When words fail us, there’s always prayer

By Canon Deb Smith

When I was training for ordination I spent a couple of months on a placement at Helen House Hospice in Oxford – the first children’s hospice in the world. I remember sitting around the kitchen table with some of the children staying there and a few staff. I was sitting next to a young carer who was very new, and getting used to the ways of that community –which was so full of hope, yet may not have seemed so when you didn’t know it. A child who was born without capacity to do anything for herself, was crying, and the young carer shhhhed her, telling her not to cry. A natural thing to do. But the older, more experienced carer turned to her and said gently, don’t stop her from crying, don’t silence her.

Often prayer feels like a cry to God.

I don’t mean the long-list kind of prayer, but prayer when you feel there’s nowhere else to turn, when you are not even sure what you believe, but you need to cry out. That kind of prayer.

One of the things I know about prayer is that we never simply offer our words. Instead, our words are an offering of ourselves and the circumstances of our lives.

There’s always more going on than the words we say. They are just the tip of the iceberg, an outward and audible sign of some inner stuff.

I don’t know what was

Sunday, June 11

Sherborne Abbey: 8am Holy Communion, 9.30am Parish

Eucharist, 6pm Evensong going on in that helpless little girl, and I wouldn’t even have wondered if it wasn’t for the wise and compassionate words of the older carer, who acknowledged her human cry, her need to be heard. I sometimes don’t understand what is going on in me when I come before God in prayer, but I do know the words I offer do not encompass all that is on my heart.

Perhaps you feel that too, perhaps that is why it is in the silence, when words fail us, that we can know something of God. In all of us there is more going on than the words that we say, either in prayer or when we are pouring our hearts out to a friend. Our prayers are when and where we can stop

Remembering the Fallen

Saturday, June 17 pretending and be open to God.

On the night before his crucifixion Jesus prayed like that, struggling with what was ahead of him. He faces his life.

He stays in touch with his humanity. He speaks from the heart. He feels what he feels. He grieves. He weeps. He gathers with his friends and he prays. So when it comes to prayer, what if we took our cue from Jesus? What would that look like in what we are working out and struggling with today?

Weekday Services

Monday to Saturday at 8.30am, Morning Prayer - The Sepulchre Chapel

Every Monday at 9am, Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

Every Tuesday at 12noon, Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

Every Wednesday at 10.30am, Holy Communion with Homily – The Lady Chapel

Every Thursday at 12noon, BCP Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

Every Friday at 9am, Ecumenical Holy CommunionThe Lady Chapel

The first Friday of the month at 9am, Requiem Holy Communion - The Sepulchre Chapel -

Every Saturday at 9am, Holy Communion - The Sepulchre Chapel

St James the Great, Longburton: 10am Family

Communion

St Martin of Tours, Lillington: 10am Holy Communion

St Paul’s at the Gryphon: 10.30am Morning Worship

St Mary Magdalene: 11.15am Holy Communion

St John the Baptist, Symondsbury: 9.30am Celtic Worship

St Mary Magdalene, North Poorton: 9.30am Holy Communion

St Saviour’s, Dottery: 10.30am

Morning Worship

St Michael and All Angels, Askerswell: 11am Benefice

Eucharist

Friday, June 16

Sherborne Abbey: 11am

Sherborne Abbey: 5pm Choral Evensong

Sunday, June 18

Sherborne Abbey: 8am Holy Communion, 9.30am Parish

Eucharist, 6pm Choral Evensong

St Martin of Tours, Lillington: 10am Morning Service

St James the Great, Longburton: 10am Family Communion

St Paul’s at the Gryphon: 10.30am All Age Worship

St Mary Magdalene, Castleton: 11.15am Mattins

St Mary Magdalene, Loders: 9.30am Celtic Worship

St Mary the Virgin, Powerstock: 11am Benefice Eucharist

St Paul’s, Broadoak: 6.30pm Holy Communion

Thursday, June 22

Sherborne Abbey: 5pm Choral

Evensong

Sunday, June 25

Sherborne Abbey: 8am Holy Communion, 9.30am Parish

Eucharist, 6pm Choral

Evensong

St Martin of Tours, Lillington: 10am Morning Service

St James the Great, Longburton: 10am Holy Communion

St Paul’s at the Gryphon: 10.30am Morning Worship

St Mary Magdalene: 11.15am

Mattins

St Saviour’s, Dottery: 9.30am

Holy Communion

St John the Baptist, Symondsbury: 11am Benefice

Eucharist

St Michael an All Angels, Askersewell: 6.30pm Evensong

St Mary Magdalene, North Poorton: 6.30pm Evensong