Monday 1 January 2024

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Today is Monday the 1st of January, the feast of Mary, Mother of God.

Salt of the Sound sing, ‘Come Thou Fount’.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it

Mount of Thy redeeming love

Here I raise to Thee an altar

Hither by Thy help I'm come

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wandering from the fold of God

He, to rescue me from danger

Interposed his precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

Here's my heart, O take and seal it

Seal it for Thy courts above

Here's my heart, O take and seal it

Seal it for Thy courts above

Today’s reading is from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

A happy new year to you! As this new year begins, today’s passage might simply help to remind me of the wonder of the Christian faith.

The Apostle Paul spells it out to the Galatians who had begun to hark back to fervent keeping of religious rules and regulations for salvation.

Paul lays out the message plainly: God sent His Son: we are redeemed!

“….God sent his Son …” I ask myself: what made God send his Son?

‘Abba’ - an expression of both intimacy and obedience from child to father. How do my prayers reflect intimacy with God, an obedient response to God’s love? I consider how a child looks at a loving parent, openly, full-on, uninhibited, asking questions - the question “why?” being a frequent one! My prayers to God could be that open and honest.

“If a child, then also an heir.” How does that feel? What inheritance from God is to come? What is here for me to inherit right now?

As I hear the passage again, I consider the relationship I have with God and how I would like it to develop this year.

As this prayer time comes to a close, I speak with God, openly, honestly, about what I might desire for my journey of faith this year.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.