Reflections

Updates from Whirlow

Shelter from the Storm

What storms are you aware of at the moment? What emotional, physical or societal bombardments might be affecting you or others you hold dear? Today’s reflection dwells on one of the bible’s sacred songs and wonders what we do when feeling overwhelmed.

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Beauty in Hard Places

Our endurance of hard times can depend on moments of beauty or inspiration. These are often very small features of a day, barely noticeable to anyone outside our frame of reference. Where might you look for such things in the ‘everyday’?

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Ending Well

Transitions and goodbyes are unsettling and at times very painful. We need to allow ourselves to process feelings and shocks contained in endings - but not let those harden our hearts or affect our ability to trust people and the Universe moving forward. A short paragraph in the New Testament, in which Jesus bids his friends farewell, is revealing.

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Courage to Be

Courage is a virtue - but some of us are wary of being exhorted to adopt it. If a person or group with power over us pressurises us to ‘be brave’ it can suggest to us that we need to do or be more than we are; or should adopt agenda we do not instinctively share. Today’s reflection invites us to spend some time with scripture and with ourselves, to discern where good or godly courage fits into our lives.

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Making Space to Recover

Gospel writer Luke recounts stories of the ‘Jesus encounters’ following Christ’s resurrection. As evidence, they are important - we want belief founded on reason. But these testimonies are not ‘proofs’. They are told experiences of a community in trauma. What might we learn from them?

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After a resurrection.... what next?

The period after Easter in the Christian year speaks of hopes fulfilled and dreams realised. It is also ok to feel a strange anti-climax; an uncertainty about what to do with the freedom we have been given; a trepidation about stepping into the light….. This reflection encourages us to hold our nerve and do just that.

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Called to Hope

The first week of Eastertide: Christians celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection. Sorrow and desolation at a brutal crucifixion are replaced with hope and joy. An inextinguishable light of love breaks through the darkness, reaching out to each of us personally, eternally, regardless of our history or circumstances. In this reflection we ask, what is the hope I am offered?

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Power Games

As we approach Holy Week, there is a sense of irresistible, looming darkness in the Gospel chapters. What do Jesus’ responses to his situation teach us?

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Rediscovering the World of Dreams this Lent

A homicidal ruler and a last-minute escape from the jaws of death are featured in today’s scripture - but it is in the realm of dreams, beneath those surface events, that we wander for inspiration. Could that landscape feature on your Lenten journey?

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Uproar..... Stillness.

During this past year, much of the news we have received is about chaos, violence and struggle.

And … there have been images of quiet city centres and motorways; of people enjoying a spacious walk.It has been a time of contrasts.

A sacred song from the Hebrew bible mirrors those and, along with a poem by D.H. Lawrence, gives us food for thought.

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Come As You Are

Today we are invited to bring the truth of ourselves into our spiritual and religious practices - and the all-too-common hypocrisy practiced in those arenas is condemned. It is easier said than done to bring our full selves into a place of public encounter and worship.

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