The 10 commandments

[MaryBS]

I'm shocked! I discovered today that Catholics number the 10 commandments differently from the C of E (and probably everyone else!)

In the 'Catholic' commandments, number 4 is "Honour thy father and thy mother". I told my Vicar I'd broken the 4th commandment, he assumed I meant keeping the Sabbath day holy, and we had a very confused conversation until we figured out the differences!

Anyone else come across this?

[MaryBS]

Lizzi - just come back from our PCC meeting. The Vicar raised the subject of the book grant - I'm to be given £200pa, payable upfront - so result! Takes some of the financial worries away!

I've ordered the 2 books I need for the NT course, total cost £27 so far...

[MaryBS]

Lizzi (or anyone else who wants to) - if you ever wanted to discuss anything in depth, or wanted to talk about the course without posting it on the board, my email address is [email protected]

Have you found the reader website? The forums are very slow, but occasionally there is something interesting. I found the topic answering the Da Vinci Code very good!

Mary

[MaryBS]

Wise words nearlythree.

Don't worry about being a 'new' Christian SAHMof1. Firstly Lizzi, nearlythree and I aren't experts by any means, and I'm sure we'd all admit to times in our lives where we struggled and found it all overwhelming. After having a baby, doubly so! Don't be too hard on yourself. When you look at your baby in your arms, and have feelings of love, thank God for your love and your baby. Thats a prayer in itself!

[nearlythree]

SAHMof1, prayer is our whole lives. Yes, it is important to find silence sometimes, but everything we do becomes prayer if we offer it to God. And remember that we are made in God's image so God is mother too. When I had dd1 I found it hard to pray, and so when I held her I used to try and use my hands to show her how much Jesus loves her. After all, ours are the only hands he has in this world.

Lizzie and Mary, I am so pleased to hear you sounding so happy and fulfilled. Part of me is very sad as I once felt like you do about my vocation, but it has all changed. Will definitely go back to my degree though once the children are bigger.

I used to pray for dh to be converted, until I realsied it was for my own benefit, not his, I wanted him to be on the same journey as me so I coudl share it with him. Now I realise he has his own journey to make. And in many ways he is far more 'Christian' than I am.

[MaryBS]

It does seem a lot doesn't it? I'll do what I can before the day. My vicar let me a few books on Mark, so I've started reading one of those. The book you mention was one I was lent when I was initially applying for reader training - it IS very good, but have to admit that it made me feel a bit inadequate when I read it!

Its nice when someone else understands where you're coming from! My mother is struggling to come to terms with my 'calling' - although she hasn't said it, I don't believe she thinks I was called by God (although initially she thought I was coerced into it by the Vicar!). Its hard for her though as she is RC.

[Lizzi04]

Wow Mary that's alot of work they are expecting from you!! I didn't have to do that much initially. How different our courses appear!

Your final paragraph touched me.... I so understand and get where you are it's lovely to hear someone express how I too feel :-)

A good book for you (not for study as such but for understanding of our new role) is:

"Bridging The Gap, reader ministry today" it's available from Church House Publishing. and a good website I found for books is www.eden.co.uk
Love and prayers.

[MaryBS]

Thats it! Peace and quiet!

This is what I have to do in prep. for the study day.

"Choose two passages from the NT that are particularly significant for you. Write a short paragraph on each, describing ways in which the passage has increased your understanding and influenced your spirituality"

I've been given 3 images from "the Christ We Share" series of pictures..

"look at the images and say which I find most attractive and/or helpful... which is least...
Write brief notes describing why. What is each of the 2 images saying about Jesus? What clues does each picture giver about the context in which it originated?"

"Read the gospel of Mark. Note down main images/impressions of Jesus in this gospel"

"Read the photocopied pages of Charpenier's How to read the New Testament". Make notes on teh main stages in the formation of the impressions of Jesus portrayed in the four gospels"

I've looked over it all, and the first passage of significance is the '2' commandments of Love the Lord your God... etc. I'm still thinking about the second.

The picture one is challenging as they are 3 very different pictures. I know what picture I don't like, I can't choose between the other 2 - one is a picture of a gathering, sharing food, fellowship. The second is that of a crucified African Christ. The former is more uplifting the latter is more thought provoking and spiritual.

Mark's Gospel I've yet to do

The last one, I'm finding the most difficult as TBH I don't like the man's style of writing and I'm not entirely sure what they mean by the question. If you have the book, its the chapter entitled "Getting ready for our journey". I feel he makes assumptions about what I am thinking, and I'm not thinking how he thinks I'm thinking, if you know what I mean

As for knowing God, I feel I've known him all my life in a distant sort of way, now I feel much closer to Him. Like he is really inside me (which he is, I know), and you can't separate me from Him. I feel more at peace with myself. Ever since I started work I've always felt there was something else I should be doing, something missing. Now, as Reader in Training, I believe I've found it...

[Lizzi04]

I am glad I'm not the only one who prays on the loo!!!!! Isn't it the case that sometimes it's the only place you can sit quietly uninterupted?! I hope God is cool with it!

Isn't God FAB?!! My life has changed so much since I got to know Him

Mary I am really excited for you! I am so glad we got in touch. Good to hear about your book allowance as some of the books are SOOO expensive! I was shocked. What's your first work then? I had to read through some printed bible passages and decide what category they fit into, ie, Laws, poetry, etc.

[MaryBS]

Lizzi - thanks for your advice. I've been told there is a book allowance, and that "I'm to use it and not to expect to have to pay for everything". There is a library, and when I go on 15th for my study day I'll see whats there. I received my first 'work' in the post yesterday. I started to look at it last night.

SAHMof1, don't beat yourself up too much about prayer. God understands. When you're sitting with your baby, just sit quietly and listen for Him. Some days my prayer has been "God, You know whats in my head, I can't put it into words, please figure it out!!!". Prayer for me has come easier since I made my commitment to God to become a reader. Its also become harder too, because while I feel blessed with His grace, I feel so much more conscious of my own inadequacies, and find I have to battle with myself so that its not all about 'me'. (BTW Xavi, I pray on the loo too! NOT something I confessed at selection, when asked when/how I pray )

[Lizzi04]

Hi guys!! Sorry for my silence. Had a hectic few days!! Hope you are all doing well. SAHMof 1, I agree here with Xavielli, I "pray" to God by talking aloud to Him whilst I'm driving along as if He's a passenger! And I talk to Him in my head all day. Don't worry too much if you don't get the time to sit and purely concentrate on prayer. You are looking after a new baby which is a form of prayer in itself if you think about it! You are giving of yourself to look after a beautiful little creation.

MARYBS..... as for books get hold of a copy of Jerome Bible commentary and the Oxford Christian Dictionary, I've found them invaluable. I would also ask your PCC about a book allowance. I got one because I was studying for the benefit of my church and I'm sure it must be a standard thing. There should be a library tat you can use at the venue where your course is running also which is abig help. I'll think on what else I can come up with. The difference is we actually started on the OT Different areas must do the course slightly differently.

[Xavielli]

Hello peeps... SAHMo1, just a thought.. God doesn't care how/where/when you pray... I always do it when I am washing up/in the bath/on the loo(!!) as long as you praise him and get the connection... he is there and listening! (That wasnt meant to sound sanctimonious btw... just trying to help)

[SAHMof1]

Thanks for the welcome. I might ?lurk? for a while, if that?s OK? I?m still fairly new to my faith myself (only confirmed as an adult six years ago) and am trying hard to be a ?good Christian?. It feels rather over-whelming, and I keep promising myself that I will pray everyday, but somehow don?t get round to it, then I feel guilty. I?m still trying to get my routine together with my 10 week old DS (first baby)!

[MaryBS]

sorry SAHMof1 - not excluding you, please feel free to jump in, change the subject, talk about your DH, think about applying for reader ministry, etc etc

Lizzi - you're the first reader I've had a chance to have much of a chat with!

[MaryBS]

Have a good time Lizzi, sounds like you deserve it!
I DO keep praying, its what I want more than anything. M. the vicar knows this too, and he's making a great effort to bring DH out. There's a "party in the park" tomorrow pm, and we'll see him and his family there.... (DH will be there after the football anyhow...)

I totally agree with you on how scary it all sounds. They asked me at selection what I thought of it all. I told them I tried not to think of it all at once, but a bit at a time. They seemed to like that answer...

First module is New Testament. Is that how you started? Do you have any books you'd recommend? I've already discovered John Drane's Introduction to the New Testament, and found that very good. I needed something to get me started, since, as I was a former Catholic, reading the bible hasn't come easy to me . Its on our booklist, and God was obviously telling me something when, quite by 'accident' (and we all know about those....), before even my application was handed in, I found myself in the religious section of the library, picking the book up and thinking this looked useful....

[Lizzi04]

Hi SAHMof1 nice to speak to you!! I am always happy to hear from people on this journey. It gives us all encouragement. This is only a quick post as I have a rare night out with a girl friend tonight Cinema and fooood!!

Keep praying on the DH situation as that's what got me here I'm sure. If you persist with prayer God WILL answer. At the end of the day the DH's see how changed we are and how happy the church family makes us and they end thinking "ooh I want some of that!!"

The Lay Minister thing makes what we are letting ourselves in for sound so much more scary though doesn't it Mary!!!! Luckily my DH is mad about history and he has come in quite useful when we studied the early old testament (silly thing is he knew more than I did!!!!)

Keep praying and keep smiling!! (It freaks Mr Evil out!!!

[MaryBS]

Feel free to join in! My DH is just letting me get on with it. He is getting a BIT better though. The other thing is, he is now letting me take DS as well as DD to church, whereas before he used to tempt him to 'stay home with Daddy'.
DH only goes to the men's group because he gets on so well with the Vicar. Its the church BBQ next week at the Vicarage and we'll be going to that as well. Our Vicar is down to earth too - a larger than life character with a GREAT sense of humour!

I know its not worth pushing him into anything, as he only digs his heels in.

I think he'd have objected more to me being a Reader if I'd referred to it as being a "Licensed Lay Minister". By the time I'd let that term slip out, the application was well under way. I HAD explained to him what it meant in terms of what I'd be doing, but I think the thought of me being a "Minister" would have freaked him out.

He works for a firm of builders and he's keeping VERY quiet about my being a Christian, and in particular my application to be a Reader!

I'll pray for both your DH's, and mine too! Plus don't forget everyone on the prayer thread, especially as we've now got a nice new short one (well, it is at the moment!)

[SAHMof1]

Hi Lizzi and Mary. Sorry to crash this thread, but I was encouraged by your story Lizzi. My DH also merely accepts my faith. He is happy to raise our DS (and any other children we may have) Christian too, but he is, by his own definition, more of an agnostic. My current hope (and prayer) is that he?ll be able to support me in teaching our DS about Jesus. I think that?s a start. DH is considering going on the men?s night out this month. Not sure what to say to him. I don?t want to push him.

[Lizzi04]

Any time Mary. Keep me posted. It certainly does help if they click with the vicar. Our Vicar is fab. Very down to earth and easy to get on with. It sure makes a difference. It sounds like DH is coming around to the idea though, eh?! I'll keep praying

[MaryBS]

Thats amazing!!! Gives me hope!

DH has (once) suggested he come to church, I suggested he make it a family service, but since then he's not mentioned it... and when I asked him one Sunday, he said no, he had things to do.... he DID come to church on Easter Sunday, when I was received into the church, and he offered, I didn't ask. He has joined the men's group, and gets on well with the Vicar, which is always a help... in fact the reason he joined the men's group is that he gets on well with the Vicar! We've been round there a few times for BBQs and they've been here once. As you say, play it slowly, and pray like mad
Thanks for your support.

[Lizzi04]

Ooh Mary I'll tell you an encouraging story.... My DH was ok with me wanting to go to church when I began about 3.5 yrs ago but said "just don't expect me to go" I was disappointed but accepted it. Time went on and my friend was going through Ordination when he one day said "have you ever thought about ordination? I could see you doing that" When I'd picked myself up off the floor I said that yes I'd thought about it but that it was a long way off. And I said that anyway, I'd be more keen on the idea if my other half was in church with me.....anyhoo he suddenly dedided he'd start to come to the once monthly family service but again said he'd never be confirmed or anything like that...he didn't really need all that!! Aaaand then this year he shocked me beyond the pale when he had a little meeting with our vicar and they chatted at length about his faith. He came home and announced that he was a Christian he'd realised!!! To top it off he was getting confirmed!!!!! He is now a fully fledged confirmed member of our church family and loving every minute of it. He sits in our creche area with our daughter every sunday whilst I lead worship with the vicar!!! WOOHOOO!!! So give it time (slowly slowly catch a monkey) I'll pray on it!!

[MaryBS]

My first day is all day, and is Saturday 15 July - so not long at all to go!

I know what you mean about being out of education for so long! Plus I've got 2 young ones, aged 4 and 6, so any studying will have to be done around them! What have I let myself in for? Still, when the call comes....

Please pray for DH, he is accepting, but thats about all - he may find it a bit hard to take, he's not a Christian (yet.... )

[Lizzi04]

Hi again Mary! I'll look forward to hearing all about it!! When do you start? Will it be saturday mornings like mine? I found the essays a struggle to start wih being out of education for so long but you soon get the hang of it all again!

[MaryBS]

Hi Lizzi. I'm in Ely Diocese, and another NKOTB. I'll have been in my current parish 2 years, come November, and attended an Anglican church for 3 years prior to that, but officially I was still RC, until I was received into the church only this Easter!

It would be fun to have someone to compare notes with

[Lizzi04]

Hi there!! Well done Mary that's fantastic news!! We can compare notes on how it's going! I'm up in Yorkshire so things may differ but prob not significantly. I know what you mean about people thinking you were coerced though. I'm kind of the new kid on the block and I think some people think I'm jumping the queue as it were! But hey, what God wants, God gets!

[MaryBS]

Nah, it'd take more than that to offend me (example of what offends me - my mother suggesting the reason I'm becoming a Reader is because the Vicar coerced me into it, rather than I might actually have a vocation!)