---
title: "Thought for the Week, 24th March 2020"
id: "626"
type: "post"
slug: "thought-for-the-week-24th-march-2020"
published_at: "2020-03-24T13:00:39+00:00"
modified_at: "2020-03-24T13:00:39+00:00"
url: "https://sainthelenaschurch.com/thought-for-the-week-24th-march-2020/"
markdown_url: "https://sainthelenaschurch.com/thought-for-the-week-24th-march-2020.md"
excerpt: "I have been delighted by how much it already means to me to stop and pray for our congregation and the people of the district of Larnaca every day at 6.00pm. I am used to attending services on time so..."
taxonomy_category:
  - "News"
---

I have been delighted by how much it already means to me to stop and pray for our congregation and the people of the district of Larnaca every day at 6.00pm.

I am used to attending services on time so I set an alarm on my watch for 5.58pm, and I also set an alarm for 6.10pm to finish my time of silent prayer. I remember being shocked years ago by a writer on prayer saying that he set an alarm for the end of a prayer time, but now it is proving a useful and habit-forming part of my pattern.

There is a chair I always sit in for my devotional reading, for Morning Prayer, and now for silent prayer at 6.00. Sitting in the same place, like praying at a fixed time, helps me to focus on what I am there to do and I have a list of all your names in my lap. I sit down, I sit still, and I can attend in peace and quiet to what I am doing, the one thing necessary.

So the repetition and rhythm of this 10 minutes has become for me an enlivening time – being still with God, in my chair, with your name in my lap and on my heart.

Christopher