Each weekday for the next 14 days, Father James Lyons (Wellington) will be helping us reflect on God’s Word while we are in lockdown. What is God saying to us as we globally unite to defeat Covid-19?
SPACE BUBBLE
SETTING: create a small enclosure, placing the cross in the centre. Let this represent your “bubble”, the space you inhabit during this lockdown period.
Prayer of Praise:
My heart is ready, God
to sing and play and thank you.
Your steadfast love is higher than the heavens
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Let your glory be over the earth
to bring rescue to those you love.
Help us in this hour of crisis
for we can do nothing without you.
[verses from Psalm 108]
Astronauts live socially isolated. Orbiting the earth, they are locked in space, far away from loved ones and their usual activities. At this time, New Zealand and many other countries are in a lockdown situation, with people told to stay in their homes. Treating home as a bubble, illustrates the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic. Keeping yourself isolated lessens the chance of contracting or passing on the disease. The message is clear: stay bubbled-up in this locked-down world of ours!
Around the world people are uniting in prayer. Spiritual energy is being harnessed and the desire to engage in praying for those suffering from the virus, for medical professionals and caregivers, and for scientists seeking a cure, is bonding people like never before. While physical contact is avoided, linking spiritually is a strong and valid means of staying united, in touch and caring for one another.
This prayer theme offers a meditation on space, and the positives that can be learned from being apart.
A gravestone that got me thinking held a brief inscription a woman had chosen. It read, THANKS FOR THE SPACE. What was it saying? Thanks for the space, here, this grave? Thanks for the space that has been my life? Thanks for the space I filled in life – and for the space around me in which others lived?
THANKS FOR THE SPACE also acknowledges space as a gift. We do not create our own space. And thanks for all the space around me – the outer space that protects and shelters and holds our world in place.
Consider your own SPACE, and the space referred to in these days as your BUBBLE. In this context, space restricts you. There are boundaries you didn’t have before. Yet, this isolation is now your protection. Can you give thanks for this space?
THANKS FOR THE SPACE
Thank you, loving God, for your gift of space.
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Thank you for the space that gives me room to move and to be; to get to know myself as distinct from others; to get to be comfortable with myself.
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Thank you for the space that surrounds me; that tells me of other spaces; that honours my uniqueness while showing me I’m not alone in space.
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Thank you for the space that both separates and unites; is both personal and public; delights in my presence yet wants me to know mine is not the only space.
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Thank you for the space that enters my space; that draws me to others, to celebrate their space; to appreciate our togetherness; to understand that my space cannot be lived in isolation.
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Thank you for the space between each person that gives meaning to our own space, as links in a necklace highlight the beauty of each pearl.
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Thank you for the different kind of space being experienced today. The space being called our BUBBLE, keeping us safe from harmful infection and from passing infection to others. Though strange and unnatural, these separate spaces are for the good of all. – and for this we give you thanks.
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Thank you for the space that is my bubble. It will help me appreciate other spaces when we are once again able to mix and mingle. May I value every space as a precious gift to be respected and highly valued, honoured and protected, and may I be always grateful.
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Thank you for the space that opens out to reveal the wonder of your eternal space and the glory of creation.
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Thank you, loving God, for your gift of space.
Scripture: Matthew 15:21-28
Follow this story closely and consider its relation to “space”:
- Jesus’ personal space being “invaded”
- The disciples uncomfortable at the intrusion into their “space”
- The “space” of ministry being challenged
- Growing awareness of the need to move into new and uncomfortable “space”
- The way Jesus gifts “space” to the woman
How does this story speak to you about your awareness of “space” during this pandemic crisis?
Reflection on INNER SPACE
Your inner space is your most private room, the space that accompanies you through all your outer space. Jesus speak about your inner room when he reminds us that the most important prayer is the one we pray there – not on the street corner or in church (Matt.6:6). When we open our hearts to anyone we invite them into our most personal space. In this space there can be no pretence, no avoiding or side-tracking issues.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. [Helen Keller]
PRAYER OF ST PATRICK
May the strength of God pilot us.
May the power of God preserve us.
May the wisdom of God instruct us.
May the hand of God protect us.
May the way of God direct us.
May the shield of God defend us.
May the host of God guard us.
May Christ be with us, above us, in us and before us.
May your salvation, O Lord, be always ours, today and for evermore. Amen.
