I have seen it standing up grey,
Gaunt, as though no sunlight
Could ever thaw out the music
Of its great bell; terrible
In its own way, for religion
Is like that. There are times
When a black frost is upon
One’s whole being, and the heart
In its bone belfry hangs and is dumb.
But who is to know? Always,
Even in winter in the cold
Of a stone church, on his knees
Someone is praying, whose prayers fall
Steadily through the hard spell
Of weather that is between God
And himself. Perhaps they are warm rain
That brings the sun and afterwards flowers
On the raw graves and throbbing of bells.
'The Belfry' by R. S. Thomas
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Image: An elderly Tibetan women holding a prayer wheel on the pilgrimage circuit of the Barkhor, a quadrangle of streets that surrounds the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa. It is both the spiritual heart of the holy city and the main commercial district for Tibetans.
Photo: Luca Galuzzi, August 2006 - www.galuzzi.it - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic licence.
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In St Mary’s prayer cycle for June 2020, today we pray for all those living in cramped conditions and without access to a green space.
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Please donate if you can!
In these unprecedented times, St Mary’s is reaching out and supporting our community in many ways, especially online. But with Services in church cancelled, we no longer receive income from collections, nor from hiring out the church and hall buildings.
If you can help us financially to continue to offer Christ's love to our community in these difficult times, as those before us have done down the centuries, please consider making a donation by debit/credit card and to Gift Aid it if possible, by clicking this link to 'givealittle':
Thank you!
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If you would like to contribute to these reflections, please do email Katherine Cox at kvcox-therapy@gmail.com
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