Reflections and Prayers on a Sunday Morning

Sunday started a little early, about 12.30 a.m. Unlike lots of my friends I find flying East much more difficult than flying West. I wake up the first day at my usual waking time of 5.30 a.m. but instead of it being 5.30 it is just after Midnight here. I try to get back to sleep for two hours or so, without success, and give up and decide to start blogging instead - wide awake. Drew wakes up at 5.00 a.m. local time and we have a cup of hotel coffee.

Being Sunday I had checked out the time of Masses in Washington and discovered that there is a Church less than 3 yards from the hotel. Indeed the Parish House is next to the Hotel and the Church the next building. Which made it very easy to get to Mass. After the coffee, shower and other ablutions I went to the Church at 8.15 to have some time for reflection and prayer before the 9.00 a.m. Mass.

The Church is dedicated to St. Stephen, the first Christian Martyr, you can visit the Parish Website. Or see the photos below.


This time of reflection at the start of the holiday has become a habit of mine in recent years. Time to review the year since the last holiday. As I recalled 2012 to 13 has been a good year in many ways. Drew and I have been getting along  well (as we normally do, thankfully), the rest of my family and friends seem good. The year has seen me engage more with Church, through prayer and through the Parish Sunday evening sessions. Only work has been a bit challenging. While at one level the creation of the new University of South Wales has been an exciting opportunity for us to expand our provision, personally it has not been an easy time. When the first structure of the new institution appeared, my department had disappeared. While I was quickly assured that this was, to use the words of one of our DVC's (not my line-manager) "more cock-up than conspiracy" it was an unnerving situation. That sense of insecurity remains as we continue to face the restructuring which is due to take place in September. So rather than planning for the new year, as I often do on holiday, it is a case of wait and see. Thankfully I'm an optimistic person who is not afraid of change. I'm just not a patient one, so want to know what change, so I can be ready for it. A lesson I've found it hard to learn all my life.


In the prayer time I thought all these things and offered them in trust to the Lord. Praying too for my loved ones and friends. So what did the first reading at Mass start with Ecclesiastes 1.2: " Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit have we from all the toil which we toil at under the sun? One generation departs and another generation comes, but the world forever stays." (New American Bible Translation). A pretty clear message to stop fretting about things I can't change and focus on those I can. Plus to give thanks for the great things God has, and still does in my life. The rest of Mass was in that same spirit a time of focusing on what is important in my life. So what comes next in work, who knows, but whatever is opportunity for further growth and development