St John's and Kiltermon

  ‘Being A Dad’ ‘For whom all fatherhood in heaven and in earth is named’ Ephesians 3:15 Fathers’ Day is definitely on my calendar. I make it easy for my family. I tell them weeks in advance what I would like, for Fathers’ Day, for my birthday, and for Christmas. I cannot abide the gift I don’t want, having to smile unconvincingly, and return it to the shop. A waste of money, and a sign of poor communication I think. Instead, usually I buy the thing myself, and have it delivered to the house. Poor form? I think not. It works for me. Yes, perhaps Fathers’ Day it’s a marketing ploy, a fiction of the greeting card companies, and a time to scratch your head wondering what to buy for that male someone who has everything.   It doesn’t appear in the church’s year, unlike Mothering Sunday… something the liturgical revisionists seem to have overlooked. Why not a Grandparents’ Day, a Children’s Day, an  Uncles’ Day? Whether you enjoy it, or avoid it...

When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal,  the promised Holy Spirit   For years, I have enjoyed eating honey. The best for your health, I’m told, is that produced within a few miles of your home.  The nearest I’ve managed to get is either from Aughnacloy, or Enniskillen. It is golden and sticky and delicious in lemon and hot water, or dropped thickly on toast. Nutty Crust if possible. And I would love to learn to make bees wax candles. I’m told they give out less toxins, support beekeepers, and give good burning time. Why all the bee chat? Well, possibly because this week I’m mulling the teaching that the Holy Spirit acts as God’s seal. The first time I read it, I wasn’t sure what it meant. In his day, St Paul knew about marking or sealing something to show it was from you, it belonged to you, and that you could guarantee its contents. Bees wax has been used for generations to seal documents as the property of the o...