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Good morning ÌýHere are planets that we know<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Round and round the Sun they go

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

These are the planets near our star.

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If you’d recited that children’s verse back in 1633 you’d have been in trouble. February 13th 1633 saw Galileo arriving in ÌýRome to face the ÌýInquisition. He was charged with heresy for his assertion that the earth circled the sun. By April Galileo pleaded guilty to receive a lesser sentence and so began his house arrest that lasted until his death in 1642. Almost 10 years under house arrest for something we now accept as truth.

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Truth is a slippy business. In today’s culture we tend to speak about truths – there’s your truth and my truth, the truth of the facts, the truth that emerges from all the existing truths. But there is one truth that can’t be denied. The truth that new things can scare us but years down the line, when we look back, we wonder what the problem was. Change happens and it becomes natural to us to settle into the change despite a bumpy and uncertain road.

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On these bumpy road experiences it is the companions we have along the way that make all the difference to us. Those who have travelled long with us and keep faith with us. Those unexpected strangers who pop into our lives bringing wisdom and laughter, sometimes a distraction for us and sometimes keeping pace with us.

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Lord we thank you today for all who travel with us, Ìýand for those we meet along the way and for the new places that are discovered. Amen