蜜芽传媒

A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan

Good morning.
鈥楽olicitor wife attacks vicar husband with scissors in broad daylight鈥�.
Not a headline from a certain kind of newspaper.
In fact a description of what happened to me last Saturday.
Barbers and hairdressers only reopened in Northern Ireland yesterday, but last weekend my wife could wait no longer.
The garden seemed the most practical makeshift salon and thankfully our twelve sets of neighbours with a grandstand view resisted the temptation to take pictures 鈥� so far as I know.

Because close contact services, so-called, are usually delivered with at least a degree of privacy.
We don鈥檛 know how or where King Nebuchadnezzar was restored to order when the Old Testament book Daniel tells us his hair grew as long as eagles鈥� feathers and his nails became like birds鈥� claws.

But take the bodily anointing of Jesus in the New Testament.
Likewise, the washing of the disciples鈥� feet during the Last Supper, when Jesus wrapped the towel around his waist and did the needful.
I鈥檝e always felt drawn into the intimacy of these physical encounters, that sense of personal and 鈥� for the Lord 鈥� sacred space, tenderly and lovingly invaded.

A scene in this year鈥檚 Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain had much the same effect on me.
Agnes, the struggling alcoholic mother, lets her doting little boy Shuggie scrape at the old nail polish on her toes.
His attention feels to her 鈥渓ike a penny in an empty meter鈥�.

We pray for those who have felt so deprived this last year
of these priceless ministries of touch,
which meant so much to Christ
and speak to our inmost being of grace bountifully given
and grace unworthily received. Amen