Thoughts and reflections

Category: church seasons Page 1 of 9

Snowdrops

A New Beginning

Let’s take a tiny thing… the snowdrop… Lots now flowering in our churchyards, a flower of winter, and a herald of Spring. How uplifting it is to see their beautiful and tiny white flowers appear through the ground and make carpets of flower in January and February. The beginning of our year. They represent purity. Light and peace.

Snowdrops are a first sign, a promise that spring is on its way, sometimes called Candlemass Bells.

Read more in Sermons 2023

Rev’d Sue Martin

Christmas

 

Christmas and so many years ago Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. The shepherds on the hillside were the first visitors. The Magi came from the east as they followed the star. Why didn’t he appear amongst wealth and fortune like other kings?
He was born to be amongst us, to be with all people, and especially for those most in need.
And one of the best things to do this Christmas is in some way to remember and help people where life is hard.
So turn on the lights, eat the mince pies, deck the hall with bows of holly but don’t forget what it’s really about. Happy Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas is Coming!

St Mary’s East Walton, West Norfolk

The last of the shopping, the final decorations, how many more lights can we have?

Watching the night skies when it has been so cold and the night skies have shimmered with stars have been amazing. Jupiter has been shining bright in the evening sky. How much brighter it would have shone on that Christmas Eve before Jesus was born as it moved towards an alignment with Saturn and the star Regulus.

A time for awe and wonder, a time to experience how large is the universe and how small our part plays, but yet for each one of us we are important to God.

Mary and Joseph would have been approaching Bethlehem so many years ago, the city would have been seen under the same sparkling sky.

Let’s journey together under the same starry skies.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Advent Sunday

St Mary’s East Walton

Advent means the arrival or the coming.

Just as it’s getting darker and darker with the nights getting longer and longer, we start thinking about the light of the world;

All out of darkness there came light…

The light of the world has come among us to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light from the collect.

What does that mean, the works of darkness, the armour of light?

Read more in Advent 2022...

Harvest Services with Schools

Harvest services from our schools have filled the churches. Way beyond our expectations. Churches bursting at the seams. Food donations piled high at the font and the altar. All ready to be taken to the town food bank.

Children’s voices raised the roof. Prayers read and stories told.

What more could I add than just the biggest thank you from the depths of my heart for bringing back the love, laughter and joy to church.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Epiphany 1

Arise and shine for your light has come ! Isaiah chapter 60:1

How hard it is to emerge from the darkness, the long dark nights and the cold wet days. What a joy the sunrises and sunsets and the days we have had where the sky is blue and we can feel the strength of the sun, that bright shining star that we depend on to survive.

Some time in the surf would be just the thing!

So, moving on from Christmas and into Epiphany, the time when the light shines on us all as we realise that the day has dawned when Jesus is with us for ever. The greatest ever moment of Epiphany.

Read more in Epiphany…

Advent 1 November 28th

The light shines in the darkness

Candle Light in St Mary’s East Walton. Norfolk  by Sue Martin

Advent means the arrival or the coming.

Just as it’s getting darker and darker with the nights getting longer and longer, we start thinking about the light of the world;

All out of darkness there came light,…

The light of the world has come among us to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light from the collect.

What does that all mean, darkness, the works of darkness, the armour of light?     Read more in Advent 2021

Rev’d Sue Martin

Ascension Day 13th May 2021

Ephesians 1:15-23

Acts 1:1-11

‘A cloud took him out of their sight

And so the disciples were left behind, and returned to Jerusalem. Once again they had to say goodbye to Jesus and were even more aware that they needed to be going out into the world to spread the word.

The cloud often appears in the Bible and can be seen as the way that God appears in a veil of cloud. How often do you stand looking at fluffy white clouds and make them into amorphous shapes?

A cloud took him out of their sight…

This is where the distance between heaven and earth comes close. It is hard to visualise and explain this concept, it can be described as like cutting through paper with a knife and finding yourself in another place, at certain points in our world we can feel closer to God and heaven.

We hope that many of our churches are in such places, but it can also be a place in the countryside or a spot in a town, somewhere where you do feel closer to God.

Read more in Sermons 2021

Happy Christmas


When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman 1899-1981

Happy Christmas!

Rev’d Sue Martin

Happy Christmas

And all the bells on earth shall ring

On Christmas Day

On Christmas Day

And all the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day

In the Morning

Happy Christmas to All

Rev’d Sue Martin

 

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