War, what is it good for?
War is just about the worst thing that we humans practice on each other. The moment we declare war on each other the rules of decent human love go out the window.
We dress this up by saying there are rules of war, that you can do this – but you can’t do that. You can arrest a soldier but you mustn’t mistreat him.
It’s of little comfort when the aim appears to be to kill as many men, women and children as you can of the ‘enemy’.
The reality is of course that we have only one enemy in this life and he lives somewhere rather warmer than earth.
It is that fallen creature that drives us towards hatred and the normalising of killing each other, of aiming missiles and guns at each other.
There is only one enemy that helps us somehow make war okay – because we have ‘rules’.
War is never okay. It is never okay because it requires us to cease to love our neighbour as ourselves – as Jesus loved us and as He continues to love us.
War starts in the small acts of aggressions we show each other every day. War starts in the nastiness of our own hearts when they are not full of the love that Jesus gives us.
Pray that your own heart is shed of any hatred and aggression, that it is instead filled with Jesus’ Love. Pray that the hearts of others are filled with that love. Pray that one day we will be able to say that War is a thing of the past.
Fr. Matthew
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The Hayes Town Christmas Lights will be turned on from St. Anselm at 4pm on Thursday. The massed choirs of the local schools will be turning out and it would be great if we could have a mulled wine & mince pie stall set up to help raise funds for the church. We’re expecting hundreds of people! Please speak to Fr. Matthew 0r Fr. Josiah if you can lend a hand.
Did you know you can support the parish by giving via Direct Debit? It’s super easy to set up and you can control it over the phone or via the website. It has a HUGE upside for the church as it means we automatically collect the Gift Aid on it (at no cost or fuss to you, the money comes direct from the Government). There are currently only 4 of us set up for Parish Giving but that brought in over £600 in additional Gift Aid last year, imagine if we were all doing this!
You can set it up by calling 0333 002 1271 and giving them our Parish Giving Code – 230 623 503
Envelopes are still also available – please do speak to David if you don’t have a giving envelope and would like to help fund our mission.