Amy Boucher Pye

Author: Amy Boucher Pye

  • “The Gift of Forgiveness” by Sheila Holwell: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    I so appreciate hearing from readers when they share their stories of God working in their lives, and when a bit of my writing plays a part, I’m humbled and grateful! I loved reading Sheila’s story of forgiveness, spurred on by the Spirit. As you read, may you open your heart to that same Spirit, who might bring to mind someone you could forgive?

    A meditation in Our Daily Journey, written by Amy Boucher Pye on the subject of forgiveness, got me thinking. At the conclusion we were led into considering whether there were any experiences in our lives where there was a need to forgive.

    While I have been very conscious over the years of the need to forgive, and have experienced  the wonderful freedom it brings, as I read the meditation there suddenly flooded into my mind the memory of an incident more than thirty years ago in the church. I knew immediately that I had not really forgiven.

    A new Curate came when I was involved with the Pathfinder Group of young teens. The mother of one of our members came to see us, concerned that, while she encouraged her children to be faithful to their commitments, she felt this was being challenged as the Curate had told her daughter to be trained as a Server, which meant leaving Pathfinders. As leaders of Pathfinders we weren’t told of this decision.

    Several other incidents that happened without communication, so I went to the Curate and asked him to tell me what was going on. He looked me straight in the eye and said, 

    “You are not a mainline Anglican and you don’t fit.”

    I was so shocked that I did not respond, so I went to the Vicar and told him what had been said and his response was, 

    “Well, it’s true.” 

    Having made a point of being committed to the church over the years in every way possible, including broadening my churchmanship, I found their statements very hurtful.

    These thirty years later, as I read the article in Our Daily Journey and realised that I had not forgiven the Curate, I laid the whole situation at the foot of the Cross. I knew that Jesus had been there with me at the time, and so I was finally able to forgive him, and pray for him, leaving it all with the Risen Christ.

    Finally, to bring the seal of God’s redeeming love on it all I placed the whole situation (albeit thirty plus years later!) via a little written note, on the Altar, at a recent Eucharist.

    Subsequent circumstances have made me realise, and has caused me to thank God, that it was that stage on my pilgrimage that was a contributory factor to where I am today. And soon after, there was a lovely reconciliation with the Vicar.

    I am forgiven and able to forgive!

    Sheila Holwell says: I grew up in North London where from the age of six I went to Crusaders where Evangelical Bible Teaching was tops and on which she I stand eighty years later!

    After school I went to RAF Hendon doing office work, where I met the family of a Sergeant whose wife was dying. She requested that I witnessed her Baptism (in the Hospital bed), which was such a privilege. She died soon after. Eventually, but not without much heart searching and doubts, I responded to George’s (the widower) request to marry him. One day I took him and his son, Peter out in the car. Eight-year-old Peter from the back seat said “Well, when are you two going to get married then?” I nearly crashed the car!! Then I said “Oh, at least not until next year.” His immediate answer was, “Oh! I’ll die if I have to wait that long.” We didn’t let him die, and there followed wonderful experiences in Singapore and Libya as well as the UK.

    Then followed a period in Oxfordshire where both George and I became Readers (LLMs) with a final move to S. Devon where George went to Glory. George did have very bad fits of depression which marred the first 25 years of our marriage, but the Lord was there and George had a wonderful healing, which is another story.

    Order 7 Ways to Pray here for more ways to encounter God. And have a look for The Living Cross, which is a through-the-Bible engagement with the topic of forgiveness.

  • Praying with a Painting: A walk in the woods

    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Join me for a few moments of prayerful contemplation of this painting of my father’s – you could take a walk in the woods through your imagination. As you do so, you might want to consider this passage from Mark’s gospel:

    The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

    Mark 6:30–32 (NIV)

    Of course, the story continues and the disciples and Jesus don’t get their rest because Jesus has compassion on the crowds, feeding them miraculously with five loaves and two fish (you can read the whole story here). How do you think Jesus’ friends felt when they didn’t get to go off for their rest? Might their perspective have shifted when they took part in the miracle?

    Through your imagination, take a walk in the woods with Jesus. Notice him next to you – what’s he doing? What’s his expression? Might he have something to say to you?


  • Praying with the Bible: From prose to poetry

    Recently when on retreat I led some times of engaging with the Bible prayerfully, including turning some of the prose into a poem. I love this rendition that I’ve been given permission to share.

    You could read through it slowly, asking God to help your love overflow. Then perhaps spend some time with a passage of your choosing, having a go yourself?

    And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless…

    Philippians 1:9–10, NRSV

    Eyes to see, 
    Ears to hear, 
    Heart to love, 
    being and becoming

    Knowing to knowledge; 
    Helpless to helped; 
    Better to best,
    Mercy and forgiveness

    Graceless to graceful
    Thankless to thankful
    God’s love abounds to all around
    God’s love, God’s love, you have been found
    –Ann Ruby

    Order 7 Ways to Pray here for more ways to encounter God, including a chapter on praying with the Bible.

  • “Five Meaningful Four-Word Prayers to Release, Refocus, and Reset” by Andrea Stunz: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    Do you have time to pray just four words? I love how Andrea gives us this practical way to incorporate more prayer into our days as we dialogue with God. Just four words, but what a difference they can make!

    For several years now I have worked my way through A Clearing Season, by Sarah Parsons, during the Lenten season. In one particular reading, in one particularly tough season of my life, I read this:

    “Thy will be done. In relation to our ordinary, workaday lives, these may be the most revolutionary words we will ever say. Saying them can change our orientation to life: we put our little boats into a great stream and drop our oars. We lose a bit of our old control over things; we clear the space and allow God to fill it, agreeing to tend whatever growth God engenders.”

    –Sarah Parsons, A Clearing Season

    Parsons’s recommendation for a four-word prayer became precisely what my heart needed to refocus my constant and invasive triggers. With this prayer, I could release, refocus and reset; taking the mental and emotional turmoil I thought I could control and open-palming it back to God’s control.

    The four-word prayer, “Thy will be done,” burrowed deep into my daily walk with God. I carry it with me like my well-worn childhood security blanket I affectionately called my “thing.”

    Allow me to share five meaningful four-word prayers I’ve found helpful to release, refocus and reset our hearts and minds on things above.

    1: THY WILL BE DONE

    “This, then, is how you should pray:

    Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name,

    your kingdom come,
    your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us today our daily bread.
    And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
    And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.     Matthew 6:9-13 NIV

    2: LORD, YOU ARE BIGGER

    I find immeasurable comfort in remembering how small I am in relation to God’s bigness. I often think back to the song I sang so often in my childhood, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” If He’s got the whole world in His hands, He has me in them as well.

    3: REDUCE ME TO LOVE

    Hannah Brencher shared that she calls her small prayers “breath prayers.” I love this!

    “Breath prayers help me bridge the gap between praying sometimes and praying without ceasing. My breath prayer for when fear tries to take back the lead role is simple: Reduce me to love.”

    –Hannah Brencher

    I’ve loved this prayer since the moment I read Hannah’s words. It’s a prayer that helps me quickly get out of my own way and centers my focus on loving others well. “Reduce me to love” is a prayer that Jesus lived and calls His followers to.

    4: HELP ME; THANK YOU

    Sometimes I don’t know what to ask for, but I know I’m in need. As I ask the Holy Spirit to cover me, I always want to make sure I’m asking from a foundation of gratitude.

    With eyes wide open at the wonder of it all
    Or with broken wings when I’m spinning in free fall
    Hallelujah, deliver me
    They’re rising up inside of me
    Rolling off my tongue
    Before I thought to bid them come

    Help me, help me, thank you, thank you
    Whether you’re riding high or feeling low
    These are the two best prayers I know
    Help me and thank you

    (Help Me, Thank You, Jason Gray)

    5: CAN YOU HELP ME?

    I, myself, find it challenging at times to ask for help. William Paul Young, author of The Shack and whose powerful story is featured in The Heart of Man documentary, said these four words, “Can you help me?” for the first time in his life to another human after his lifetime of secrets were exposed. I voice this prayer to my God, the helper and healer. I know it pleases Him when I do.

    I want to mention that I do not believe our prayers to be quick fixes. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to healing our broken places. Healing takes time, and it is not linear. However, these four-word prayers can serve the purpose of releasing control, replacing our focus on Christ’s power, and resetting our hearts.

    A four-word prayer can become a small yet meaningful practice leading to deeper conversations with our Creator, Comforter, and Healer.

    What short prayers are meaningful to you? How do you re-center when anxiety threatens to consume you? What do you turn to for a quick reset?

    Additional Resources:

    Andrea Stunz enjoys life’s adventures; best when they require a passport and are shared with her family and friends. She longs for another sunrise, a good cup of coffee or tea, and the grace of Jesus. She is a writer, editor, and sharer of stories. She desires to encourage others with the hope she has found in Colossians 1:17. AndreaStunz.com

    Order 7 Ways to Pray here for more ways to encounter God, including a chapter on using our imagination to place ourselves into a gospel story.

  • “Bored with Prayer? Use your Imagination!” by Joy Margetts: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    What a wonderful post from Joy with some simple but profound ways to pray with your imagination. I love her idea of the prayer walk in one’s local community even from one’s own home, and think of how meaningful that could be not only for us as we pray but for our neighbours.

    Bored with prayer? None of us would actually admit to it, but I think we have all been there. We sit down to pray, we have our lists, our prompts, our determination. And yet five minutes in our mind is wandering, and we are planning what to cook for dinner. There are lots of ways of helping us to stay focussed when we pray. I regularly use prayer lists, mnemonics, and indeed the words of scripture to pray. But I have found that when my prayer life is beginning to feel stale and routine I need something else. So I use my imagination.

    That may sound a bit dodgy – can we trust where our minds take us?

    We are creative beings, made in the image of a creative God. And I believe He has gifted us with our imagination. As a Christian Fiction writer I understand that now more than ever. My stories are inspired by Holy Spirit, using the vehicle of my imagination. And Jesus Himself taught some of His most profound truths by engaging the imagination through parables and stories. So I can trust my imagination if it is surrendered to God, and the things I use it for grounded in scripture (Phil 4:8).

    So how do I use my Imagination to pep up my prayer life?

    First of all, I invite Holy Spirit to be in it. I use worship music to welcome Him into my prayer space, but a simple prayer of welcome and a moment of surrender is enough. These are just some of the ways I use my imagination to enhance my prayer life.

    Praying for myself:

    This is perhaps the easiest. I picture myself walking with Jesus, holding His hand. I don’t have a problem with this act of intimacy as I believe it is how we were designed to be – before the fall, Adam walked in the garden with God (Gen 3:8). Jesus and I walk together through a beautiful landscape of grass, trees and mountains, alongside a sparkling river and I just tell Him about my concerns. And I listen, because He often speaks back to me. Sometimes I even feel the squeeze of His hand on mine.

    Praying for my friends:

    I picture myself before the throne of grace. I know that I am welcomed there because of Jesus (Hebrews 4:16). As I stand before the Father I imagine the person I am praying for is standing beside me. I have in effect taken their hand and led them to the throne of grace. I thank God for my friend and what they mean to me, and then wait for a moment to sense what God might say about them too. Sometimes He tells me to tell them something to encourage them. Other times I just pour out my heart for them to Him. Invariably I end up in tears, sensing the love He has for them.

    Praying for my community:

    Many of us know the power of prayer walking. I can’t do that so much today, so I use my imagination instead. I walk the streets of my town in my mind and pray for the businesses to be blessed. For the people I know, stopping in my mind at their front doors. For the schools and the care homes. For the areas of deprivation and need. I find it a really helpful way to focus and often a deeply moving experience.

    Using my imagination doesn’t necessarily replace other forms of praying, but it does help to add variety and colour to my prayer life. If you are finding prayer hard, for whatever reason, why not engage your imagination and see what happens?

    Joy Margetts is a blogger and a published author. She is also a retired nurse, mother and grandmother, with a lifelong interest in history.

    Her debut novel The Healing was published by Instant Apostle in 2021. A work of historic fiction, set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, it is also a story of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power.

    The Pilgrim, her second full length novel, will be published by Instant Apostle next month.

    For more information on Joy and her writing, and links to purchase her books, go to her website.

    Order 7 Ways to Pray here for more ways to encounter God, including a chapter on using our imagination to place ourselves into a gospel story.

  • The Gift of a Prayer Shawl

    Amy in front of the fireplace at Penhurst Retreat Centre, wearing the beautiful blue and purple prayer shawl.
    The prayer shawl got its debut at Penhurst Retreat Centre.

    As the very grateful recipient of a prayer shawl from my lovely friend Liz Shields, who is part of the prayer shawl ministry at Liverpool Cathedral, I asked Liz to share about the weaving process. Yarn and warp and weft (and no I don’t really understand those terms), with the whole of the making soaked in prayer. I found her process fascinating!

    Do I think that a prayer shawl has a magical quality? No. But God delights in the “stuff” of creation – bread and wine, trees and water, milk and honey. In surprising and amazing ways he answers our prayers. The shawl can be a tangible reminder of his love and care.

    Here’s Liz:

    Liz with the finished creation!

    I have been making prayer shawls for about eight years now. It began after I read an article in a magazine about the spirituality of knitting. The prayer shawl ministry was mentioned and it gave their website. When I read more about it, I thought it was something I would love to be involved in. The website gave information about churches and other organizations that were involved with this ministry – most of these were in America, but there were some in the UK. Sadly, none were local to me. So, I decided to make a shawl anyway and give it to someone I knew. My gift was so well received, that I was encouraged to carry on.

    To begin with, my shawls were either knitted or crocheted. When I learnt to weave and my skills gradually improved, I started to weave shawls as well. There is something very mediative about weaving and praying!

    At the beginning of 2020, I learnt that Liverpool Cathedral were about to start this ministry, so I registered to join their team. It has been a wonderful blessing to me and a great privilege to be involved with this ministry at the Cathedral and to use my creative gifts in this way, holding people before God in prayer as I weave.

    Making Amy’s Shawl

    After I received a message from Amy on a social media channel about the shawls and scarves that I weave, I offered to weave a prayer shawl for her. As I am involved with the Prayer Shawl Ministry at Liverpool Cathedral, I was given permission to have it blessed at one of the Cathedral services.

    I checked with Amy what colours she would like in her shawl and what type of fibre she would prefer.

    Then I collected together some possible yarns and wove some samples. Sampling allows me to see how the colours work together, and also to decide which pattern to use.

    From those samples I chose Scheepjes Whirlette in the colourway Bubble for the warp and Scheepjes Whirl in colourway BrambleBerry for the weft.

    Now I am almost ready to begin but before I do, I turn to prayer and commit the project and Amy and myself to the Lord and ask His blessing on what I will make. Quite often a passage of Scripture will come to me, and I use that to write a prayer and then I use that prayer throughout my weaving. I also use prayers from a booklet that has been produced by Liverpool Cathedral for our Prayer Shawl Ministry team.

    The first task in weaving is to calculate the number of threads I will need and then to wind a warp on my warping board.

    For this project, I needed 198 threads. I usually count as I go along in multiples of 20. I always double check to make sure I have the correct number and then I place a marker around each group of 20.

    Once the warp is wound, and secured at various points, it’s ready to be taken off the warping board and chained.

    Now it’s time to ‘dress’ the loom which involves…

    …securing the warp on the back beam of the loom and spreading it out evenly;

    …threading the heddles. The heddles allow each thread to be raised in a particular pattern. If these are threaded wrongly, the pattern won’t work.

    ..threading the reed – which keeps the threads in position and maintains the correct width.

    The last part of ‘dressing’ the loom is to secure the warp on the front beam, making sure the tension is even across the width of the warp.

    The final preparation task is to wind the shuttles with the weft yarn and then the weaving can begin!

    Once I have woven a few inches, I secure the warp threads by hemstitching in groups of two. This ensures that the weaving won’t unravel when it’s taken off the loom.

    The first few rows of weaving are always exciting. As you begin to see the pattern emerging, you realize that all the hard work of warping has been worth it, and you know that you can settle down and enjoy the meditative rhythm of weaving and praying.

    When the desired length is reached, another row of hemstitching is done and then the warp threads are cut and I can wind the shawl off the front beam of the loom.

    I finish off the shawl by securing any ends on the back of the shawl, and then twist the fringe.

    The shawl is now ready to be taken to the Cathedral, to be labelled, gift-wrapped and then blessed.

    Amy’s shawl was blessed on Ascension Day at the High Altar of Liverpool Cathedral by one of the Cathedral Canons.

    You might find you are keen for a shawl too. You can find out more about the Prayer Shawl Ministry through this website. Also, Liz recommends that people approach their local church if they’re interested in receiving a shawl or having one blessed. Members of the clergy should be pleased to bless a shawl that someone had made, even if this specific ministry is not part of their church life.

  • The Lord is my. . .

    I continue to love personalizing Psalm 23, and this week as I’m at Penhurst Retreat Centre in the lovely English countryside, I’m enjoying seeing the sheep and lambs as I ponder the Lord as my Shepherd. I share in the video below, which I recorded while being in the Shepherd’s Hut at Penhurst, about how to adapt Psalm 23 to us today.

    On social media I welcomed hearing your renditions, and I’m delighted to share Caroline Lessiter’s lovely one: “The Lord is my Friend,” with permission.

    The Lord is my friend, therefore I lack no support.
    He makes me rest when I am tired; 
He leads me to thin places 
    where I can take stock and be refreshed.
He guides me when I am feeling lost,
    for His glory.

Even though I may be deeply troubled 
    I fear nothing, 
because You are at my side always.
    Your ever presence 
comforts me.

You hold out Your hands of love 
    and welcome me during my times of struggle.
You wrap me in Your loving embrace 
    and I am filled with Your strength.
Surely Your grace and mercy will be with me 
    for the rest of my life
and I will live in my Father’s house 
    forever.

  • Join me in praying from Penhurst Retreat Centre

    This week I’m leading a 7 Ways to Pray retreat from the lovely Penhurst Retreat Centre near Battle, East Sussex (on the south coast of England). I welcome you to experience some of the wonder of this place, and more so, our amazing God who loves to meet us in prayer.

    I’ll be adding short videos each day to my YouTube channel – wifi permitting! (It’s very slow here out in the countryside.) You can also enjoy the videos I created back in March from Lee Abbey, Devon, if you want to jump in now. We won’t have the seaside this week, but amazing English gardens.

    The first video I created last night shortly after arriving while sitting in the sun-soaked garden by the labyrinth. How to prepare for a retreat? I give some pointers, and some silence to enjoy the birdsong.

    How do you best prepare for a retreat?

  • “The Blessing of Stillness and Silence” by Philippa Linton: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    How can we find stillness in a busy, chaotic world? And why should we seek to be countercultural in this quest? Philippa shares from her own journey of embracing silence as a way of encountering God. I hope you can find some time to quiet yourself today and enter into God’s loving presence:

    As I drove into the car park, surrounded by dark trees on a chilly autumn evening, I felt peace wash over me. It was October, 1989, and I had booked a weekend at a picturesque retreat house in West Sussex called St Julian’s, run by an Anglican lay community. I have been on many retreats since then but that first taste of stillness and silence at St Julian’s remains a special memory.

    Years later, I am still very much a novice at practicing stillness and silence. My prayer life is often fickle and inconsistent. Yet I hold before me the promise of stillness and silence as beautiful gateways to God’s presence.

    In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.   Mark 1:35 (NRSV)

    Jesus launches his ministry in a blaze of power – proclaiming the kingdom of God, calling four fishermen to follow him, delivering a man from an evil spirit in a local synagogue, and healing Peter’s mother-in-law. By nightfall there are crowds outside the door, bringing the sick to be healed by this amazing young rabbi. With all this desperate human need surrounding him, what does Jesus do the next day?  Very early in the morning, before dawn, he gets up, leaves the house where he and his companions are staying, and heads to a solitary, deserted place, where he prays.

    Perhaps he chose somewhere quiet in the hills above the sea of Galilee. Wherever this lonely place was, it was just him alone with his Father. His first priority is to be alone with the Father and spend precious time with him, before resuming his ministry.  If the Son of God himself needed to do this, while he was here on earth, how much more do I.

    For God alone my soul waits in silence;
        from him comes my salvation.       Psalm 62:1 (NRSV)

    This verse awakens in me a deep yearning to wait for God in stillness and silence, to receive his love and his perfect peace. It’s so simple to come humbly before God in stillness and silence, to quieten my dark thoughts and troubled impulses, so that he can meet with me and I with him. Yet it can be so hard, because there’s so much within me and without me that distracts me from following God.

    I have learned that I don’t have to be in a house of prayer, or a beautiful garden, or even alone in the hills, surrounded by the beauty of creation, in order to find God’s presence. He is always there. I can enter stillness and silence even in the musty, noisy, claustrophobic chaos of the London Underground. Just by focusing my breathing and praying the name of Jesus either silently or under my breath, I can centre my being and become aware that God is here with me all the time and can pour his peace into my heart any time. It doesn’t matter where I am. It doesn’t matter what’s going on. Just as Jesus met with his Father in intimacy and solitude, so I too can enter that intimacy and solitude with the Father and the Son.

    Entering prayer through stillness and silence leads me more deeply into a loving awareness of God. It’s so simple … and God never stops inviting me to come ever closer and deeper.

    Philippa Linton is the administrator for the education and learning office of the United Reformed Church. She is also an Anglican lay minister. She wrote a devotional for the anthology ‘Light for the Writer’s Soul’, published by Media Associates International, and her short story ‘Magnificat’ appears in the ACW Christmas Anthology.

    Order 7 Ways to Pray here for more ways to encounter God, including resources for small groups.

  • “Learning to Lament” by Rachael Newham: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    What happens when God is suddenly silent? Rachael shares movingly of her experiences as a teenager and beyond. She eventually found hope in the Psalms and learning how to lament. That someone before her could voice her feelings gave her a language with which to communicate with God. She learned to lament. I believe you’ll find her post so encouraging:

    It was a running joke when I was small girl that if I were saying grace, we’d better get the microwave on standby as the food would be cold by the time I’d finished praying. As a young child, prayer felt as natural to me as breathing, a near-constant conversation between my God and I.

    As I grew older however, the easy connection became strained, even more so when I first developed mental illness at fourteen. Prayer no longer felt like a two-way conversation, but talking into the ether. I was bombarded by questions about who I was and what I believed about the God I felt had abandoned me to myself. I can’t remember ever doubting God’s existence, but the distance grew into what felt like an unreachable chasm. I got stuck on the idea that I couldn’t pray for myself, that God couldn’t possibly care for a messed up teenager living a comfortable life when there was so much struggle and poverty going on in the world. My vision of God shrunk with my ability to pray and I began to believe that the miraculous encounters I heard about from friends attending summer festivals were totally outside of my reach.

    I’d been writing in a diary since the earliest days of my illness; and when someone wrote Psalm 40 in a card to me during a particularly dark period, I began to address my writings to God. Suddenly I was no longer venting my pain into the void, but into the presence of the Father I’d given my life to aged five.

    The words of Psalm 40 became my own prayer;

    “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy put, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.”

    There was something astounding to me that someone had expressed my despair before God all those years ago and yet was able to declare that God had met them in the midst of the pit. It was not the flash of light miracle I so craved, but something began to change for me. As my writing became my prayer, I started to rediscover the closeness with God that I had been missing.

    I would later learn to call the prayers I was writing lament – that as I learned to express my despair before the God of hope, He was opening up the possibility that perhaps the gospel truth of our belovedness was not lost to me, that I was not lost to Him.

    I began to almost crave the more reflective times in church life of Advent and Lent, the ancient liturgy and story of the God moving into the neighbourhood and experiencing the breadth of our humanity, the darkness of Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday met me where I was and I didn’t feel as if I had to fake jubilation in the same way that I felt was expected at Christmas and Easter.

    Over the past few years however, I have begun to appreciate the call of Romans to “weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice”, the recognition from Ecclesiastes that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.“ The seasons of life; of happiness and sorrow are experienced as the family of God and our times of corporate prayer and worship should have space for the joy and the pain to be expressed together in community.

    Our God has given us the gift of prayer and community through every season of life so that through it all we may listen for the heartbeat of God whose love remains steadfast.

    Rachael Newham is the Mental Health Friendly Church Project Manager at Kintsugi Hope and the author of two books. Her most recent And Yet was chosen as a part of The Big Church Read. Rachael founded the Christian mental health charity ThinkTwice and led it for a decade. She writes and speaks widely on issues of theology and mental health. You can keep in touch with her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

    Order 7 Ways to Pray here for more ways to encounter God, including resources for small groups.