Prayer for the Week
w/c 7th September 2024
This month is a Season for Harvest Festivals and as we look at all the abundant fruits and vegetables that have been growing ready for this season, may we give thanks and praise to God for the Sunshine and the Rain that helps them to grow. I can remember fantastic harvest Services in my childhood when my Mum would prepare a shoe box the day before for my brother and myself to carry to the front of the Church. In one half was potatoes, carrots, runner beans and in the other half was apples, plums, tomatoes and blackberries. She used to lay them so precisely in the boxes on tissue paper and make sure they were not toppling over the edge (in case we dropped them or spilt them when taking them to the front). The whole Church was decorated with vegetables, fruit and flowers of every colour and description you could think of. The whole church looked wonderful. Over the past 5 years or so our Church donates to the local food bank and somehow the decorations in the Church do not feel or look the same as my memories. The food content is the same as so many tins contain the necessary food for nourishment and fulfillment but the table looks so different. How things have changed over the years but it is good we still share what we have with others and that is God’s Love through our food. We used to have a faith lunch at Church and share what we had with others in the Church and enjoy talking while eating which is usually a very sociable time so we get to have conversations with people we may not speak to every week. Now we have a faith tea as our harvest is in the afternoon but it is still the same …………sharing what we have with others and having conversations around the table………….just as Jesus did with his disciples when having supper. It is good that we can socialise on special occasions as well as Worship and Praise God for all his goodness to each one of us.
PRAYER: All Good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above so Thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his Love. We thank you for the gifts of nature Lord and we praise you for the friends around our tables. May we have conversations that flourish our faith, feed our friendships and fortify our feelings. Amen.
Rita Rowe – Trustee for Lincolnshire and East Anglia
