16/07/2013
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Claire Campbell Smith.
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Claire Campbell
Good morning.銆赌 The vagaries of the British weather have been cause for even more debate than usual this year.銆赌 After a wet winter and a cold spring, summer has got seriously behind and it was only just in time for the Wimbledon finals that temperatures soared. 銆赌 But what about the rest of the summer?銆赌 Well, I spent yesterday keeping a jolly close eye on the weather because, according to the traditional rhyme, 鈥楽t Swithin鈥檚 Day, if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain.銆赌 St Swithin鈥檚 Day, if thou be fair, for forty days 鈥榯will rain nae mair鈥�.
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Swithin was Bishop of Winchester in the 9th銆赌century, known for his charitable gifts and church building.銆赌 He asked to be buried humbly in the cathedral grounds, where people could walk across his lowly grave.銆赌銆赌 When the monks moved Swithin鈥檚 remains to an ornate shrine inside the cathedral, heavy storms broke out, believed to indicate the saint鈥檚 displeasure at such aggrandisement.銆赌銆赌
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Humility is not a characteristic that sits well within our competitive culture, in which we鈥檙e encouraged to have our list of achievements ready at any moment to thrust in front of someone influential.銆赌 Yet it鈥檚 a quality we admire in people who鈥檝e got much to boast about, but don鈥檛.銆赌 In the Christian tradition, humility is not a Uriah Heep-like self-deprecation.銆赌 It鈥檚 a recognition that all that we have and all that we are is entrusted to us by God, that our greatest calling is to live in submission to him, and that however successful we might be, we still fall short of God鈥檚 glory and are in need of grace.
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Lord Jesus, who humbled yourself to become human: teach us the grace of humility.銆赌 Root out of our hearts all pride, and fashion us after your holy likeness.銆赌 Amen.Broadcast
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