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Our March Pastoral Letter
is prov ided by
Anne Squires

I am writing this in mid-April, but by the time you read this, we will
have shared in the excitement of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to the
acclaim of the crowd, His final teachings for the disciples, His
fervent prayer in Gethsemane, His acceptance of His Father’s will,
His agony on the Cross and His glorious resurrection. It is a story
we know well, but the disciples must have experienced so many
emotions during that week.

I wonder is that why the disciples gathered in the Upper Room
following Jesus’ crucifixion? They were devastated and hopeless,
their dreams destroyed, but also confused by Mary’s claim to have
seen the Lord, which they could not believe. Did they hope to gain
support from other disciples whom they knew well and trusted? Of
course, something even more wonderful happened when Jesus
appeared among them, and they knew that Mary had told them the
truth.

John and I have recently joined a meditation group in Hertfordshire
with people of faith and others. Last week in the discussion
following on from the meditation, someone asked why Christians
concentrate on the light but have little to encourage people dealing
with dark times in their lives. A severely paralysed lady with many
problems eventually managed to comment that, when she is alone
in her flat, time goes slowly but the hour we spend together in silent
meditation passes very quickly.

It reminded me of a time soon after I met John, when we had been
to a party held on Midsummer’s eve, at the end of an amateur
dramatic play I was in. John drove us down to the coast in Sussex
and we arrived as dawn broke and walked down the glen to a
secluded cove as the sun rose. We spent the day on the rocks
watching the tide drop and rise again over the beach. Later in the
day John turned to me and said, “I like doing nothing with you”. At
the time I wasn’t sure it was a compliment, and wondered what he
meant, but over the last 50 years I have come to understand more.

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