March 2025

St David’s Day and the season of Lent

St David’s Day is celebrated on March 1st each year, a special day for all Welsh people! We are also nearing the start of the season of Lent, a time in the Christian calendar associated with self-denial. Some choose to challenge themselves by going without a luxury – chocolate or biscuits, for example, as part of their Lenten discipline. St. David led a very austere life along with his fellow monks in the monastery – his austere practices included immersing himself in a bath of cold water! Now that’s giving up life’s luxuries!

St David’s Day is commemorated on the first day of March because that was the day of his death. In his last words to his followers he said, 'Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.'

‘Doing the little things’ has become a common saying for Welsh people – it is about doing those little things that can make a difference.

As a challenge for the season of Lent, instead of giving something up, how about taking on a little bit extra: going out of your way to take on that extra task which may be a kindness to others, offering a helping hand to someone in need?

November 2023

Pray for peace in the Middle East - for people who are hurting on both sides of the conflict; for those trying to help others; for those waiting for news of loved ones; and for those in mourning.

Jesus taught that we are all one, and we need each other. The Apostle Paul gave us a picture of being a body, and when one part hurts, the others suffer with it.  So let's feel the pain of the situation, and allow that pain to take us into prayer for those who hurt, whether in the midst of things or from a distance.  

We do not know what the outcome will be, but we trust in God who holds us all in his hands.

September 2023

Happy New Year!  The new Methodist year begins on 1st September, and so we pray for ministers settling into new Circuits and for the congregations who welcome them.

We pray also for children starting school, and their teachers, especially where the school building has been affected by the presence of RAAC and has been deemed unsafe.  We pray for all those making arrangements for classes while this is remedied.

We pray for young people preparing to go to university, and for those beginning new jobs and apprenticeships.

And we pray for you reading this, whoever you are, that God might bless you and continue to reveal himself to you.