August Newsletter - “A little goes a long way!“

Michael Williams,
vicar of St Dyfnog's

Pentecost  9  - from  the  Vicar

Over the next few weeks we will be reading from St. John’s Gospel, at our morning worship, as the writer develops the teaching of Jesus, as the “bread of life“.

This teaching helps us understand that it is only Christ who will truly nourish us as no earthly bread ever could. This “discourse on the bread of life“, opens with the story of the feeding of a large crowd of people through the willingness of one young boy who offered his small packed lunch, for Jesus to use.

Sometimes it is the seemingly small gift which can achieve so much and, day by day, over time, the effects of those little gifts or activities begin to have an impact. Even a smile for another can spread much wider than we sometimes might think!

"Smile a while, and when you smile another smiles, 

and soon there’s miles and miles of smiles, because you smile!"

On a practical level, the Denbigh Food Bank has been launched, to help individuals and families in crisis, by the provision of an emergency food supply. The purpose of the Foodbank is to provide a three day supply of food for people who are in need, such as families who are bereaved or have a sudden change in circumstances, perhaps by the loss of paid work or whilst they wait for benefits to be paid. Potential recipients will have been professionally assessed prior to being referred to the scheme. Here, in church, there will eventually be a collection box for food items, such as those listed opposite.

Michael

"Country Church " by Muriel Willa

So I push open the old oak door 

My soul is stilled, my spirits soar; 

A hush, a fragrance all around 

Tell me I am on holy ground. 

Hundreds of years of praise and prayer 

Hang like incense in the air; 

A golden cross on the altar stands 

Polished by careful, prayerful hands, 

While flowers of living radiance shine 

In beauty wrought by love divine. 

With sapphire, emerald, ruby, rose, 

Purple and amber-each window glows, 

With angels, saints, translucent, bright, 

Shepherds and lambs of pearly white. 

The life of Christ in grace arrayed 

From manger to cross portrayed, 

Then risen in glorious majesty 

To   reign  in heaven eternally. 

The font, where babes in long robes dressed, 

The stone floor, worn by reverent tread, 

The wooden pews where prayers are said; 

The pulpit by some steps is reached 

Where countless sermons have been preached.

I sense the sacred atmosphere 

Of   comfort  and forgiveness here,

And for some moments humbly kneel, 

God's  presence  and His peace to feel. 

Refreshed, I step outside once more. 

And gently close the ancient door.