As has been documented elsewhere I am currently in the midst of a religious crisis. I have been a committed Christian for ten years and a lifelong church-goer in the Church of England, until I suffered a bit of a crisis three years ago when I became convinced of the need to belong to the historic, Apostolic church and began bouncing from church to church trying to find it.
My search has intensified since my grandmother passed away on Monday as I have been desperately longing to belong to a church. I have subsequently been asked to write and deliver the eulogy and choose the hymns for her funeral. In her will my grandmother had asked for one hymn inparticular to be part of the funeral, but I had never heard it.
So today I attended the Celebration of the Passion at my local Catholic Church. As I knelt waiting for the service to begin I prayed that I might find my way home. I know I shouldn't ask this sort of thing but I am weak, so I couldn't help but ask for some sort of sign that this was where I belonged.
At the very end of the service (which incidentally was very odd, the priest used the Homily to do nothing but criticise the new Good Friday liturgy), the final communion hymn was announced; it was the hymn my grandmother requested in her will, the hymn that in a lifetime of church attendance I had never heard before.
I don't want to read too much into this, but it seems a little churlish to pray for a sign and then ignore such a huge coincidence. Any thoughts?
God Bless,
D+C
My search has intensified since my grandmother passed away on Monday as I have been desperately longing to belong to a church. I have subsequently been asked to write and deliver the eulogy and choose the hymns for her funeral. In her will my grandmother had asked for one hymn inparticular to be part of the funeral, but I had never heard it.
So today I attended the Celebration of the Passion at my local Catholic Church. As I knelt waiting for the service to begin I prayed that I might find my way home. I know I shouldn't ask this sort of thing but I am weak, so I couldn't help but ask for some sort of sign that this was where I belonged.
At the very end of the service (which incidentally was very odd, the priest used the Homily to do nothing but criticise the new Good Friday liturgy), the final communion hymn was announced; it was the hymn my grandmother requested in her will, the hymn that in a lifetime of church attendance I had never heard before.
I don't want to read too much into this, but it seems a little churlish to pray for a sign and then ignore such a huge coincidence. Any thoughts?
God Bless,
D+C