Psalm 6 – another of the penitential psalms

O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath;
neither chasten me in your fierce anger.

All my enemies shall be put to shame and confusion;
they shall suddenly turn back in their shame.

Source

Can you learn things by heart easily?

I cannot, with a few rare exceptions.

One of life’s great frustrations for me is not being able to remember the words to songs, hymns, poems, or anything.

Things I do know by heart (mostly) are as follows:

The first stanza of Daffodils by William Wordsworth
The Lord’s Prayer (4 versions, but I never know which is going to appear)
Gaudete – Steeleye Span, but I don’t know which order the verses come
Beatles Red Album
My Jesus, My Saviour
On Ilkley Moor (I even know which order the verses come in)
The first 32 decimal places of pi (used to know the 1st hundred, but I am getting a bit slack).
Sundry other scraps of liturgy and hymns

So much of the richness in language of what we rush through in church at congregational reading speed is lost. Every so often, I like to dwell on the words and figure out what we are really saying.

I’ve spaced them out, so it is easier to read more slowly. Pick a version (modern or trad) and read it a few times slowly. Do let me know what comes to you.

Collect for Lent from Common Worship (from here:

Almighty and everlasting God,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Or if you prefer the traditional one, here it is from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

As I read/hear this every day in Lent I am finding that it is growing on me.

Two things that have really stood out are:
1 God does not hate anything He has made. He has made the whole of Creation. Everything and everyone can be redeemed.

2 perfect remission – a lovely phrase

Three things before you click the link:

1) You need to have the sound on
2) Do try both with and without Manic Model selected
3) If you have complied with 1, ask for a fresh sheet.

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh… need to d e s t r e s s noooooow.

There was a sound like the murmuring sea out of the still lake Tal y Llyn, Llyn Mwyngil, and from the edge of the dark water a huge wave came travelling. It curled up high and white-topped, fringed with foam as if about to break. Yet it did not break, but swept on across the water towards them, and on its curving peak rode six white swans, moving smooth as glass, their great wings outstretched and touching wing-tip to wing-tip. They were enormous, powerful birds, their white feathers shining like polished silver even in the grey light of the cloud-hung sky. As they drew nearer and nearer, one of the swans raised its head on the curving, graceful neck and gave a long mournful cry, like a warning, or a lament.

On and on they came, towards the shore, towards Will and Caradog Pritchard. The wave loomed higher and higher: a green wave, glowing with a strange translucent light that seemed to come out of the bottom of the lake. It was clear that the birds would dive upon them, and the wave break over them and rush forward down the valley, with all the water of the lake in one long rush, sweeping farms and houses and people before it in total devastation, down to the sea.

From The Dark is Rising Sequence, Book 4: The Grey King, The Waking, by Susan Cooper.

Most of the time I find that my mind deals in concepts and words, not pictures, so I don’t bother to make an effort to piece together all the aspects of a description. I find it very strange reading fiction about a place I have been to. I can picture it better and it feels more real.

This passage also reminds me of the dreams I used to have when I was little, of a great big wave coming crashing through the fields from the beach. I later discovered that Tolkien had a similar recurring dream and called it his Atlantis dream and it inspired the story of (I think) Numenor being drowned. There is more on this theme later in the sequence of Susan Cooper books.

One final thought: Talyllyn Lake = End of the Lake Lake! The hamlet at the end of the lake is called Talyllyn, so the English people in charge of mapping assumed the lake must be Talyllyn lake. Llyn Mwyngil, its original name translates, according to the books, as the pleasant lake.

* Only a touch late with this one. Sssh, I don’t think anyone noticed.

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

NRSV

For what is Lent, in its original institution, but a spiritual conflict, to subdue the flesh to the spirit, to beat down our bodies, and to bring them into subjection? What is it, but a penitential martyrdom for so many weeks together, which we suffer for our own and other sins? A devout soul, that is duly able to observe it, fastens himself to the cross on Ash Wednesday, and hangs crucfied by contrition all the Lent long; that having felt in his closet, the burthen and the anguish, the nails and the thorns, and tasted the gall of his own sins, he may by his own crucifixion be better disposed to be crucified with Christ on Good Friday, and most tenderly sympathize with all the dolours, and pressures, and anguish, and torments, and desertion, infinite, unknown, and unspeakable, which God incarnate endured, when he bled upon the cross for the sins of the world; that being purified by repentance, and made conformable to Christ crucified; he may offer up a pure oblation at Easter, and feel the power and the joys, and the triumph of his Saviour’s resurrection. And to encourage you to such a devotion, thus enforced with fasting, and mourning, and alms, as was this of Daniel, reflect on the wonderful success he found; for when he began his supplications, the angel Gabriel was sent to him by God, and arrived before he had ended them; and by that heavenly messenger, God then honoured him with that glorious prophecy of the seventy weeks.

Thomas Ken (1637-1711)
From Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness p240. Compiled by Rowell, Stevenson & Williams (OUP, 2001)

Thank you Tony Robinson for Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, and in particular for the Pancake Day episode.

If you didn’t have the pleasure of growing up in the eighties/nineties in the UK, this little gem of a tv series may have passed you by. Don’t despair, it is now out on DVD. Here are the lyrics of the Pancake Day song (courtesy of here:

I have decided that, rather than go on a blogfast like Chelley, I’m going to try and blog to a higher quality and/or* with more relevance to the Christian journey. Still not sure how I am going to do it yet, but I have tomorrow to sort it out.

I am thinking along the lines of different themes for different days of the week. Some days being a collection of written resources, some being pictures, some being links and maybe one being a longer written piece.

In the meantime, have you done your Shrove Tuesday preparations?
Eggs, milk, flour, salt, sugar, lemons, maple syrup etc.

I have and I am very much looking forward to it!

* note the little get-out for if the Wiblogs Standards Officer comes round