Morning Prayer Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Wild Bees
by John Clare
These children of the sun which summer brings
As pastoral minstrels in her merry train
Pipe rustic ballads upon busy wings
And glad the cotters’ quiet toils again.
The white-nosed bee that bores its little hole
In mortared walls and pipes its symphonies,
And never absent couzen, black as coal,
That Indian-like bepaints its little thighs,
With white and red bedight for holiday,
Right earlily a-morn do pipe and play
And with their legs stroke slumber from their eyes.
And aye so fond they of their singing seem
That in their holes abed at close of day
They still keep piping in their honey dreams,
And larger ones that thrum on ruder pipe
Round the sweet smelling closen and rich woods
Where tawny white and red flush clover buds
Shine bonnily and bean fields blossom ripe,
Shed dainty perfumes and give honey food
To these sweet poets of the summer fields;
Me much delighting as I stroll along
The narrow path that hay laid meadow yields,
Catching the windings of their wandering song.
The black and yellow bumble first on wing
To buzz among the sallow’s early flowers,
Hiding its nest in holes from fickle spring
Who stints his rambles with her frequent showers;
And one that may for wiser piper pass,
In livery dress half sables and half red,
Who laps a moss ball in the meadow grass
And hoards her stores when April showers have fled;
And russet commoner who knows the face
Of every blossom that the meadow brings,
Starting the traveller to a quicker pace
By threatening round his head in many rings:
These sweeten summer in their happy glee
By giving for her honey melody.
Good morning and welcome to Morning Prayer
The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and for ever.
Amen.
Breathe in
Breathe out
Be still…
I arise today,
embraced in the arms
of God the Father,
empowered by the strength
of God the Spirit,
immersed in the love
of God the Son.
I arise today
in the company
of the Trinity,
Father, Spirit and Son.
I arise today
Amen
Presence
Dear Lord, help me to be open to you
for this time as I put aside the cares of this world.
Fill my mind with your peace, Your Love.
Freedom
Lord, I pray for your gift of freedom.
May your Holy Spirit
guide those in power to work for
equality for all your people.
Consciousness
Lord you have called me ‘the light of the world’.
Let me be always conscious of those
you want me to serve,
The hungry and the homeless,
The sick and the destitute,
The stranger and the refugee.
THE WORD OF GOD
Psalm 25:8-9
Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
Isaiah 6:8
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
John 20:21-22
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’
WORDS OF WISDOM
‘The busy bee has no time for sorrow.’ William Blake
“I think I can hear bees in the Tower”; Sue, our café manager at the Hub @ St Peters had been in the bell ringing chamber and was visibly concerned. I opened the door into the spiral stairway that leads up through the tower and heard the drone of what seemed like a thousand, tiny bagpipes. I closed the door quickly.
“Let’s find a beekeeper”, I said. David, dressed in white and reminiscent of an angel, arrived a few days later. We entered the tower with David in the lead. The spiral of the stairs is so tight I soon lost sight of him. All of sudden, above a collective hum that had become thunderous, I heard him shout, “its massive”. I quickly turned and legged it down the stairs. As I went down, I thought to myself, ‘Simon, how courageous; not, you might be missing something here’.
So, I turned back and got just a glimpse of the bees crawling over the bottom of the comb. I did not wait to go further and see the full 6 feet of it. Eventually, having inspected, David, wide eyed, came down with a piece of the comb in his hand, dripping with honey. I have never tasted honey so good. This all happened last summer and David, who keeps an eye on them for us, and will help us to protect them, informed us that our bees were a rare, indigenous, black bee and in this instance the swarm was free of disease.
Humans have always been fascinated by bees. The transformation of pollen into natures sweetest gift. Their collective industry and order. The way they dance out, for fellow bees, directions to pollen. I love the way they belong together, their acceleration and freedom in flight. That freedom though, is restrained and the life of the planet depends on it. It was Einstein who said; ‘If bees disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.’
I have wondered what it must be like, to be continually busy with one task. Are they envious of our freedom to dream, and to choose not to pursue that one task only? The swarm and the nest are places of pure belonging but bees show no yearning for anything else. Despite the rich diversity of species, bees inhabit a monoculture of belonging that keeps the earth in equilibrium. In contrast we can belong in diverse ways.
The pandemic, however, has meant many of our experiences of belonging have dried up. As a result, we have a heightened sense of longing. A yearning to belong. Having had so much withdrawn, we have become acutely aware of the importance of belonging, to our imaginations, to each other, and to the earth. To be betrayed, which is to be told you do not belong, is one of the deepest wounds we experience. Belonging to a place and a people is not merely an attachment but something we feel in the marrow of the soul. Our wholeness of identity is cradled, not in status or possession, but in belonging. Many, in a disenchanted, disenfranchised world, feel they do not belong and over- compensate with blood and soil tribalism, a fractured belonging, based on perceived difference.
Our freedom to follow the call of our longing ought only be pursued if it is part of the rich diversity of belonging that gathers in every living being. But our longing to belong should be celebrated. There are those whose thirst for contentment and joy is quenched by belonging and who, as a consequence, possess a brightness. Yet, even within a sense of deep contentment, we still experience moments of longing that arise from dissatisfaction. With hindsight, I can see that I have tried to sate these specific longings, through the rose – tinted glasses of nostalgia, through the instant accumulation of possessions and through attempts to over manage the future.
The feeling, that is like a dislocation of the heart, always returns and it’s as if a part of us can never fully belong to another, or to a place, or even to the earth. Perhaps the best way to live with the longing that is tinged with unease, is to embrace it as natural, and to welcome the longing as a foundation for wisdom. To trust our longing, is to acknowledge it might be a sign that we belong to something that encompasses the earth but is far greater. For many, this trust has been the beginning of a search for home.
A realisation we maybe pilgrims who began walking from eternity towards eternity. A longing for union or completion, which St Paul says we share with the whole of the cosmos:
That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next.
Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. [Romans 8: 18-22 from The Message translation of the Bible]
Our longing may be for a healed creation, a land of milk and honey, a dream we share with the earth. Our longing as anticipation; a foreshadowing of a dream already realised.
Revd Simon Lockett
PRAYERS & INTERCESSIONS
We pray for the world…
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.
We pray for the universal church of Christ…
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.
We pray for one another and all those known to us…
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
May God the Father
prepare your journey,
Jesus the Son
guide your footsteps,
The Spirit of Life
strengthen your body,
The Three in One
watch over you,
on every road
that you may follow.
Amen
THE BLESSING
May your day be blessed
by moments of quietness,
light in your darkness,
strength in your weakness,
grace in your meekness,
joy in your gladness,
peace in your stillness.
May your day be blessed
AMEN
Thank you for join us…have a wonderful day!
Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga
