Today at the Community Cafe one of our regulars, a woman with significant learning disabilities, stood up, tapped the table and requested silence. She then spoke of the very recent death of her aunt Margaret, "who loved me and I loved her." And she told us she was now going to say a prayer for her Aunt.
Rarely have I listened to a prayer that was more direct, intimate, real and entirely innocent of the need to impress. In loud, clear and deeply felt words she told God: she was glad her aunt was now with God and would know how much she had been loved; she thanked God for opening the gates to welcome her aunt home because she was special; and she thanked God, and her aunt, for looking out for her and looking after her up to now, and knew that would still be true because God loves everybody all the time; then she asked God's blessing on us all finishing with an emphatic Amen.
This was a moment of pure spiritual connection and of human communion born out of trusted friendships. People who usually come to talk about the usual stuff, were co-opted into the life and love, the grief and prayers of someone brave enough to speak her heart, and trust those who heard her speak it. We were ministered to by someone wise enough to know when to pray, and when to ask for that prayer to be held in the hearts of her friends.
This is why we do what we do - thank God.
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