A Personal Story.
We were at the opening of Margaret Ackland’s beautiful exhibition in Flinders Lane Gallery
We met again a young couple with their little girl. The mum called her daughter ‘my little angel’. I just happened to have one of these Bethlehem olive wood angels in my pocket so I knelt down and gave it to the little girl. Her look of delight stays with me.
After the opening I drove to Darebin where our son Nick was playing piano and guitar in a band,launching Jess Ribeire’s ‘Summer of Love’.
Read more here about Jess Ribeire and her Launch
As I drove,my car radio gave me the News of more people being killed in Lebanon and of President Putin’s threat to be the first to use Nuclear Weapons … if NATO countries give long range missiles to Ukraine.
The news, therefore, was again of these leaders who keep causing suffering but never meet to sort out their issues – even with assistance – including from the UN which is this week holding a Summit for the Future.
Pertaining to that Summit and these dangerous days, some of us have therefore signed ‘An Urgent Call to Step Back from the Brink of Nuclear War’.
Later at home I reflected on those past few hours.
The juxtaposition of beauty with suffering ;the role of our imaginative artists as compared to the banality of those who seem only able to imagine destroying all that others hold dear..
I have seen John’s tenderness with Mo, fragile and blind.
John writes of how “Mo’s journey into blindness drew touch into our lives and I can still feel his head on my lap … and his licking of my hand just to make certain I was with him.”
In this context that we are now sharing, with incessant terrible news amidst our efforts to live peacefully and compassionately, how do we sustain ourselves?
There are many ways that question can be answered but perhaps this little exercise might help.
Draw a line, with a wave, down a white sheet of paper:
● At the top, who are the People with whom you feel a beautiful connection?
- People with whom you feel safe, whose kindnes and integrity you trust.
- People who love you-family and friends…Pets oo ,like John’s dog Mo.
- There may also be people you feel connected ith because of their poetry, their art or what you have learned about their life, even though they may have livedcenturies back.
- (I have that feeling, for example towards Fr Angelico, St. Anselm and Hildegard of Bingen)
- You may like to write these names down.
● Then, which are the Places where you feel a nurturing connection?
- Places of communion-sacred places of worship, even particular places within one.
- Places in nature too, like by the sea or where you especially listen to the sounds ofbirds in the Australian bush at dawn…
- Places in our homes, like the table where we share meals and conversations.
● Also, are there specific Moments you recall, in which you have felt deeply connected, at one?
- Moments of grace, you recall, from which you have lived;
- Moments of profound illumination and of inspiration.
- Remembering these, perhaps add them to your paper too…
Practicing Gratitude, we know, is very beneficial, both personally and together with other people of faith. Gratitude has lasting effects on personality and on the brain.
Looking now at what you have written on your white sheet of paper, how does it feel?
It is good to remember the People, the Pets, the Places and the special Moments of our Connection, our Communion, our At-one-ment in the gift of life and in the grace of the divine.
Perhaps it clarifies how we might be able to help with all the healing that is needed – all that tugs at our hearts.
Here are some gathered thoughts of mine about ‘peace is every step’ and the idea of local peace walks together, silent and prayerful, in these spring days.
This Michaelmas, we offer our prayers for peace and for the sustaining of peacemakers.
This Michaelmas, the Feast of St. Michael and All the Angels – we pray the holy angels will keep watch over us as guardians of God’s peace.
AMEN.
BISHOP PHILIP HUGGINS
Friday, September 27, 2024.
Bishop Philip Huggins is a bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Patron of Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, and member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Interfaith Liaison Committee. He is also a member of the National Executive of Religions for Peace Australia.
