“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:7-10)
The Lord be with you!
St Dominic founded a school of preachers, in contrast to other Orders who lived in cloisters, his “preachers” were travelers, moving around preaching wherever they went. He also built the entire ministry on prayer and 10 years before he established the Order, he had a community of Nuns, whose life was focused on prayer.
We need to learn from this and establish our own pattern of witness and worship on the same two principles. As we thank God for the life and teaching of St Dominic, so we give of ourselves to be prayerful preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As St Francis said – “preach always and use words if necessary.” St Dominic focused on preaching against heresy and we too should do the same. We are surrounded by false ideas of God and of the world we live in. Our focus on revival these last weeks has hopefully led us to fervently pray for a change of heart of the church and of ourselves. As Christians we are called to be constantly reforming our actions as individuals and as a community.
Constantly repenting, of where we go wrong and constantly seeking to do only what is right.
In this world of complete uncertainty, one thing we can be sure of and that is that no matter what is going on around us we are to approach it with Hope, Joy and Peace. Think back to the Advent journey and how we focused on following God’s guidance to Christ. Although we travel through uncertainty and even tragedy, God is leading us to His new creation.
We are under great threat as a community and the objective is to hold together the body of believers in a prayerful, supportive and effective manner. We need to reshape our pattern of worship and interaction as the community. Over the next few weeks, we are going to be setting up some new opportunities for pastoral care, teaching, and ministry. By September, these ministries need to be ready to be rolled out. Please pray that the revival that we have been focusing on will take shape in our lives and in our community.
Be assured of my love and prayers.
Choose faith not fear!
Rector
Feast of St Dominic.
