Good Morning All,
I hope and pray that you are feeling OK, and are managing to stay relatively comfortable.
For those who are having symptoms, struggling in any way, missing family, friends, fresh air and just going out, and for those who are just having  a blue day, Bless you. I hope it passes quickly.

Our morning prayer daily service has these words near the beginning
‘As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence, O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you; now and forever.’

We have been given the gift of a new day, and we have much to be thankful for.

May I ask a couple of simple things from you before I talk about Holy Week.
Can you phone someone who is living alone. I have been doing this, and speaking to folk who have not heard another human voice all week. It makes such a difference to hear someone say that they are thinking of you.

Can you join the initiative of lighting up the sky tonight (Friday 3^rd), by shining a torch at 8.30pm. This is to demonstrate a sense of hope, and to remember those who have died, and to continue to thank those who are putting themselves at risk in order to help and protect us. Bless them.

We are about to embark on the strangest Holy Week we could ever imagine. The Church’s most precious time of walking with our Lord, and we are observing it separately from one another. We can’t even get to church for Easter!

But even though we are keeping Holy Week separately, we are all in this together, and the bonds of love and faith are stronger than walls and miles.

So, dress up, and put your heart and soul in to whatever you do this coming week – and the Glory of the Lord will be revealed.

This is our Chaplaincy plan:

Holy Week.
We as a Chaplaincy will be trying our best to make this week truly special.
Raymond Hodson has uploaded a video on how to make your own Palm Crosses https://youtu.be/OMGt3WakeJQ

There is a Video from me on Youtube ready for Palm Sunday. The link will be circulated on Saturday 4^th April

Palm Sunday Live stream of Eucharist from Fr Rodney Middleton from at 11am, Via facebook then uploaded on to youtube. It will not include Reading of the passion.

6-8pm, Fr Marcus on Pure Gold, with a Palm Sunday slot at 7pm.

Fr Jim will circulates a special Morning and Evening Prayer for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Wednesday in Holy Week, video from Fr Marcus.

Maundy Thursday The clergy gather separately on a diocesan Zoom meeting to renew their ministerial commitment.
Fr Rodney: Live-stream Eucharist at 8pm, via Facebook. We plan to Keep Watch by leaving the stream ‘open’ until 10pm. We will intersperse the Watch time with a Taize chant every 15 minutes or so. End the Watch with Compline at 10pm. 
The Eucharist will be uploaded to YouTube, but not the watch.

Good Friday. 12 noon Video by Fr Marcus of Stations of the cross. Youtube, not live but please all to join in at 12.
I will circulate the text and pictures and video ink by email before Friday. 

2pm Fr Rodney live streams Liturgy of the day. To include a reading of the Passion.

Holy Saturday: Fr Marcus will distribute a video.
Fr Rodney will live stream a service of light at 8pm, including the lighting of the Pascal candle, the singing of the Exultet,a Renewal of Baptismal vows. I know it will be beautiful.

Easter Day Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
We all dress up.

11am Live Stream, Fr Rodney via Facebook, and uploaded to youtube.
6-8pm Me live on the radio. The Glory of Easter.

It will be different for us all, but it will also be Holy, meaningful, and will lift us to a spiritual high.

Please keep safe, keep in touch, keep the faith and stay home.

Bless you. Bless you. Bless you.

Fr Marcus.

Please click this link to view.

Our churches, like all others, remain closed until Easter at least. As a result, we cannot join together to mark our Lord’s progress from his exalted arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, through the despair Good Friday to the glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.

One important symbol of this journey is the palm cross, which each of us normally receive, with a blessing on Palm Sunday. Canon Raymond Hodson (of the La Fustera congregation) has produced an easy to follow video, which shows just how simple it is for each of us to produce our own. Most of us have access to palm trees, but if you don’t you could produce yours from a tapered strip of paper. I am sure that wardens will circulate this information with their daily messages.

Click here to view the video

Tuesday 31^st March

My little offering for today.

Good Morning You Lovely People,

I hope you are feeling ok, and managing to stay strong. For those who are not feeling so great, then please know that you are loved, and as a whole Chaplaincy we are praying for you, and all who are struggling at this time. May this too pass quickly.

From our Morning Prayer
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that we should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 1.9,10.

Well we are all getting good at waiting! 
Or are we?
Possibly we are dealing with things, and coping with a very different way of living, and thinking and indeed praying, and definitely a different way of worshipping. But are we waiting?
I think there is a difference between just longing for the days to pass, and Waiting with a sense of Hope and Expectation for the Salvation of the Lord. The first as passive, the second is active.
The first is about just the destination, the second about the journey.

As many of you know, Sandra and I have done some stages of the Camino to Santiago, following the route that begins in Javea with the Ruta del Alba. And every step of the way means something. 
We have made it as far up as Cuenca, well over 300km. But if we had just driven to Cuenca, it would have meant nothing. Sometimes the journey was absolutely delightful, sometimes it was a nightmare. Sometimes we sang with Joy in our hearts, sometimes we cried and cried.
Mud, rain, blisters, pain and uncertainty came our way, but so did a real sense of peace, and a feeling of connection, a sense of awe and wonder at the beauty of creation, and and genuine spiritual high.

We had planned to do another stage soon, but that probably won’t now be happening. 

But one way for me of coping with our Lockdown, is to try and visualise it as a journey. A static Camino, waiting on the Lord. I shall walk through Holy Week, at least in my head, and certainly do the Via Dolorosa (The way of the Cross)on Good Friday.

I shall struggle up the hill of isolation, and walk through the mud of sadness. I shall clamber over the rocks of uncertainty, and carry the weight of a backpack full of concern for so many that I can’t even imagine it.
But I shall also walk with my head held high, and a spring in my step, knowing that I am not alone, that my Lord walks with me, and that in time we will know the Salvation of the Lord.

It would be pious and pretentious to claim every step a prayer, and it would be just as pious to assume that we will sail through this struggle as some sort of Spiritual quest. But looking back, we will remember those times when we knew we were walking in the company of the Saints, even if we were not in the same room.

Bless you, Keep saying your prayers, and stay safe.

As ever,

Marcus

Here is the link to Morning Worship for Wednesday, led by Fr Steve Foster. Despite leaving the chaplaincy 4 years ago, Fr Steve is still very much a part of the family here, and continues to provide our weekly intercessions on the website.
Click here to view.

Here is the link to Fr Rodney’s Celebration of the Eucharist this morning.

Passion Sunday 2020

And remember “home” communion from Fr. Rodney, on his Facebook page (just search for Rodney Middleton) at 11am on Sunday.

Finally, a reminder that the clocks jump forward an hour overnight. We’d hate you to be late for a day at home. Click on this link to see Fr Marcus.

Hi Folks,

And welcome to my offering of Friday Feelings.

I don’t know about you, but my emotions have been a bit all over the place this week.
I watched a video about the crisis in Madrid, and the poor doctors running out of ventilators, and having to make unbelievable  decisions, and it broke my heart. The man on the video was crying, and so I imagine was everyone who say it.

But I have also received some really heart-warming stories of people looking out for each other, and finding ingenious ways of lifting one another’s spirits.
Without a doubt, when we have got through this, our priorities will have definitely changed.

Social Media has been a lifeline for many, and there is some great stuff to be had. But there is also some nonsense, so beware!
But the nonsense is not confined to new social media. I have been reading a book given to me years ago called The Little Book of Calm.
On the back cover it says ‘The little book of calm is full of advice to follow and thoughts to inspire.
Open it at any page and you will find a path to inner peace’.

So I thought, this sounds great, let’s give it ago. Each page has a HEADING, followed by a simple description.
So I opened up by chance to ‘SINGLE OUT SIMPLE PLEASURES.’ Approach something with your full attention and an open mind, and you’ll find pleasure and complexity in it. A bunch of grapes, or a glass of water, or a field of grass, or a sky of clouds. All of such things can lead to calm.

Beautiful, I liked that, so sat and contemplated on a field of grass, my mind moved to our lovely mountains, and I felt great.

So let’s give it another go. I opened up to ‘WASTE SOME TIME’ Hard working people never waste time on frivolous, fun filled activities. Yet, for hard working people, any time spent this way is far from wasted.
loving it. I just went off to do a magic trick, and film it for the grandchildren. This is great, I am feeling very calm. Time to dip in again.

‘START CHRISTMAS NOW’  It probably took a lot of trial and error over the centuries, but Christmas Carols and lullabies have a unique ability to soothe.
Well, I am not doing that one. Christmas in the middle of Lent. I have enough Carols in December, and I certainly don’t want to sing them to Sandra today. No, let’s give it another go.

‘PLAN YOUR WORRIES’ Put aside a certain amount of time each day – at the same time each day – which you devote to sorting out your worries. When the time is up, stop worrying.

Well that one is nonsense too. Can you imagine looking forward to 3 O’Clock worry time. Oh **** there is a pandemic of disease and the economy has crashed,, and I am stuck at home, and my holiday is cancelled and I don’t want to even start on start on what might happen next. 
3.05pm Ok, That’s better. No, sadly that is another nonsense one. Try again.

‘GO LIMP.’
I am not even going to bother writing that one out!!!!

‘BREATHE LESS’ A deeply relaxed person breathes only 5-8 times a minute.
Breathe Less – you must be joking. Breathe less! I want to get all the air in my lungs for as long as I can. Just imagine giving out that advice at the moment! Hi Folks, we have a few issues going around at the moment, so we are just asking you all to Breathe Less.

This book is beginning to get on my nerves, but in the interest of perseverance I shall keep going.

‘WEAR DONALD DUCK UNDERPANTS’ Choose a few childlike accoutrements to remind you of the irreverent, uninhibited, joyous side of life.

Yes, quite like that, but I don’t have DD pants. I did have some once with a picture of Nicholas Parsons on them. Dressed in a cassock with his legs kicked up high. We don’t want to go there.
Back to the book.

‘PRETEND IT’S SATURDAY.’ That’s all is says. But I am not doing that, because it might be Sunday, or Tuesday, and I really like Fridays. No, that one is stupid.

‘PRETEND YOUR HUMAN’ Leave it to others to be perfect, to be wonderful. Be content with what you are.
Well I like the sentiment, but I don’t want to pretend to be human, and am human, and knowing that is good enough for me. 

‘LEVITATE’ 
Levitate! Who is this guy. Come on Marcus, down from the ceiling, your dinners ready! Can you imagine.

‘SELL YOUR WISTWATCH’ Have you ever noticed how relaxed you feel the moment you remove your wristwatch.
No, I just worry about what the time is. Imagine, OK Folks at Calpe, the service will start when I get there, but I have no idea what time that will be, and the clocks go forward this week, so anything could happen. This is getting on my wick now.

‘DECLARE TODAY A HOLIDAY’ 

How can I do that, and who am I going to declare that to, and will they take any notice.
Sorry boss, I declared today a holiday, so you will have to do my work yourself.
For crying out loud.

‘RECOGNISE ADDICTION’ Recognise addictions for what they are, and find an alternative.
Oh right. Is that all you have to do. Why hasn’t anyone ever thought of that. I shall tell that to my 12 step friends. 
This bloke is really getting to me now. Little book of calm! I am getting more cross by the minute!

‘LEAVE TOWN’
Sorry mate, but we can’t go out.

‘SMELL THE BLOOMS’
Sorry mate, but we still can’t go out.

‘SIT IN A CHURCH’
I would love to, but WE CAN’T GO OUT!!!

‘WEAR SENSIBLE SHOES’. 
I would if I was going anywhere, but my slippers are fine for the foreseeable future.

‘START TEN MINUTES EARLY’
Oh I give up! How can you start ten minutes early. Most people won’t be there, the previous people won’t have finished, and imagine you are a bus driver. Everyone would miss the bus then be late.

Sorry to say Little book of Calm, you are full of nonsense. I could think of a better title.

But I tell you what, I am going to have a go at dipping in to another book, and see what I can find.

‘DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED, AND DO NOT BE AFRAID.  Jn 17.1
‘PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU. I DO NOT GIVE AS THE WORLD GIVES. DO NT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED AND DO NOT BE AFRAID. Jn 17, 27
‘I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE SAYS THE LORD. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN ME, EVEN THOUGH THEY DIE, WILL LIVE, AND EVERYONE WHO LIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER DIE. Jn 11. 25, 26

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’’ Jn 13. 34-34

The Beatitudes

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5

And of course I could go on.

But there we have it folks. There is some good stuff out there, and there is some that is not so great. But we have our scriptures, and of course they can’t be beaten.

Bless you, Keep safe, and count your Blessings.

As ever,

Fr Marcus

A super initiative from Fr Marcus and (especially) Sandra. Thank you Sandra!

Hi Folks,Hope you are feeling OK.
Because we are all housebound at the moment, Sandra has posted a simple stretching exercise on youtube just to keep folk supple.

We look after your body and soul!
We look after your body and soul!