Sunday 1st October

 Hello!

Did you all say 'rabbits', or something similar to each other on the first of the month when you were little?  I have a faint memory...

Then it was all 'pinch, punch, first of the month, no returns for ever', to which you replied 'a pinch and a kick, for being so quick, ho returns for ever'. That came later, at my posh convent prep school...

Back in the not so olden days there would be a hymn board up at the front in church, with the hymn numbers listed. Many also gave the 'name' of the Sunday. We have been in 'Ordinary Time' for months and months, in between all the major Christian festivals. Altar cloths and vestments were green, week after week, until Advent. Today is Trinity 17; the seventeenth sunday after Trinity Sunday. Here's the collect, or special prayer, for today;

LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

The word 'prevent' is used in the early sense of 'go before' like 'prevenir' in French. Once this was explained to me, it made perfect sense that I would want God's grace to prepare my way, and also deal with the fhaos I might inadvertently leave in my wake!

I was thinking about this, and then happened across this Bishop Desmond Tutu quote

There's perhaps a bit of a theme developing here...

Hope you all have a good week.

PS. We've a few more Sundays to go before Advent; not sure if we get to Trinity 24 or 25 first!