Weekly Prayers
Monday 23rd October
750 years ago, Leonardo Fibonacci solved a puzzle about the numbers of breeding rabbits that might be produced. Mathematically he worked out that the numbers of pairs of rabbits, month by month, would be:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55….
What do we notice about these figures? Each is the sum of the previous two numbers.
We can look at plants like the sunflower or the daisy. Counting the clockwise and then the anti-clockwise spirals of seeds or tiny flowers on the head of the plant, they will be consecutive Fibonacci Numbers. The same proportions are seen in the spiral of a snail’s shell, a nautilus sea-shell, the breaking of a wave on the sea-shore and even in the great spiral galaxies of stars in space.
May we take time in the following short prayer to give thanks and reflect on how nature’s beauty can inspire us.
Let us pray:
Lord God,
may all that we see and discover
lead us to grow
in wonder and appreciation.
Amen.
Our Father …..
Tuesday 24th October
Today is “United Nations Day”, being the day on which the UN was established in 1945, after the world had seen what total war could do.
At the inaugural session of the United Nations in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, Britain’s Prime Minister – Clement Attlee – stated that “It is for the peoples of the world to make their choice between life and death.”
We know that “peace” isn’t simply the “absence of war”, and so the UN seeks to promote good relationships between people and countries. The UN’s choices for “life” include working
– for refugees,
– in health care,
– in the growing of food, and
– in promoting science and culture.
Let us pray about “choosing life” in our own daily circumstances:
Hail Mary ……………
Wednesday 25th October
Fruit and vegetables from many countries around the world are found in our shops each day. Bananas first appeared in British shops on this day in the year 1633.
Today, out of every £1 we pay for some bananas, only 11 pence goes to those who have grown and picked them in faraway countries. The other 89 pence goes to all the ‘middlemen’ – those who pack and transport the fruit to Britain, and to the big retailers and the shops. With most jars of coffee that we buy, 92 pence out of every pound that we spend goes to all the middlemen – including those who export and process the coffee beans, and those who package the jars and sell them. Out of every pound that we spend on jars of coffee, only 8 pence goes to those who grow the coffee.
More and more people are trying to be sure that workers in far-away countries are paid fairly for the goods that come to us. The “Fairtrade Foundation” was set up in 1992 by Christian Aid, Oxfam, and CAFOD (the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development). “Fairtrade” products include tea, coffee and chocolate, and they are to be found in most major supermarkets, with a “Fairtrade” label on them. The “Fairtrade” label guarantees that
checks have been made to ensure fair wages, decent working conditions, good health and safety standards, and long-term contracts. Coffee from “Fairtrade” is also available in the House of Commons.
Let’s simply spend a few moments in silence, reflecting on how wealthy we are, compared with the majority of people throughout the world…
Our Father ……
Thursday 26th October
One of the world’s great painters, Vincent Van Gogh, was born in Holland in 1853. He lived briefly in England and Belgium, and then went to live in Paris with his brother, Theo, an art dealer, before moving to Arles in Provence, southern France.
He produced a drawing or a picture every day for the last few years of his life, but it’s thought that he only sold one painting during his life-time, and he felt a failure as well as suffering from moods, depression, instability and even madness, cutting off part of his right ear.
He committed himself voluntarily to a mental asylum. There he continued to paint, and he produced a portrait of a doctor who helped him. That painting is called “Portrait of Doctor Gachet”, and it became the world’s most expensive painting on this day in 1990 when it was
sold at auction for £45.5 million.
Let’s pray in silence for a moment for all who are going through
great difficulties and remember to be people who always try to support and encourage others…
Hail Mary ………
Friday 27th October
A lady drove to the shopping centre, smiling to herself at some good news she had received about her son. After shopping, she drove out of the car park and handed in her ticket at the kiosk, ready to pay the standard charge of one pound. She opened her purse, smiled, and handed over three £1 coins, saying “This is to pay for the next two cars as well,” and then she drove off.
What effect might that small gesture have had on the occupants of the next two cars? Somebody they had not met – and would never meet – had acted kindly towards them. They must have thought again about the incident at least once later in the day. Would that lady’s action have become like a pebble thrown into water, causing ripples of goodwill and kindness to spread outwards?
We are invited to “practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.”
Our Father……..
