I Met God Today

What would Jesus think of IKEA? Last week, I assembled my first pieces from IKEA.  I know! Shocking, isn't it?!  What took me so long?  Just to clarify: I have shopped in IKEA before, buying things for other people. Temptations everywhere in that huge space!  I've enjoyed the vast array of items I never realised I was missing - things I might find handy were I to buy them! I have admired the clean lines of their furniture. I've dreamt of having an empty home to decorate with the simple beauty of IKEA's designs - and a full wallet to achieve that dream.  On a morning both extremely warm and extremely rainy, my Billy bookcases arrived and so began the process of putting them together. I have always enjoyed self-assembly. There's something very satisfying about it. Perhaps it appeals to that part of me that enjoys jigsaws and puzzles. It cultivates both mindfulness and mindlessness.  Mostly, this time, it was a state of mindfulness. As I hammered the small tacks, I tho

Seeing traces of God everywhere Pope Francis tweets:  Nature is filled with words of love, but how can we listen to them amid constant noise, and interminable and nerve-wracking distractions? #SeasonOfCreation Nature is filled with words about God too ... how can we not listen and notice? And, of course, God is love.  Where there's love and beauty, there is God. So today,       wherever you are,            go outdoors and drink in the beauty of our world                 and thank our God for it.  #getoutdoorsmore #beinnature #SeasonofCreation2020 #searchingforgod                                                                        

Four words towards the end of today’s reading at Mass really stood out: 'you are God's farm' (1 Corinthians 3:9). While the surrounding phrases are so familiar I could almost recite them verbatim, until today I have never noticed these four words. Of all days, they were particularly meaningful today. On the third anniversary of his death, my uncle Timmie was very much in my heart. At morning prayer, I prayed in thanksgiving for his beautiful personality. So why did these words of St Paul’s strike me? Because my uncle Timmie was a farmer, because I grew up next door to his farm, because I spent hours in his company, in his home, on his land. St Paul reproaches the Corinthians for being ‘still unspiritual’, for missing the point: we are ‘co-workers with God’ but only God matters. It is God who makes things grow. This is something my uncle was keenly aware of and passed on to us. Were St Paul to meet him, he would surely recognise in Timmie a man who was ‘of the Spirit’, someo