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Good morning.

The waters of Venice lagoon are getting clearer and cleaner.  The cruise ships have gone, and fish are swimming there again. Even dolphins.  Imagine that.

I do, very often now.  It’s a green shoot of life and hope, just like strangers taking food to strangers and people singing from windows, and doctors and nurses working all hours, and the strong trying to protect the vulnerable.  And a thousand other acts of kindness and resilience in these shaken, fearful times.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.   Palm Sunday – that day when everything looked just fine to the disciples and the crowds, the day of celebration and the coming of the kingdom. They had no idea what an overturning of their lives was to come. But neither could they ever imagine the mighty transformation which would also happen. When the light returned. 

I found some words by John Masefield which resound with the deep, precious order of the natural world we long for.  From his poem, Passing Strange.

For all things change, the darkness changes….
The corn is gathered to the granges…
The corn is sown again, it grows;
The stars burn out, the darkness goes;
The rhythms change, they do not close.

God – we pray for energy and purpose this morning, and give thanks for everyone working to help and heal and comfort.  Lighten our fears and our fearful realities and be present now, we pray.   In Jesus' name, Amen.