Saturday 1 November 2025 - The worship of heaven

Saturday 1 November 2025

Welcome to the Saturday Examen. In the Church calendar, we are preparing to focus on All Souls and All Saints days. We read in Revelation: 'Day and night without ceasing they sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’ We begin our prayer today picturing this scene... try to imagine your presence in prayer with the Lord becoming part of the worship of Heaven. Let some of the faces of the saints you have encountered come to mind. Give thanks to God for those who have loved you and have influenced your life. As we begin to reflect on the past week, a selection of readings will be read. Try to let each of these scenes come alive to you as you listen: When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment. Then he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,  built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?”  But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away.  Which one of these readings feels most meaningful to you today? Stay with this reading for a while. Now, as you recall the past week, is there a moment when you felt especially close to the Lord? Give thanks for this moment. Now try to recall when you felt most distant from the Lord. Give this moment and the events which surrounded it, to the Lord. As we come to the end of our prayer time, we recall again this time of remembrance of the saints. During the final moments of prayer, let this scene from the book of Revelation become present to you, and take time to enjoy the light and the promise of God: ‘They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.’ Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be World without end Amen