How are you coping with lockdown? It will affect each of us differently. With so much time on our hands we might become the classic couch-potato. The constant \u2018News updates\u2019 repeated continually all day is depressing enough, pointless speculation on when it will end; who\u2019s right or wrong; passing the buck and looking for a scape-goat is how the world responds to disaster.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But we are not of this world, this is not the end, we are redeemed and look to be in a better place. So, death is not something to be feared; if we die today, next year or aged 100, it is in the Lord\u2019s hands and we have His promise of something better to look toward. We are His and are protected by Him. We all have doubts and fears: He says \u2018Do not be afraid\u2019; turn to Him in prayer, seek His company and know the calm He brings us if we just ask for it.<\/p>\n
This is a season for miracles to happen and we are seeing one before our eyes. Cures like a vaccine are not invented, the Lord has provided them in the miracle of our natural world which we can harvest for good or evil. At the moment the good side of humankind is being displayed by the kindness and care so many are giving and we thank them all. Pray that is not lost when things return to some normality. We want to learn from the lessons we see during this time and not return to old habits and routines that destroy rather than build.<\/p>\n
1st\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St Joseph the Worker<\/p>\n
2nd\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St Athanasius<\/p>\n
4th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The English Martyrs<\/p>\n
14th \u00a0 St Matthias Feast\u00a0 Apostle<\/em><\/p>\n 16th \u00a0 St Simon Stock Diocesan\u00a0 Memorial<\/em><\/p>\n 17th \u00a0 St John I\u00a0 Martyr & Pope<\/em><\/p>\n 18th \u00a0 St Dunstan\u00a0 Diocesan Memorial<\/em><\/p>\n 21st \u00a0\u00a0 The Ascension of the Lord\u00a0 Holy Day of Obligation<\/em><\/p>\n 25th \u00a0 St Bede the Venerable\u00a0 National Memorial<\/em><\/p>\n 27th \u00a0 St Augustine of Canterbury\u00a0 Diocesan Feast<\/em><\/p>\n How are you coping with lockdown? It will affect each of us differently. With so much time on our hands we might become the classic couch-potato. The constant \u2018News updates\u2019 repeated continually all day is depressing enough, pointless speculation on when it will end; who\u2019s right or wrong; passing the buck and looking for a … Continue reading “Reflections for the Month of May”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rev Michael Baldry<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"