Freedom of speech is a very important human right to be protected at all costs. Everyone should have the right to say what they feel about any subject. You may think they are wrong, evil, cruel, etc. but it will be out in the open and you can debate with them and give them your point of view. It is only through debate we can grow and if we are in the wrong, there is an opportunity to see another point of view and learn.

The statement: ‘ “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is attributed to Voltaire. Clearly, if we lose the right to say what we think then we are becoming a dictatorship of the minority. In the present times, there is a new ‘woke’ society. It calls itself ‘woke’ but how can it be woke if it shuts down arguments about new beliefs versus old beliefs by criticising people and not allowing them to voice their own deeply held opinions. Their wokeness only extends to what they think is right and no-one can have an alternative opinion or they are criticised and ostracised. It is good to see that Universities are now being forced to allow freedom of speech in their debates.

I believe our faith is under attack and has been for a while. Many of our beliefs run counter to where society is heading and we are being slowly and surely backed into a corner where we are being made to look as if we are in the wrong and should embrace this new religion of letting everyone do what they want to do if they feel it is right. No rules, no condemnation or we face criticism.

Many christians keep a low profile, sometimes to protect their livelihoods, and that is understandable, but a lot of us don’t speak out for fear of hurting others or going against popular opinion. It isn’t easy but we should be ready to debate with others about any statement that runs counter to what we believe. If we don’t stand up for our beliefs then we are turning our back on our faith and we are not helping others as we should debate and show them why we think what they believe is wrong.

It’s good to always be open to listen to others’ views, but also to not be afraid to voice our own.

God bless,

I have never known an era where there is so little privacy. So many talk about protecting our privacy and yet we are asked to provide quite personal details when we apply for jobs or make appointments at our doctors and I am sure there are many other situations where we have to give details we would never have dreamt of giving before.

When I ring my doctor, I have to tell a receptionist what the problem is and give my date of birth. They sometimes ask for this when I am standing in reception and I don’t know why I should have to tell everyone how old I am. I certainly don’t want to discuss my health issues with a receptionist on the basis that they vet who needs to see a doctor. They are not health specialists and I am appalled that they have this responsibility, let alone these private details.

When applying for a job I have to say my ethnicity and how I identify my sexuality. Outrageous and nothing to do with the jobs I apply for. You can refuse to answer of course but then you might not get selected for interview.

More and more our right to privacy is being slowly chipped away. Vast amounts of data are being kept about our shopping habits and if we belong to a social media site, I am sure there is a lot of information out there in the ether about how we behave, who our friends are, our schooling and lots more about where we live, work and our social standing.

The world is becoming a lot smaller and I think we have to fight against how much information we allow people to know about us. I don’t belong to Facebook, Instagram or any other social media sites because I want to protect my privacy. I think it is important to do this as you are unique. Your personal details shouldn’t be out there for everyone to see, or if you do need to belong to one of these sites then don’t put more information on them than is needed. You don’t own the rights to some of the things you share and should find out about being able to delete any details you give permanently.

Let’s retain our uniqueness and not become part of a crowd effect. Just because everyone else does it, doesn’t mean it is right for you.

Psalm 139: 1-18 beautifully sums up how unique we are to God: 

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.  Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,  even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”  even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts,God! How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. 

God bless you and may you cherish your uniqueness,

Reading newspaper stories about how some of the rich behave makes you wonder what it takes to make them happy. Having a lovely family and home doesn’t seem to be enough and often you read stories of divorce, criminal offences and depraved lives. That’s not to say that all wealthy people behave like that but money does seem to be ‘the root of all evil’ as publicised.

If you are given wealth you don’t appreciate it; if you strive for it you can often put being wealthy before family and friendships; if you have more than enough by anyone’s standards it seems to be like an addiction and you just want more.

Where are hearts are, there will our god be. If all we think about is money and possessions and having more, then we are worshipping money. Money can’t give you happiness, love or salvation and possessions can end up owning you. It can disappear, make you suspicious of people and alienate friends. Not a great god to worship.

We do need to have enough for our needs, but make sure that we are not storing up more than we need as that’s when avarice can get hold of us and drive us away from God.

Our God offers us a different kind of love in return for our worship. He gives us freedom, right relationship with others and hope for an eternal future.

In this connection I am reminded of the parable of the rich fool where Jesus talks about a rich man who had more crops than he could store and decided to build bigger barns. Then he would have everything he needed and could ‘relax, eat, drink and be merry’. However that night his life was going to be demanded of him. What would happen to his wealth then?

Luke 12:15

And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

God bless you and may you have all that you need and share your excess with those that don’t,

I went for my second AstraZeneca vaccination today; I don’t like any kind of vaccine and usually try not to have them even though I should. However, these vaccines are very important not just for my health but also to protect others and of course I will have whatever is recommended.

The staff were lovely and very efficient and I was thinking again about this idea of human courage. We have seen so many people lose their lives in the NHS especially in the early days when we didn’t have the right equipment and couldn’t possibly deal with a disease we knew so little about. They carried on regardless and many families have lost loved ones as a result. But what amazing selfless acts of giving to others.

Covid has also brought out the more seedy side of human nature and I can’t understand how anyone would want to make money out of such tragedy. Companies being set up to milk the Government of money for equipment and also to defraud the taxpayer by claiming furlough payments they aren’t entitled to.

This darker side of human nature is something we all have to face and fight; we all might be tempted to do something we know instinctively isn’t right but has some sort of short term gain or excitement about it. None of us are exempt: it is just that some are able to fight this so much more than others and those who do give into temptation need our prayers as much as those who manage to stay on ‘the narrow path’.

God bless you and may you choose the narrow gate – it leads to a much more joyful life here and the promise of eternity beyond,

Matthew 7:13-14

Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Human courage is astounding and we are far more brave than we think we can be when put under intense pressure. One of the greatest aspects of human nature is when someone is willing to give their lives for others.

I was reading about the life of a spy called Violette Szabo who spied for Britain in the Second World War, was captured, tortured and yet gave nothing away until finally she was shot. She was given a poem to learn so that she could use it to send and receive coded messages. It is one of the loveliest poems I have ever come across and until recently I thought she had written it about her husband who was killed in the war. Instead, it was written by her ‘codemaster’ Leo Marks who had lost his wife:

The life that I have

Is all that I have

And the life that I have

Is yours.

The love that I have

Of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have

Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years

In the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.

What an incredibly beautiful poem showing the depth of love this man had for his wife. It is very moving and he made it up just so that Violette would be able to send messages using a poem that wouldn’t have been known so that the code was harder to break.

This love that humans have for each other reflects the loving nature of God and is a small example of the depth of his love for us. How wonderful it is. We only touch upon the surface of this love.

God bless,

I don’t think any of us can help feeling that we are living in difficult and dangerous times. Unfortunately it seems that bad things looming on the horizon has been our lot and that of our ancestors – they also worried about plagues and wars and there doesn’t seem to have been that many long periods of peace and plenty.

I worry most of all for my sons and their future. What will the world look like when they are trying to work and bring up their families. Although climate change is very worrying so is the aggression building up in the world between countries.

I came across something that C S Lewis wrote and found it very reassuring. In his era the atomic bomb was a real worry and he wrote the following: If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds. (‘On Living in an Atomic Age’ 1948).

This is so right. We can’t change anything by worrying about it, but we can change our attitude towards it. We can live our lives normally each day and make the most of them and when something happens, let it do so without sucking away the precious days, months and years we have left.

Let’s give all of our worries to God and he will bring us peace.

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”

God bless you and may you be able to put away your worries and trust in him,

I started to bring my children to church from when they were babies. I had been away from the church for a long time, but when I had children I wanted them to be brought up in the same faith that I was. This drew me back to attending Mass again and I am so grateful that it did.

It isn’t easy to bring very young children to a service/mass as you can’t reason with them and you don’t want to make the experience unpleasant for them by constantly telling them off. I tried to distract them with books (there are lots of great books out there about the Bible suitable for children of all ages) and when they were very small, with a bottle of juice or some raisins. You have to strike a balance between their needs and the people around you. Most people do understand when you have a noisy child and they are sympathetic as they have probably been through it themselves. Don’t let the thought of disturbing others put you off coming to Church with your children – God wants all of us there no matter what the age.

Attending church every week should be part of their upbringing if you want them to also practice the same faith and develop their own relationship with God. Mixing with other children who are also of the same faith helps and many churches run groups and also have schools that are affiliated to them. It is never too young to start. They can’t make the choice to believe when they are adults easily because what can they base it on? Not all schools teach religious education well and it is also more difficult if they don’t know anything about attending a service.

I remembered speaking to another mother at school and she said that she didn’t bring her children because she was afraid they would be noisy and disturb the Mass. It is a great shame because I know it can be annoying to hear a sudden burst of screams so that you can’t hear the service but usually if the children are taken outside for a little while, they do calm down and you can return. It is worth persevering.

I remember being told off on a couple of occasions when my toddler got away from me – don’t let it put you off. Forgive them and continue on: it’s not for them to judge you.

Matthew 19:14

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 

God bless you and your children,

All of us can’t wait until life gets back to ‘normal’. Who knows what that is going to look like as possibly it won’t be the normal we remember. A lot of us tend to cling to what we know and don’t embrace change easily.

What I hope for is that we have learnt huge lessons from what has happened to our world. One of the biggest ones is that we all share it and what happens in one place can have a dramatic affect on all of us. We are one world, we share the same atmosphere and have the same responsibility for our actions and any affect we are having on others in any country in the world.

There is a tendency to think that if you are alright then it’s sad others aren’t, but then that is life for you. Covid changed that. We all shared in the fallout from some actions that brought about the pandemic and the spread of the results.

I hope we have all learnt to care about what happens to other people in far off countries as well as our own. We need to assess whether our actions are making the world better or worse; act where we can to challenge others’ behaviour that is damaging our world and pray for healing and renewal so that we all have a better world to live in.

God bless,

I think we are sometimes worried about bothering God with our smaller concerns. There is the idea that we should only pray for things like ill health, climate change, job worries, relationship difficulties, etc.

I once read about someone who constantly prayed whenever they wanted a parking space and had a special prayer they had made up for this. It seemed to work. I don’t know that I feel comfortable with that as it does seem such a minor worry and I don’t want God to be my parking attendant.

The sort of small concerns I am talking about are for example last weekend when we were due to celebrate my oldest son’s birthday. All weather reports for where we were meeting up with my other son suggested it was going to rain heavily with 40mph wind gusts. As we would be sitting outside on a pub veranda with no shelter, I was thinking about cancelling. I prayed that although the weather wasn’t due to be that great, that we could have a respite so that we could celebrate his birthday. Due to covid, everywhere was fully booked and it was our only chance to meet up and have a sit down drink and meal. I included others who were also planning special events that day. On the morning when I woke up it was heavy rain and wind and I almost cancelled, but I thought, why not trust in God to answer this prayer and see what happens. We got to the pub and sat down, the clouds were there and threatening, but all through the meal there was no rain and it was actually warm even though we were sitting beside the Thames. I could hear others singing ‘Happy Birthday’ and it was good to hear that they had managed to enjoy their special occasion too.

God does answer us in the small and the large wants we have and I have learnt not to think of him as only being interested in the bigger worries. He was certainly with us that day and I am so grateful.

God bless you and do trust him with those daily issues that you need help with as well as the bigger life concerns, he is listening and willing to help,

I often find that people tend to make a group of friends and they are content with that. They jealously guard that group and it is difficult to be accepted as one of them. Some of it is through fear of change, lack of self-confidence and a kind of need to guard against all incomers which might change the dynamic of the group.

I call it ‘groupism’ and it can be very alienating and unfriendly just as other types of ‘isms’ can. It is ok if you are in such a group and feel protected and loved, but as christians we should try not to do that and embrace all newcomers and welcome them. Some churches are said to be unfriendly because people try to join in but feel that they aren’t truly accepted because everyone seems to cling together in cliques and the friendliness is superficial.

Clinging to people you know and like is natural, but a challenge for us is to look out for everyone and let them know that they are welcomed and loved. One of my pet dislikes is when a group of people in the church take over and hog the background tasks. They don’t like to include others and are critical if anyone tries to join in and help. We should be on the lookout for this and try to involve people who might want to help but haven’t the confidence to muscle in and make their presence felt. Also opening up our house groups and meetings to all who are interested rather than filtering them into people we think will ‘fit in’ would be better.

It is easy to be around a group of friends we know and love, but we need to reach out and extend our friendship to those who seem to need help fitting in.

God bless you and reward you for your love of the stranger,