Sunday 22 June 2025
Our Lady Immaculate
The 6am thunderstorm did little to ease the muggy weather. Canon P was standing outside the church when I arrived, waiting for the temperature inside to drop. I sympathised, but my usual spot beneath the spinning fan, albeit with limited visibility, was pleasant, peaceful and cool.
Midway through prayers, a woman in a large sun hat came into the church. She walked up one aisle at the side of the church, then retraced her steps and walked across to the other side, then left through the back door.
It was unusual. Many people enter churches looking for something. But rarely this literally. She had been completely uninhibited by her surroundings. Like looking for a lost dog. Or her lost faith perhaps? But she seemed oblivious to the words of the service, to the significance of the surroundings, or the eyes of the congregation, for her problems to be faith based.
It was Corpus Christi so we pondered the significance of the Eucharist. The body and blood, which chased away so many original disciples, later revealed by Jesus to be a more palatable bread and wine.
And I thought of the power that simple announcement has on us every Sunday, and which is sadly lost on so many. Even ourselves from time to time. And those stuck wandering the earth, or our church, looking for something.