Sharing some thoughts

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made  an application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. "Your Majesty," said Prior Richard, "do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king." "I understand," said Henry. "The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you." "Then I will tell you what to do," said Prior Richard. "Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you." When King Henry died, a statement was written: "The King learned to rule by being obedient."  Being called to do something is a common trait for us all - called to be a Vicar, a teacher, an engineer, a doctor, a builder, or anything else. But there is one common thing to w

The story  is told of a new bank manager  who met with his predecessor and said, "I would like to know what have been the keys to your success." The older gentleman looked at him and replied, "Young man, I can sum it up in two words: Good decisions." To that the young man responded, "I thank you immensely for that advice, sir, but how does one come to know which are the good decisions?" "One word, young man," replied the older man. "Experience." "That's all well and good," said the younger, "but how does one get experience?" "Two words," said the elder. "Bad decisions." Success means different things to different people – those who support a sports team may measure success in relative terms – what is success for a non league football team may be a disaster for a top club. But whatever people regard as success it is something that we like to celebrate. It is a natural human emotion.  Peopl

There was a minister in a really big Church who often said in the middle of the service, or his sermons, or the prayers, ‘The Lord be with you’, and the congregation would dutifully reply, ‘And also with you’. He said it much more than was usual and it became such a habit that many people didn’t really listen to a lot the minister said, but whenever there was a slight pause they would assume the minister had said, ‘The Lord be with you’ and respond, ‘And also with you’… One day the minister was having trouble with his microphone and said, ‘I think there must be a problem with the microphone’, after a slight pause the congregation replied, ‘And also with you’. Sometimes we don’t know what’s going on – but we just accept things without questioning. Today we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany, the day on which we remember the Magi visiting the baby Jesus and bringing him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We know the story well, so well that perhaps we can take it for granted