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Extract from Barbara Priest’s sermon - 11th
August 2024
“All this day, O Lord, let me touch as many
lives as possible for thee; and every life I touch, do thou by
thy spirit quicken, whether through the word I speak, the prayer
I breathe, or the life I live. Amen.”
That is the prayer of Mary Sumner, the founder of
the Mothers' Union. It was her commemoration day on Friday 9th August,
and it was my privilege to lead a retreat morning for
Sherborne’s Mothers' Union, taking elements of that prayer as my
subject.
It is a prayer which I will now use a lot and I
think it is a prayer we could all take to our hearts, as it
offers three elements with which we can make a difference to the
lives of others: through the words we speak, the prayer we
breathe and the life we live. And I think it vastly appropriate
for our own dear Sue, and her life of faith here among us in
Silton. We were all touched at various times by the words she
spoke, the prayer she breathed and the life she lived. I
remember when I walked into this church in October 2022, my
first visit as a new widow, she took me in her arms and said to
me, “Welcome to the club nobody wants to join”. Those arms and
those words told me what I most needed to know – that she
understood, and I was not alone.
Sue was the complete package and led by example,
sometimes in quite a scary way, but always from the heart and we
are probably all finding it difficult to imagine this church and
community without her. But, in her inimitable style, Sue took
efficient steps to ensure that all she did was ready to be
smoothly taken on by others so that we wouldn’t miss her. But
miss her we most certainly will.
Sue’s faith was absolute. She knew where her
destiny lay – a destiny we will all share with her one day, and
we commend her to those safe enfolding arms of our endlessly
loving God.
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