Thought for the Day
23rd July 2021
Recently I was thinking of Agathe. She was one of my great-great-great-grandmothers (we each have 16, of course!). Why? A few days ago the people of France celebrated ‘Bastille Day’, the anniversary of the start of the French Revolution in 1789. In November that year Agathe was born in Paris. With her parents and siblings she lived in central Paris throughout the turbulent years of the Revolution. They have left no account of what they experienced, but as a child growing up there she must have witnessed some of the horrific events of those years. They lived on a main road and may well have seen the tumbrils going past on the way to the guillotine. I suspect their sympathies lay with the royalists – a later daughter was named Marie Antoinette – the name of the Queen who had been executed. They survived, although her father died in mysterious circumstances when Agathe was only 12 years old.
Of course she is by no means the only child to have had to endure all sorts of hardships and horrors. Even today we repeatedly hear of fresh examples, some far away, some nearer home. What can we do? In practical terms most of us not much, except, perhaps, support charities that offer practical help. When children were brought to Jesus he blessed them. Maybe for most of us that is all we can do – ask God’s blessing – and not forget them.
And what of Agathe? At the age of 23 she married, at 25 came to England, had four children, was widowed at 30 and died in Kent at the age of 75.
David T Roberts
21st July 2021
So we no longer have regulations. Things are no longer mandatory but encouraged. And life becomes more difficult. It was hard to “lock down” but it is even harder now to “open up”. Particularly in a building that is “open for all.” How can we be sensitive to the needs of everyone? How can we […]
19th July 2021
Freedom Day? Its all we have heard about and yearned for. The end of the pandemic and the return to normality for us all. But is normality good enough – is returning to our pre pandemic ways as good as we should be striving for or do we all need to do better. The post […]
14th July 2021
Science, we sometimes hear it said, has given us a picture of the universe so vast that we humans are reduced to insignificance, along with the values that are so precious to us: goodness, truth and beauty, not to mention faith or a sense of the divine. We find ourselves in a material cosmos of […]
12th July 2021
By the time you read this, we will know whether the England men’s football team has indeed ended those 55 years of hurt. At the time of writing I (like a lot of other people!) am fervently hoping they will: a win on Sunday night will bring so much joy to so many people after […]
9th July 2021
I was raised in the Church of England, even singing in the parish choir. Our vicar was an austere man, hailing from Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, and one of his oft-repeated sayings was that ‘privilege carries responsibility’. I had my disagreements with that man, all the more so as I grew older, but this […]
7th July 2021
As I write this, football fans are in a state of euphoria following their team’s victory over Germany, tennis enthusiasts are glued to Wimbledon, cricket carries sedately on and athletes are gearing up for the Olympics. What a feast of sport for us to indulge in and enjoy! Whether you follow any sport or not, […]
5th July 2021
Jigsaw Addiction During Lockdown it has been like permanent Christmas; in normal times we would only attempt Jigsaws as an after-Christmas exercise, but in Lockdown we have done a great number, and I have to confess that doing them has become quite addictive. Whether this is therapeutic or an escape from reality may be debated, […]
2nd July 2021
We have got to get praying! Not only for ourselves, families, friends and church but for our government. Recent events and disclosures show up dangerous weaknesses in the whole ethos and attitude to life of the people in charge of how our laws and regulations are implemented, respected and obeyed, from over-playing the ‘old boys’ […]
30th June 2021
One of the things I’ve always loved about Bristol, is the many vantage points from which you can look out over the cityscape to the hills beyond. Timothy Dudley-Smith’s “I lift my eyes to the quiet hills” echoes Psalm 121. What is it about lifting our eyes, about looking out at hills and mountains that […]