Hope and Peace: Sunday Worship and our vocation as Peacemakers, Hope-givers

Hope and Peace: Sunday Worship and our vocation as Peacemakers, Hope-givers

Trying to respond to the times, our parish church has just placed this new sign out the front.

For me as a retired bishop doing this locum, the sign comes from my appreciation of what this parish can offer.

For example, during Communion recently, we heard a musical setting of old Simeon’s words in the Gospel-the ‘Nunc Dimittis’.

 

Our musicians come forward first to receive Communion. Thereafter they offer us lovingly prepared ‘Communion Music’, like in this example.

Their simple movements to Communion and then to play and sing are done with prayerful reverence. They are vividly living in the presence of God.

Another parishioner spoke with me recently of how he was trained to prayerfully set the altar and prepare the vestments.

‘Folding the vestments prayerfully is also a practice of living in the presence of God’, we said together.

He does this each Saturday. When we come into Church on a Sunday the feeling is of a place prayerfully prepared.

This is the consequence, in part, of his pure intentions.

Another worshipper spoke with me in recent days about a silent retreat she had just completed.

As is my way, I asked her what was her essential insight from that retreat.

She spoke with wonder in her voice of God’s purely loving intention towards us.

We conversed, saying how our spiritual practice, in response, should help with the purifying of our intentions.

Simple things matter. The way we come forward to Communion. The silence that fills with the sounds of Communion music. The cleaned and carefully folded purificators on the altar; flowers carefully arranged. My preparations include being in Church early to meditate in mantric fashion, ‘Jesus have mercy’.

 

Another wisdom from our tradition, in this context, is that our preparations for Sunday should therefore also include a clarity on the intentions we bring.

Interior preparations, as described above, do matter.Our Sunday service is also then an opportunity to offer a most relevant personal intention.

This might be for ourselves, for a particular person or for a special cause.

Personally, I try to bring a loving awareness of those who I know are hurting. Sometimes visualising them as I pray ‘Jesus have mercy’.

Bringing a clarity of intention to our worship is in tune with the example of Anna and Simeon long ago. Their prayerful, purified intentions meant they were ready for the moment they beheld Jesus’ divine presence in the arms of Mary and Joseph.[Luke 2:22-40]

 

The demands of peacemaking in 2025 are evident to us all. To sustain our ministry ,we know our need for grace. Our Sunday worship together is so important as we prepare for what a new week as peacemakers may ask of us.

The prayerful, loving intentions we all bring to worship express our gratitude to God and help us be renewed for our peacemaking, hope-giving vocation.

I know my experience resonates with that of many. Namely,that the abiding Holy Spirit then gives us the guidance and illumination which clarifies how we can best contribute to peacefulness. Each week is thus full of little miracles,thanks be to God.

As my friend reflected after her retreat, God’s purely loving intention towards us all is so wonderful and so true.

Thus we keep the doors of the Church open and do our best in preparation so folk can find some divine hope and peace.

In the grace of God, I am so grateful that we have key parishioners of spiritual depth. It means we can therefore confidently put our new sign out the front!