THE TWO TOWERS

North Wales Christmas 2001

 

Towers (and pentagons) are symbols. There would be no point in trying to lay them low if they did not typify some of the most ambiguous features of our 'civilisation'.

Our oldest Welsh Churches had towers as a defence against the Danes/Saxons/Normans; square towers with arrow slits on the top and an early-warning bell system, the better to dispose of the enemy.

Later, the fortified church tower becomes a steeple. A steeple is not a useful thing - it is a boast. We demonstrate our civic superiority and prosperity by building higher than our neighbours.

These original image have faded. We build taller things now. The steeple to modern eyes suggests hands in prayer. 
    
When you were a kid, did anyone take you fingers and put them together saying the old rhyme:
 
     There's the church and there's the steeple 
     Open the gates and there's the people. 
     Here's the Parson coming up stairs, 
     In his pulpit saying his prayers?
 

Praying Under the Towers

Prayer is our way of life. are a praying community, and many people write, send us emails and come here to visit, simply to ask our prayers.

Prayer is not just doing 'something' for a set time or only in words - though that can be a good way to start. Prayer is a way of life. It is consciously drawing close to the Lord and being with him - at work, at play, on a journey, on your own or with your loved ones - and at those chosen moments of the day when you may be reading Sacred Scripture or joining with the celebration of the Eucharist or praying with your brothers and sisters in the faith.

What were you doing when the trade towers were hit?

Well, we were there.
 

How to Pray for Others

Intercession, asking the Lord for your own needs or for the needs of others, is part of all our lives; we do it instinctively - even if we only say 'God help me!' or, 'God help you!' If you sit in front of your TV before another live disaster, be forearmed: make the prayer of intercession your way of life.

·         First, adore the Lord and praise him, thank him and bless him. He is our father in heaven and we hallow his name, he is our Lord, the word made flesh who walks with us, and he sends his Holy Spirit to live in our hearts.

·         If there are burdens on your own heart, or awareness of failure and sin, release them all into God's mercy. So that nothing stands between you and the Lord.

·         We all received faith in Jesus as a gift. We make ourselves one with the angels and saints and the good people we have known who are with the Lord in glory, asking them to pray with us.

·         Present the person or people for whom you are praying before the Lord, just as in the Gospel, the friends of the paralysed man lowered his stretcher through the roof into the room in which the lord was.

·         God wants to give the person you are praying for healing and life in abundance. God is love and he wants us to have life and have it more abundantly.

·         Most of our problems we human beings create for ourselves, or inflict on each other. But - this is very important - do not try to judge the person you are praying for, or even try to reason out the rights and wrongs of the state that person is in. God knows fully what we could only ever know partially - and he is the only judge.

·         The Lord dwells in the person, for whom you are praying. Worship and praise God in that person. Bring to that person's need the joy you experience in the Lord and sorrows he has enabled you to bear. We are all part of each other - your own nearness to the Lord will d raw all your brothers and sisters closer to God.

·         The Lord is the one who alone has power to give life and freedom and healing, yet is he has chosen to invite us to share in his saving work. For the 'no' that has been in that person's life, say 'yes', for that is what Amen means: yes, so be it. Amen.
 

Clareshare

A short time before Terror Tuesday, a link to our Community's website appeared on the website of Dr Mercola in America. He is one of many members of the medical profession who sincerely believe that prayer has an objective power to help the sick and suffering. In the week that followed we had 700 requests for prayer. One of the people we 'met' at the time was Mrs Katherine Bock of New York who asked prayers for her critically ill twin grandchildren, Alyssa Rose and Michael (if you want to experiment with the above steps of prayer, you could start with them).

She said, "You girls need help!" and suggested we start a prayer circle on the web. So we did. Forty people had just gathered together from many different parts of the world, with us, your Poor Clare Colettine sisters in Wales, the week before the terrorist attack happened. Then we knew why God had called us together.

Prayer works. 

It really does.

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