Reflection: Sunday 1st August and for the week ahead:

As your dawn renews the face of the earth

bringing light and life to all creation,

may we rejoice in this day you have made;

as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep,

open our eyes to behold your presence

and strengthen our hands to do your will,

that the world may rejoice and give you praise.     (After Lancelot Andrews. 1555-1626)

These words were written some 400 years ago by the scholar, translator and bishop Lancelot Andrews, but are as meaningful and relevant as ever for us today. Each new day is a gift for which to thank God, and an opportunity to put our faith into practice, ‘that the world may rejoice and give him praise’. As we open our eyes to another new day may we know the presence of God with us in all that we do, and strengthened by that knowledge fulfil with contagious joy the tasks that lie before us.

Revd Rosemary