2,000 Years of Prayer ... by Clare Weiner (aka Mari Howard)

‘Where does time go?’

Time ...

This piece first emerged as a piece for Lent on the word ‘Injustice’. It’s now re-emerging on to a wider audience, because, his piece first emerged as a piece for Lent on the word ‘Injustice’. It’s now re-emerging on to a wider audience. Maybe because, as the Mad Hatter advised, ‘if we kept on good terms with (Time), he’d do almost anything (we) liked with the clock’ … but my time-keeping can't have been the best the past few weeks. I’ve used up more time than I should on researching some complex facts for my novel, beta reading another

Almond cake to share with friends

writer’s literary novel, getting on with some paintings, and making sure the housekeeping gets done …

Along with keeping up with the News … and now there’s only a couple of days to go to my slot ...

So … Injustice...

Whether in the lives of refugees, people with disabilities, or junior doctors, there’s plenty about Injustices in the Facebook/Twitter ‘…what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you God?’ 

'Refugees Welcome' demo

world at present. Long ago, at school, our A level RK group had a wonderful Christian teacher, who drummed social awareness into our heads and our spirits along with the syllabus. This was where I first learned this, from Micah (6 verse 8):

Jesus thought similarly, and taught the familiar prayer which has been prayed for over 2,000 years now. But has a better world, with less injustice, come about? 

Or, how much might it be worse if this prayer hadn’t been remembered, passed along, written down, and prayed?

Thinking about the Lord’s Prayer, I’ve written beside each phrase some thoughts many people today may have in their hearts when they hear these words …

Our Father in Heaven (let’s hope and have faith that He is … and allow those whose fathers were not good fathers, who neglected or abused or abandoned, to see God in other ways, maybe as mother or ‘source of all being’)

Hallowed be your name (how often it isn’t …)

Your kingdom come, (it hasn’t, or not as we’d like it to …)

Your will be done (it isn’t, more often than not …)

On earth as it is in Heaven (… wouldn’t that be amazing?)

Give us today our daily bread (… how often are we truly, imaginatively, thankful?)

And forgive us our trespasses (… do we feel forgiven? Act forgiven? What does ‘forgiveness’ mean?)

As we forgive those who trespass against us (…do we? … Plenty of people, and countries, don’t …)

And deliver us from evil (… we so hope … yet we see evil all around …)

Easter Garden, Dorchester Abbey

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory … (…you wouldn’t guess this, looking around the world: kingdoms, power, and glory are mostly placed elsewhere …)

for ever and ever, Amen … (Amen? We truly endorse and work for this … ?)

  

And … we see in Micah’s words that even before Jesus’s life on earth these things were what our God wants for us, and how he desires us to live …

Clare Weiner writes fiction as Mari Howard, weaving the debates and diverse issues of contemporary life, with and without a faith, into her stories about the Mullins family who now live in Oxford (as she does). The family saga Baby, Baby and The Labyrinth Year are available in paperback or Kindle versions.  The third book, Love You to the Moon is the work in progress.

Clare is booked to read from her novels and poetry at this year’s Hawkesbury LitFest on 23rd April, and blogs here as Mari Howard.