This morning's Gospel was John 14:15-21. Hearing it read carried me back to high school, when I sang in a wonderful choir of teens in my grandparents' Methodist church. Thomas Tallis set the text to music, and I commend to you several recordings on YouTube. I really liked one recorded by the King's Singers, each from their six separate homes, during covid lockdown. What a wonderful message for times of trial. Here is the anthem as today's prayer:
If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter.
That He may 'bide with you forever,
E'en the spirit of truth.
The word 'abide' keeps coming up in my life, in music, in blessings, in texts. These unplanned word plants usually mean I could benefit by meditating on the word, its commonly held meaning, and what it might mean as a guidepost in my life. What does it mean for you to abide in me and me in you? Let us sit with that awhile.
We've just learned our priest is leaving in June. It's given me a wide range of emotions to process (many of which aren't positive), so perhaps I need to spend more time abiding in the Word and in prayer. We join you with too many parishes in our diocese seeking a full-time rector!!
ReplyDelete