Dear Friends,

In our Lent group last night, I was drawn to an anonymous quote included in the commentary for this week's readings,

"Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark."

The world feels in such turmoil at the moment, on a political and economic scale, spiritually as the church universal finds its way, and its role, and its relevancy in our current situation. And for so many personally as well.

If you have ever heard the dawn chorus, it starts off so gently before becoming a great cacophony of sound. I think hope can feel like that -sometimes a lone voice at first easily dismissed, but persistent until others join in with the song. It doesn't make the hardship or worry go away but it stops it being the end result. The dawn is coming even if we cannot see it yet.

I think there is a sense of this in the story in John's gospel, with Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, anointing them with an extravagant, costly perfume, which for those in the room was a waste of resource. Perhaps in that moment, Mary recognised, fully, who Jesus was and what he was being called to do and it filled her with hope. It caused her to respond in a whole hearted and costly way in that moment, to acknowledge the hope and to bless it.

Every dawn the birds sing, in joyful and hopeful expectation, they live and respond in that moment allowing hope to drive and fill the narrative.

May we recognise and respond to those moments of hope in our day to day lives and so together offering a resounding cacophony of hope to the world.

Every blessing

Rev Karen