My Dear Friends,
"Think all a mother should be, she was that." As I mentioned to those of you who were at church last Sunday, this is what is written on one of the grave stones at Oak Lane Cemetery, a photo of which is included here. For those of you who wish to see it for yourselves, it is in the north west section of the Cemetery, on the far right hand side as you go in through the gate, just near the blackberries!
"Think all a mother should be, she was that." Motherhood offers us a potent image of nurturing love, compassionate care, someone from whom we learn the first lessons of how to behave. Many of us, myself included, have an overwhelmingly positive experience of motherhood, others are not so fortunate. But what Christians have been offered for centuries is Mary, patron saint of our church, mother of Jesus, as a positive example of motherhood and also the assurance of her continuing presence and prayer as part of how God chooses to use us in this life and the next.
For some years, many congregants of St Mary`s have been making pilgrimage to Walsingham during the month of September. At a time when the Church was hugely bureaucratic and concerned with doctrinal formulae, Mary appeared to a young woman named Richeldis in Walsingham and instructed her to have constructed a simple building, of roughly the same dimensions as her house at Nazareth in which the young Jesus was brought up, stripping through all the rules and regulations of religion, and inviting the people of God to come to a simple building where they were assured of God`s listening love and experience for themselves the embrace of God`s acceptance, understanding and compassionate care.
And we at St Mary`s have similarly been called to be a womb-like space at the heart of our community, where the presence of Christ can be experienced. We too are asked of God to bring forth His presence and to celebrate the power of His love through attentive listening to the scriptures; through receiving the touch of the sacraments upon our bodies and our souls; through our encouragement, support and friendship with one another and through the welcome we offer to all who find their way to us.
We are called to called to be a nurturing, accepting, forgiving, empowering, creative, compassionate and believing force at the heart of Twickenham. This coming weekend at our Patronal Festival, as we recall the example and presence of Mary, we will remind ourselves of our calling by Christ to allow our church to be filled with His life-giving Spirit, His unconditional gift of love, His transforming message of a truth that sets people free. And you and I are called not just to celebrate and give thanks for that, but to offer ourselves to be part of that "making real of Christ." We, like Mary, are required to allow the Word to become flesh through our living out of the faith we hold dear. May be do exactly that, though our encouragements and support of one another, through our faithfulness to prayer and praise, and with the intercession of Mary and the influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
With blessings and best wishes
Jeff