Yesterday's evening service was led by a religious sister who introdcued us to the icon of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, or Mary, Untier of Knots.  This icon, beloved of Pope Francis, evidently arises from a story of a couple whose marriage was in tatters and were seeking divorce (rather tricky if you are a Catholic!).  Their priest, to whom they had gone for guidance asked then to bring along their marriage ribbon which was crumpled and knotted.  (In their culture, the marriage ribbon was symbolically tied during the ceremony, a little like a celtic "handfasting" or even the practice to this day where Anglican priests bind the couple's hands with their stole as they pronounce them married).  As the priest began to smooth out the ribbon, it began to glow and he had a vision of Mary undoing the knots.

However we feel about Mary, this is a very gentle, lovely image to have in mind, and one that is surely helpful... we offer to God our knotted, crumpled, tattered lives, and God smooths, unties, mends them for us.  The paraclete we choose may be Sophia, God's Spirit wisdom, or Jesus, God's Christ, but the aim is the same.

We were all given little handmade bookmarks with the icon and a prayer, as follows:

Dear God:
Please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots,
the can nots and the do nots
that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,
may nots,
might nots that may find
a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,
would nots and
should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all,
Dear God,
I ask that you remove from my mind,
my heart and my life all of the 'am nots'
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought
that I am not good enough.
AMEN

Author: Father Ronnie Knott of Rhodelia, Kentucky

Whatever today or this week brings us, this prayer is helpful, as is the image of a gentle God who will

Take the time to call my name

Take the time to mend

Who I am and what I've been

All I've failed to tend

John Bell & Graham Maule (c) WGRG

Last night I woke up at about 4 a.m. to discover that I was sharing my bed with two cats!  Sasha has established her right to sleep by my feet, more or less taking over Holly's mantle, except that (thankfully) Sasha does not consider nibbling toes a fun activity.  Sophie is less confident and seems to sleep in shorter bursts, at one point lying half on and half off of my lower legs.

I am quite amazed how rapidly they have settled in and, apart from stealing cat treats, they are very well behaved.

This afternoon they are happily snoozing in the kitchen, each having purloined one of Holly's former snoozing places, so they clearly have impeccable taste.

I'm really enjoying getting to know them, and watching them settle in, and I look forward to many happy cat years to come.

...the wilderness is a place of preparation not a proving ground

This was part of the exploration we shared this morning as we looked at the two verses from Mark 1 that describe Jesus' sojourn in the wilderness.  Mention of satanic temptation is almost superfluous in what is, according to at least some scholars a "paradise" motif, whith Jesus not the "new Moses" but rather the "new Adam"  who comes to restore harmony and order between humanity and the rest of creation; the transformation of the wilderness being a constant theme in various Isaiah prophecies hinted at in these words.

Our own wilderness experiences, recast in this light, are therefore not tests of faith or trials to build character, let alone God's means of teaching us an object lessons.  God allows us to experience these times, and we be very afraid of the prowling creatures (literal or metaphorica) lurking there, but it is precisely in these places that God is at work beginning to fulfil the hope of salvation - whether or not we recognise it.

We thought also, this morning, of the 'valley of shadows' and of the shepherd who enters and travels through it with the "sheep".  These places are part of our experience and God enters the darkness with us, comforting and protecting us.

It was one of thoese sermons that had been fun to research and prepare  but seemed a bit ethereal when I came to deliver it... but the feedback was encouraging, showing that it is never about me, that the mysery that is preaching somehow "works" anyway.

It's just about 77 hours since Sophie and Sasha entered my home, two timid little cats, with a sad back story, who wondered what on earth they had let themselves in for.  Sasha, the white one, and younger of the two soon claimed the radiator bed and made herself at home, whilst Sophie, the tabby and older remained terribly shy.  Then yesterday an "aha" moment for Sophie as I fastened her collar and she discovered new confidence to start establishing her "rights" too.  By 48 hours or so, they were comfortably sleeping in full view, and now, in the above photo, taken just a few minutes ago, they are contentedly snoozing away.

The timing of the arrival of these two furry friends has been good, giving me something to think about apart form church in what has ended up as quite a demanding week one way and another.  Practically, with water ingress both at church and at home.  Pastorally, with several hours rightly devoted to important matters.  It's been essentially a good week, one where at the end I can look back and feel that I did OK, but I am tired.

Watching my kitties find their feet, explore their new home and start to purr has given me some needful balance and forced me to pause amidst the many and varied demands.

This morning was set aside for sermon prep, and I was having a ball, reading a commentary on the gospel of Mark, identifying ideas for my sermon, when I thought, "ooh, I wonder what the Hebrew verb actually is in Genesis 3."

Taking down my interlinear Hebrew Testament from the shelf, I realised it was somewhat soggy, indeed closer scrutiny revealed that two Greek textbooks and a Bible overview were equally affected, along with a pile of flags, bunting and miscellaneous other items.

So now the vestry resembles a cross between a Chinese laundry and some kind of Comonwealth-cum-British-cum Scottish nationalist headquarters, with flags and bunting draped over chairs and blower heaters drying them nicely.  Insurance will cover the cost of replacing the books which are, after all, just stuff... no one died, as the saying goes.  In the scheme of things, this is of zero consequence.

But, had I not wanted to check a Hebrew word (and I was correct, hurrah!) I would not have seen the soggy book, and had I not seen the soggy book, who knows how long it might have been before the water ingress was identifed and action taken?  Mysterious ways, methinks.

Church are on the case and have already contacted the insurers.  High winds mean the roof cannot be checked today, but it is all in hand.

Meanwhile, I suppose I had better get back to the sermon, or there will be silence for 20 minutes on Sunday!!