“Seed of Restoration, reach into the layers of my past year. Bring into view the positive gifts that I have missed due to clouded expectations & unwanted experiences. Soften the inner places that have been hardened by hurt. Warm the cold ground of dormant hope. Seed of Curiosity, widen my vision of how life is to be received. Keep me open to what the hidden confines of my soul have yet to reveal. Nudge me to be inquisitive, to be ready for the surprises that awaken the wisdom waiting within me. Seed of Insight, expand my ideas & thoughts so the lessons of your love keep influencing the way I think & act. Visit me with unexpected turns of understanding & perception . Urge me to be transformed into an ever more gracious & caring person. Seed of Equanimity, disperse anxious remnants of fear & concern. Strengthen me to free them from my tight grasp. Like a seed planted in the soil, encourage my surrender into your abiding presence. When I wait with uncertainty, draw your enduring tranquillity into my heart. Seed of Happiness, enter the grey spaces in which I lose sight of joy. Awaken enthusiasm. Loosen whatever restrains my spirit from life-giving energy. Release gloom when it wraps around me. Let it slide off like the shell of a seed giving way to a greening shoot. Seed of Unity, touch my heart to the suffering of others through each kind thought & caring deed. Let compassion spread like droplets of rain seeping into the soil of humanity. Thank you for your life resonating in the heartbeat of our co-existence on planet Earth. May there be peace. “
“like the gift of a seed, the new year is placed into our hands. It beckons us to approach the unknown future with a spirit disposed to growth, to realise pre-conceived notions on how the year ought to look or what it is supposed to produce. So much of future transformation will depend on care-fully tending this life, & keeping a hope-filled outlook. We are no more able to force a desired specific change than we are able to hurry a seed forth from the ground. Like Mary of Nazareth who “kept all these things, pondering on them in her heart” the new year insists on our mindfully receiving its unfolding, with trust that there will be growth aplenty for us.” [Joyce Rupp ; January 2019]
Thank you all who came to celebrate our New Years Day Mass on the feast of Mary of Nazareth, Mother of God, last Tuesday, & to pray specially for Fr Dominic who died in York District Hospital in the early hours of the morning. He was one of those few “wise senpectae” St Benedict’s refers to in his Rule, wise seniors, who are so crucial in the life & wellbeing of any Community & family, whose gentle presence & stability makes them available to offer spiritual understanding wisdom & encouragement to those younger & less experienced, having been there & learned themselves through success mistake & failure. He was a warm loyal & gracious servant of our Parish over many years, & gave of his teaching & leadership experience on the Governing Body of St Benedict’s Primary School with gentleness & clarity. I spent two precious hours with him, having heard him fall on the evening of 10 December, as he was tended by our own Infirmary Staff & then five paramedics. He asked if he & I could pray. I thought naturally we would pray for him; Fr Dominic felt his pain differently “Bede, let us pray for all those who, at this moment, are in more pain than I am”. He also asked for a list of all our Community & beginning with Fr Aidan & in alphabetical order, he & I prayed for each one by name. Please keep him in your prayers, & also Clare Jennings, his cousin Fr Matthew, & the many others for whom he was a rock of dependability cheerfulness & realism in faith & life. With my love & prayers, Fr Bede.