Opening
Prayer: You call us, O Lord, to care for those around
us tenderly and gently, like a mother nurturing her children. It is the call to love faithfully,
sacrificially, and unconditionally. Give
us the grace and the strength and the courage to do just that. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8
Journal: Who are the folks who led you to faith in Christ? What did they do? How were they gentle among you, like a
mother caring for her children?
Reflection:
A few moments later I realised my
mistake. Some kind of procession was
approaching us, and the light came from the persons who composed it.
First came bright Spirits, not
the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers—soundlessly falling,
lightly drifting flowers, though by the standards of the ghost-world each petal
would have weighed a hundred-weight and their fall would have been like the
crashing of boulders. Then, on the left
and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys upon
one hand and girls upon the other. If I
could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who read that
score would ever grow sick or old.
Between them went musicians; and after these a lady in whose honour all
this was being done.
I cannot now remember
whether she was naked or clothed. If she
were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy
and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train
that followed her across the happy grass.
If she were clothed, then the illusion of nakedness is doubtless due to
the clarity with which her inmost spirit shone through the clothes. For clothes in that country are not a
disguise; the spiritual body lives along each thread and turns them into living
organs. A robe or a crown is there as
much one of the wearer’s features as a lip or an eye.
But I have forgotten. And only partly do I remember the unbearable
beauty of her face.
“Is it? . . . is it?” I
whispered to my guide.
“Not at all,” said he. “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she
lived at Golders Green.”
“She seems to be . . . well,
a person of particular importance?”
“Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and
fame on Earth are two quite different things.”
“And who are these gigantic
people . . . look! They’re like emeralds
. . . who are dancing and throwing flowers before her?”
“Haven’t ye read your
Milton? A thousand liveried angels
lackey her.”
“And who are all these young
men and women on each side?”
“They are her sons and
daughters.”
“She must have had a very large
family, Sir.”
“Every young man or boy that
met her became her son—even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her
back door. Every girl that met her was
her daughter.”
“Isn’t that a bit hard on
their own parents?”
“No. There are those that steal other
people’s children. But her motherhood
was of a different kind. Those on whom
it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. (The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis)
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Help us, O Lord, to give ourselves in ministry
to others in the same way you gave yourself for us.
