Praising God in Devon

Dearest friends, One of the questions people sometimes ask about All Souls is why we pray for the dead. If those who have died are already in God’s hands, what difference can our prayers make? Are we trying to persuade God to be merciful, or to change something which has already been decided? The answer begins with love. When somebody dies, our love for them does not suddenly end. We still speak their name, remember the things they taught us,…

Dearest friends, The man who questions Jesus in this Sunday’s Gospel asks for one commandment. Jesus gives him two. Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. Asked to identify the greatest commandment, Jesus makes sure we don’t leave our neighbour out of the answer. That’s worth sitting with. We can sometimes imagine that our relationship with God happens in one part of life, while our dealings with other people happen somewhere else.…

Dearest friends, There’s a small sentence in the reading for St Luke’s day which is easy to pass over. Paul is writing about people who’ve gone elsewhere, and the difficulties surrounding him. Then he says, “Luke alone is with me.” Five words, and behind them the quiet gift of someone who stayed. We know Luke as an evangelist, the writer whose Gospel gives us the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. We hear his account of the shepherds at Christmas,…