This afternoon I set of on my walk and realised en route that I hadn't picked up my phone.  I still took the route I had intended, and went to Kelvingrove arriving just in time to nip into the shop to buy a few postcards before the organ recital.

If there was a word for today I think it was 'remembering.' Remembering a childhood visit more than 40 years ago.  Remembering that this was somewhere my Mum and her friends would come.  Remembering other times and other visits with friends of my own.

Advent is also a time of remembering... whether it's our own memories, or the stories that inform our lives, or a mix of the two.  It's about looking back, and about looking forward.  So perhaps a little bit of a nostalgia trip was no bad thing.

This morning we completed our short series of services loosely linked to the theme of 'shame and...'  Its been challenging, demanding and important in roughly equal measure.  I know, because they have told me, that for some people the things that have been shared have been helpful, encouraging, freeing, and that more than makes it all worthwhile.

We ended the reflection time by affirming and encouraging ourselves and each other with a simple mantra, from Psalm 139:14...

I am fearfully and wonderfully made...

To those around us: you are fearfully and wonderfully made

Together: we are fearfully and wonderfully made

As we thought of everyone else we know or encounter: they are fearfully and wonderfully made.

I am tired, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, but it's a good kind of tired, the sort that arises from a sense of achievement, of having taken on a challenge and seen it through.  So, yes, I am fearfully and wonderfully made - and I done good!

Today's reflection moved away from Brendan to focus on a couple of illuminated manuscripts though, annoyingly, they were not in the book, rather there was a suggestion to look for them online! So I pinched this image of part of the Chi Rho at the start of the Lindisfarne gospels, which is beautiful, intricate and intriguing.  Hopefully, having the image helps to make more sense of the prayer for today:

Cosmic Christ, as I prepare to enter the story of your incarntion, may I know the sense of your presence with me.  As the beauty and intricate details on the the Chi Rho pages flow, may I know a sense of your Spirit flowing within me.  Draw me into the beauty and detail of creation.  May I see as you see.  May I feel as you feel.  May I love as you love.  Amen.