Reflections for April

as published in Great Yarmouth Parish Life

Pam Spychal

images courtesy of Google Images

 
In stark contrast to last month, the whole of April falls in Eastertide. From the Church of England website we read:
“The Great Fifty Days of Eastertide form a single festival period in which the tone of joy is sustained through the following seven weeks, and the Church celebrates the gloriously risen Christ”
 
To follow through with this upbeat tone I have selected quotations from some of this month’s commemorations. If these good people were alive today I imagine it’s the sort of thing they might tweet!
 

“The Lord’s prayer may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learnt by heart”
Frederick Denison Maurice, 1872 (1st April)
 
“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1945 (9th April)
 
“Be intent upon the perfection of the present day”
William Law, 1761 (1 0th April)
 
“Keep things simple”.
William of Ockham, 1347 (10th April)
 
“Disasters teach us humility”
 Anselm, 1109 (21st April)
 
The Gospel of Mark (well I know it’s too long for a tweet – a blog, maybe?)
Mark the Evangelist (25th April)
 
“Flowers preach to us if we will hear”
Christina Rossetti, 1894 (27th April)
 
“The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea is in the fish”.
Catherine of Siena, 1380 (29th April)
 
“A life totally committed to God has nothing to fear, nothing to lose, nothing to regret”
Pandita Mary Ramabai, 1922 (30th April)

 
Of course, these short pithy quotes, though entertaining and thought provoking, do not really do justice to the people behind them.  In most instances their actions speak much louder than their words. Indeed a number of commemorations are missing from this list. They are the people whose lives were filled with actions, rather than words

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