Does the sunshine there all the time?

St Philip Neri.  Tuesday 26th May 2020

The sun was shining at 4am when a loud bird, just outside my window, joined the dawn chorus. A glorious sound to wake to and equally good for falling off to sleep again. I reawakened at 8.25am and the sun still shone. I got up at 10am and the sun was still out. It was 12.10 when I started to write this and I had just been outside to prove to myself that it was sunny. We have not seen the sun for some time up here in Tayside so I pinched myself and basked in it.

I will go for a stroll soon and soak up some vitamin D, so a short sleeved shirt to be worn. 

I am in a sunny mood in spite of the news reports on my iPad. My mood was further encouraged when I found a Catholic Mass online. The priest did give a very long sermon (some 27 minutes) on prayer but he was so excitable and enthusiastic that it rubbed off on me. At the beginning of his sermon the priest read out prayers which had been written by parish children. These again increased my sunny mood. They appealed because of their directness, innocence and lack of inhibitions.

We too need to adopt such innocent forthrightness and honesty.

However, there was a little sanitisation as a formula had been given. Thus each prayer began with a 'Dear Lord' and ended with 'we make our prayers through Jesus'. Thus the blurted out content was made acceptable to the adult!!

I am not sure God would mind.

" It is said you love all people; we are a family of 4 and I can't do that with them let alone the whole world".

" I didn't think that orange and purple went together until I saw the sunset last Tuesday, so thanks for that". 

" Did you really mean for the giraffe to look like that?"

" Cain and Abel were brothers and killed each other. Why didn't you give them their own bedrooms....it worked for me?" 

" Why let people die and go on then to make new ones? Why not just keep all the grannys?"

"Please send me a pony. I have never asked for anything. You can check on me".

I recall an old monk telling me the story of a young parishioner. Her mother told her not to suck her fingers and chew her nails because she would grow fat. A day later mother took her on the local bus and at the second stop a very pregnant lady got on. The little girl looked at her, then pointed at the woman's tummy and said in a very loud voice "I know what you have been doing". The same priest told me of the boy who had asked him "Did not God make the light?” when the priest said yes, the boy said "Well, in class we were told Eddison made it. So did he steal it from God?"

Out of the mouths of babes and children... It is now 13.39 and the sun still shines. I say to

Does the sun shine there the whole time?