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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with the Reverend Dr Stephen Wigley.

Good morning.

Today is World Blood Donor Day and this year’s theme is ‘Give freely, give often’. The Day itself has been around since 2004 and is a reminder of the urgent need for blood donors and donations to support the hospital operations on which so many people depend. And being a blood donor has been a part of my story since I gave my first pint as a student in early 1980’s. Since then, I have given some 70 pints in a variety of settings from the Royal British Legion, to Sports centres, to a Hall in my own Church, and most recently, at a local Rugby Club. I have attended sessions with different people of all sizes, ages, and backgrounds. And I was surprised to learn that although I have a very common blood type, O positive, there is a strong demand for it. That it is value is precisely because it is so common, and can be mixed with other rarer blood types.

It's been a good thing to do, for it strikes me that giving blood is something of a secular sacrament. As a Christian, I’m reminded that this is a theme which goes to the heart of what Jesus did when he shared the Last Supper with his disciples, breaking bread and sharing wine as a life-giving symbol of what he would do as he shed his blood on the Cross.
Now, there’s no sharing of bread and wine in a blood donor session, though we’re all offered a drink and a biscuit at the end; but we will be sharing in a precious enterprise which can sustain and restore life.

Loving Lord, in Jesus’ willingness to shed his blood on the cross we see the depth of your love for us; today we give thanks for all who support and sustain the various Blood services, so that their blood donations may offer new life to others.

Amen.