Prayer

Back to the early mornings today. I joined the Team Clergy at St. John’s this morning for Morning Prayer followed by breakfast with them which was a very pleasant experience. Nils kindly showed me around the Common Worship Daily Service book and we had ten minutes of silent prayer which I found very helpful. It seemed to me that my prayers were more focused and relevant than the disjointed way I often pray on my own and the ten minutes seemed to go very quickly indeed. Over breakfast I joined in some of the liturgical discussions surrounding Holy Week. I did not stay for the Morning Eucharist as Sara had bought me a golf lesson at Paulton’s Park Golf Club which I needed to take that morning. I therefore drove to Ower after having walked home and spent an hour on the driving range being videoed by the professional, Dean, who was able to show me that I needed to straighten my arms and keep my feet more solidly planted when I took a swing. In fact, after a few shots I found that I could hit the ball much further than before. This afternoon, Sara was picked up by Sophie and taken over to Landford for her LPA training session and I walked to school and back to accompany Mary home. Tonight I attended a meeting of Sarum Lodge in my capacity as Secretary and Peter Martin from Brighton & Hove Civic Lodge joined us. In fact, Peter delivered the Traditional History for Lee’s Third Degree ceremony in my place as the events of the last few days and all the travelling had made it difficult for me to find the time to sit down and learn this quite complex piece of ritual. Indeed, I will need to take more of a back seat if the Selection Conference in June leads to the amount of theological study expected in my ministry training. A very pleasant evening indeed but I am concerned that at Fat Fighters tomorrow I will have put on weight this week. So many buffets and dinners with high pro-point foods. It will be a miracle if I have lost any weight and quite likely that I have put some on.