The Steadfast Love of the Lord Never Ceases - Reflection by Dean Sue

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My picture today was taken in the gardens of the Community of The Resurrection, Mirfield. The Community of the Resurrection is a community of brothers who live together, rooted in the Anglican tradition and formed in the monastic round of prayer, worship and ministry.
 
The community offers hospitality and a place where people can come to to reflect on God and to wait on God. I have been coming here for a number of years and I try to come in the first few weeks of September. It was here that I prayed through and completed my application for the role of Dean in Liverpool. It was here I came when I was going through a very challenging time in my ministry.
 
Coming to Mirfield gives me the opportunity to stop, to think, to pray and to reset my inner life and to wait on the God who knows and loves me. Mirfield gives me the space to reflect on the past and to look to the future.
 
I last came here for a couple of nights in January and what a lot has happened since then! At that time we were just beginning to realise the seriousness of COVID 19  and the effect it was having on other countries, but little did we realise what was to come.
 
While the brothers have remained untouched by COVID 19 they, like the rest of us, have had to change the way they operate in order to keep the community safe. In January when I came to Mirfield we sat and ate our meals with the brothers, we did not socially distance. We walked the long corridor to the Chapel together, there was no segregation. We had afternoon tea with the brothers and the opportunity to tell stories, to catch up on their lives and the lives of other guests.
 
Today, there is no sharing of meals with the brothers, there is no afternoon tea, there is the long walk to the Chapel on the outside of the building. There is social distancing.
 
What does remain the same is the worship. Each day the brothers pray together. They pray four times a day; Mattins in the morning, midday prayers, evensong and compline. There is a rhythm to the day that is comforting and despite all the changes taking place in the world the regular prayers that this community offers gives stability to a world that is forever changing.
 
As I sit in the gardens of Mirfield I am aware that changes are coming once again as we move in to Autumn. The trees are beginning to lose their fruit and their leaves. The blackberries are coming to the end of the season and everywhere I walk there is a carpet of acorns. Despite the physical changes I see one thing I am sure of, as I sit and look at the beauty of creation, is that God’s steadfastness will not change. I am sure that whatever happens in the next few months God will walk with us, God will abide with us and for me the liturgy whether it be prayed here or in Liverpool Cathedral will give me the framework to give thanks, to lament and to praise the God who knows and loves us.

Dean Sue

While you're here:
Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html.