Clergy Notes — Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, July 16, 2023

For this week’s Reflection you will see I have chosen a piece about Mother Julian’s Hazelnut – her looking at a tiny hazelnut in her hand and then sensing God holding all creation in his hand.

This has led me to remind myself of the need to find time to slow down, to take notice of things around me, rather than to rush on in a constant state of busy-ness.  The creation is so beautiful, yet how often do I fail to see it, how often do I take it for granted.  This week I intend to make a conscious effort to be attentive to what I find around me, perhaps to focus for a few minutes each day on something which crosses my path:  it may be a flower, or the breeze rustling the leaves of a tree; a hummingbird or an eagle; the sunlight shimmering on the ocean or clouds skimming across the sky.  Who knows what might surprise me?

All these – and even you and me – are held, like the hazelnut, in the palm of the Creator who delights in all that he has made:  ‘God saw all that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.’  This same God invites us too to delight in the creation – and in one another!

Every blessing,
Fr Kevin

Download the Liturgy at Home booklet for Sunday, July 16, 2023