

Holy week begins on Monday 13th April. It coincides with Easter because Jesus was arrested and tried in Jerusalem during the  Passover festival.

We know, with hindsight that the triumph  was short lived and that betrayal,  disappointment, terror and death were to follow .

20th April this year is  Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate, knowing the death was not the end of Jesus' story.   In fact we celebrate the beginning of new powerful  life, resurrected life, new beginnings...... 

There is joy, sorrow, despair and uplifting hope.; there is confusion, challenge and mystery.

So please take a little time to consider a prayer pathway through April with us.

Note: Emanuel   is one of the names given to Jesus, it means God with us

Matthew's & John's Gospels tell us:

 "Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, '” 

"So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, 'Hosanna! '"

Emanuel ?

Let mortal flesh keep silent? 

Or should we shout and sing,

Bringing loud hosannas 

To a redeeming king?

Prayers for today:Amen. 

 Amen

*** *** *** ***

Jesus was betrayed by one friend and  deserted by others. 

Tyrants manipulated fickle crowds;

Jesus  suffered   torture,  humiliation & death

Emanuel ?
Let mortal flesh keep silent? 

The paradox is huge.

No words of explanation come-

Glib answers are refused:

 When flesh and spirit knit

In the thinness of creation,

A proper sense of awe

Should gaze on incarnation.

A baby in a trough?

A man, writhing on a tree?

Such failures tell us something 

Of the parenthood of God!

A reflection on Jesus' humility 

Philippians 2:5-8

In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Prayer by Thomas Merton:

'Lord, give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. 

Possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. 

Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, 

that I may love not for the sake of merit, 

not for the sake of perfection, 

not for the sake of virtue, 

not for the sake of sanctity, 

but for You alone. Amen.’

Verses from Psalm 22

 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish? [...]
 All who see me mock me;  they hurl insults, shaking their heads.  “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,  “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him,  since he delights in him.” [...]
 I am poured out like water,  and all my bones are out of joint. [...] My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth [...]
 They divide my clothes among them  and cast lots for my garment. [...].
They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn:  He has done it!

A prayer by Margaret Rizza

 In the homeless and the hungry
In the broken and the lonely
In the grieving of Your people
Creator God, You are there
In the tears and in the heartache
In the love through which we serve You
In the anguish of the dying

Creator God, You are there Amen.