On Boxing Day, after the service of celebration for St Stephen, I went to buy a newspaper and was surprised to see Easter Eggs were already on sale – having celebrated the birth of Jesus the day before the world of retail and commerce had moved swiftly on! In some strange way, I reflected that, through those Easter Eggs the Christmas story is visibly connected to the Easter Festival. It could also be used a powerful reminder that Jesus grew up to be a man and for us to work together in a positive way as we try to live out our Christian Faith here in Tynemouth.
In the previous issue of the magazine I wrote about St Nicholas of Myra and Saint Stephen, from the list of saints celebrated during February I have chosen St Valentine (14th February) and most of us have probably heard of him. St Valentine’s association with lovers is believed to have originated either from the traditional day in medieval belief when birds mated or it is more likely from a link with the pagan festival of Lupercalia in Rome, which took place on the Ides of February. Valentine was a priest or a bishop, who was martyred at Rome in c.269 under the Emperor Claudias. For Christians, the day is to remind and acknowledge that God is all-loving and who blesses those who love one another, just as Jesus called on his own disciples to do. th February, is often read within an act of worship in celebration of St Valentine.
Prayer and Reflection:
Please read
St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6:10-18
Monday 20
at 57 Millview Drive.
th February 7.30pm
Dorothy Robinson
This poem by George Herbert, who is himself remembered on 27
Love
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grew slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack’d any thing.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat
