Vicar's Letter

Revd. Keith Thornborough

Dear Friends,

We continue in the wonderful season of Eastertide during May. On Thursday 9th, sometimes called Holy Thursday, we celebrate our risen Lord’s Ascension into heaven, forty days after Easter, the day of resurrection. We then move.

into a period of ten days of Ascensiontide, ending with Pentecost, fifty days after Easter. At Pentecost, we remember and give thanks for the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and other disciples.

God sent his Holy Spirit to empower the Church to perform the mission which the risen Jesus Christ has entrusted to it.

Ascension and Pentecost are closely linked. The risen Lord is no longer present to the Church in the body of his flesh; the Church is now to be the new body of Christ, filled with his life through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are the body of Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit we are to undertake his service of love and care.

I love this prayer of St Teresa of Avila which sits on my desk in my study:

Christ has no body now
on earth but yours,
no hands but yours;
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world.
Yours are the feet
with which he is
to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands
with which he is to bless us now.
Amen.

The Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday, and whilst in every moment of creation, the whole Trinity is at work redeeming and sanctifying, this day gives us the opportunity to reflect on the revelation of God’s self as Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are blessed and sent out in the name and peace of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit to love and to serve the Lord.

This month let’s keep the words of St Teresa close to our hearts and minds.

God Bless
Keith.

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