Words of Light and Hope from Helena Crockford LLM

Words of Light and Hope – Thy Kingdom Come       Helena Crockford LLM

For the last 10 years, churches worldwide have joined together for Thy Kingdom Come, 10 days of prayer between Ascension Day (29 th May) and Pentecost (8 th June). This parallels the days the disciples waited together after their risen Jesus Christ ascended to heaven before their eyes, and they knew not what would come next for them. Then at Pentecost the Holy Spirit filled them and enabled them to spread the Word to ‘the ends of the earth’.

This year Archbishop Stephen Cotterell has written the prayer resource which invites us to pray particularly for five people to come to know Jesus better. The Novena ‘Ten Lessons, One Great Hope’ gives a meditation for each day, drawing on the Lord’s Prayer, TKC Novena 2025 DIGITAL.pdf. Cotterell starts by asking us:

What is prayer for?

Listening to prayer being offered in church, you’d be forgiven for thinking the idea is to change God’s mind. Or maybe to let God know what’s going on down here. But that can’t be right.

Just before He teaches His disciples the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says that God ‘knows what you need before you ask Him’ (Matthew 6:8). In which case, why pray at all? Or to ask the question again: what is prayer for? Well, perhaps it’s to change our mind.  He quotes a young Ugandan climate activist, who said: ‘In prayer we envision a world that we cannot see with our eyes’.

Prayer is for God.

We are God’s children and we offer God our praise and adoration.

We acknowledge God’s sovereignty.

We seek God’s way.

We discover God’s vision. And we pray for others that they may know this too.

Amen.