PRIEST's LETTER

“Hello love” 

When I was a curate, 30 years ago, I used to take Holy Communion to an old lady who lived down the road.  One day she fell in the kitchen and lay there for three days.   The only thing that kept her alive was the cooker being on.  After three days a neighbour came in and the lady was taken to hospital and recovered.   I went round to see her.   "I met Jesus" she told me, "He said, 'I'm sorry love, it's not time yet, you'll have to go back."   About a year later, it was time.   I went to visit her in hospital.   She was the calmest person I'd ever met approaching death, because she had already been there and knew that there would be warmth, welcome, love and light.   And Jesus welcoming her saying, "Hello love."  The good news of Easter, that we are approaching in these days through Lent, is that life here as well as hereafter is truly about that warmth, welcome, love and light.   This is the resurrection joy to lay alongside the griefs and sorrows of life, not to take them away, but to give them space.   As spring unfolds and the days lengthen (the Old English word for Lent has the same root as lengthen) the cycle of the seasons seems to promise the same message of life.   So, as this season unfolds whatever path you may be on and whatever ups and downs it may hold, may you silently hear Jesus calling you love, and accompanying you every step of the way. 

God bless 

Love Peter 

Canon Peter Greenwood