Hello Faith Pals,
A sunny Monday morning! It will be a fine day.
I know some of you have seen the clip below. Geoff forwarded it to me, and I had another friend who did the same earlier in the week! It is doing the rounds, but is beautiful and it will put a song in your heart and you may even do a little dance or some toe tapping-within the home it can go on for more than an hour!
A COVID-19 musical classic: https://enchantmentathamilton.org/20200601ForTheLongestTime.mp4
The clip attached is from Margaret’s daughter, who is living in Canada. Beautiful!
I also have some more gems to share on Friday.
One thing about Covid, is that it is allowing some wonderful creativity to happen-as well as many acts of kindness.
Last Friday, while driving over to the Epworth hospital, (some of you may not remember what driving is like! And yes, I had a letter in the glove box to say I was allowed outside the 5 km range!) I listened to a short interview with a person who had designed special medical t.shirts for children in hospital. He was a tradie, and about a year after his daughter was born, she was admitted to hospital with cancer. As he was trying to change her clothes after she had been sick, he realized that a new garment needed to be designed, to help with all the iv lines etc and to decrease movement, as she was in pain every time she was moved. After some time the father, who admitted that as a tradie he knew nothing about textiles! came up with a t shirt that had little plastic press buttons. He had tried velcro, zips, ties etc. This new garment meant that it could be fastened around iv drips, central lines etc. He also wanted to try to empower children to be brave. He said it was hard to explain to a young child what being brave was. His 3 year old son came out in a batman costume, and said he was going to save his ittle sister. Then the dad had the idea of creating the t shirt as a super hero garment-because the child would take on the persona of the superhero-and therefore act brave, even if they couldn’t explain what that feeling/quality was.
And the t shirts, complete with capes (which double up as bibs!) were born! What an amazing dad-but we all know of similar stories where things were invented, or cures found etc because of a need.
News: we need to keep all in our prayers. I spoke to Ed Bahn’s wife, Lyn, over the weekend. It is particularly hard-on Sunday afternoons Lyn would drop off a package to Ed-a magazine, a puzzle, a small posy of flowers from the garden. These things helped Ed through the week. Yesterday Lyn was told they can no longer take in outside parcels, so that is hard news to hear-understandable-but hard. She does get some ‘face-time’ with Ed on a Thursday, which is good. At times it is difficult, because Ed is so hard of hearing-but at least they can see each other. At present, no cases in that facility, which is good news.
Fiona’s mum, who is in an aged care facility, has a painful lower leg, which is being treated as a strained muscle. Her regular dr is in isolation at present. Fiona said that there is an unwell resident in the facilty, so all residents are confined to their rooms until the test results are back. Hard times for family members.
We have quite a number of the church family in aged care, so our prayers are with them. I spoke to Joan Addinsall yesterday, and she sends her love to everyone.
Tomorrow is the Feast of St Clare of Assisi. She was a dear friend and companion of St Francis (my pin up saint) and she founded a community of women committed to poverty and service; they wore no shoes, ate no meat, slept on the ground, and owned nothing. Francis and Clare embraced lives that were about daily communion with God, a simple life without anxiety about material possessions, a life of nonviolence and harmony with all creation. They embraced the poor and rejected, and found joy in this radial way of living. We have so much to learn from them. I think during lockdown we are becoming more mindful of God in the midst of a simplifed life.
What I love is that in 1958, St Clare became the patron saint of television! She was chosen because of this legend/incident: in 1253 Clare was too sick to leave her cell, unable to attend Christmas midnight Mass. When she heard the nuns singing, she prayed, and on the wall before her she saw the manger in Bethlehem! Was this the first flat screen?
To conclude with the Serenity Prayer. Most of us are familiar with the first part (in the original, it is more likely to have been: “Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.” but was later altered) but we may not be as familiar with the rest of it:
The Serenity Prayer – Reinhold Niebuhr
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
‘Every generous act of giving. with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ (James 1: 17)
Blessings and love,
Barbara Allen
0413 389 865
