Room for repentance?

Just after posting the link today's video offering of Morning Prayer, I had a call to stand in for Mother Frances at the St John's Eucharist, as she'd fallen and bruised herself badly. There were eight of us for the celebration, and all were concerned to hear of this misfortune, following on from the loss of her partner last month. 

The Gospel of the day contained the Publican's prayer - Lord have mercy on me a sinner - which prompted me to reflect how little penitence finds a place in the church's engagement with society these days. There's now an overlay on the Sunday lectionary and calendar of saints days of worthy themes for celebration and reflection but outside of Lent calls to collective repentance and liturgical expressions of penitence no longer feature, as they did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries/ Not even Cranmer's Litany. which in former centuries preceded the Sunday Eucharist gets used often these days. I think we're missing something. Are we that uncomfortable with mourning the sorry state affairs the world is in, and beseeching God's mercy?

I learned that the Church in Wales electoral college is meeting at the moment to choose a new Bishop for the diocese of Swansea and Brecon. Who will it be, I wonder? I'm so out of touch with mainstream church affairs that I have no idea who the likely candidates might be. Did the electoral college pray the Litany before starting their deliberations?

After the service I returned home and worked on the audio recording for next Thursday's Morning Prayer, and after cooking lunch, completed the job. I didn't need a siesta, and went for a walk around the park earlier than usual. This meant I had time before supper to watch a French flic movie on More Four. 

I went to choir practice at St Catherine's, although I'm not going to be around to sing very much in the coming months, but wanted to sing anyway. It seems that special kind of energy to make music which I didn't have over the past three years is returning. I'm very glad about this very special sign of healing.