蜜芽传媒

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Philip Blackledge of Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church, Melrose.
Good morning. The rural parish in the Borders where I live and work has many advantages. It鈥檚 always beautiful, our towns all have their own identity, and it doesn鈥檛 take long in a place like this before you become a 鈥渨eel kent face鈥� and you feel part of the community. But the issues which face people in large towns and cities are all here too. Our foodbank serves hundreds of people each week, there is terrible poverty and drug misuse, and loneliness particularly among the elderly can be crippling, especially if you are in isolated communities without transport. Sometimes I visit people and find I am the only person they have seen for weeks.

When I lived in the city I used to yearn for quiet and solitude. But the quiet that for some people provides comfort can for others be oppressive and lonely beyond words.

I spent a year living in a Franciscan friary when I was younger, and the silence of prayer there felt like a blessed relief 鈥� for the first few months. Then it started to get oppressive, isolating, lonely. I realised that for those long silent hours, there was only me and God in the room 鈥� and I didn鈥檛 really know who either of those people was.

Eventually I came to realise that I didn鈥檛 need to. In the end, what matters most is not that I know God, but that God knows me. The most transformative thing you can do for someone is to show them that you understand how they feel. Sometimes we can lose ourselves in the isolation, and sometimes in the busyness of life. It鈥檚 easy to be lonely during the busy times as well as the quiet ones.

So in the prayer of Baron Astley before the battle of Naseby, I pray 鈥� 鈥淟ord, you know how busy I have to be this day. If I forget you, do not forget me鈥�. Amen.