It’s Easter season when we celebrate as in this morning’s Gospel from St John Chapter 20 the risen Lord passing through doors closed out of fear to meet his friends.
All across the land doors are still largely closed through justifiable fear of infection yet the risen Lord finds his way through to open hearts. Then, through those open hearts, by their intercession, to many others bringing peace beyond understanding.
It’s my practice to spend the first hour of the day with the Lord. At this season my heart feels deeply the call to intercession. I’ve got my circle of acquaintance on an alphabetical sequence Sunday to Saturday. Sometimes, as I pray, the Lord lights up one or two names in front of me and gives me a task - that of contacting them in the way best for them in these circumstances. This means a text, e mail, online message or phone call later in the day.
People don’t like being preached at. They rarely dislike being prayed for. When I message my friends I say something like ‘I was thinking of you this morning in my prayers and will keep remembering you, as this morning, every Friday’. At first I thought this was too much like spiritual showing off, John Twisleton telling everyone he’d got a prayer list and he used it! I’ve come through this because it’s been the Lord’s invitation to do so and in social isolation the reminder others are praying for you is precious.
It’s precious because the risen Lord through our prayer and messaging reaches through closed doors into troubled hearts to say what he first said at Easter: ‘Peace be with you’ (John 20:19-22)
That peace is a gift of the Holy Spirit breathed on the first disciples in conjunction with sending them out. ‘As my Father has sent me, even so send I you’. In a profound sense that sending is from one heart to another. Just as we gain solace from friends who give ear to our own troubles so we are sent to others to give ear to theirs allowing the peace in us to flow to them.
Our prayer for others is immune from lockdown, as is our capacity to listen and speak to others indirectly. By devoting ourselves to regular intercession we focus away from self and are more disposed to the peaceable anointing of the Holy Spirit.
We can never underestimate the spiritual power released. As St Seraphim of Sarov wrote, ‘acquire the peace of the Spirit in your heart and thousands round you will find salvation’.
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