Thought for the Week - 3rd December 2023
Dear Friends, For the Advent season this year I’m using again The Little Book of Advent , complied by Canon Arthur Howells, it is described as ‘an indispensable collection of readings from some of the most celebrated modern-day spiritual writers’ including Henri Nouwen, Kathy Galloway, Jane Williams and David Adam. In a reflection entitled ‘Be Still’ by Michael Stancliffe, a Church of England priest who was a canon of Westminster Abbey, a former chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and Dean of Winchester, he reflects on the prophet Elijah’s encounter with the Lord on Mount Horeb where God met him, ‘not in the roaring of the wind, nor in the commotion and convulsion of the earthquake, nor in the terrible power of the fire – but in a still, small voice’, and as Stancliffe, describes, Elijah ‘had reached the still point at the centre’. He says, ‘For the still centre is the source of all life and power and might… ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10) … We are to be