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26/06/2015
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye.
Last on
Fri 26 Jun 2015
05:43
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
Prayer for the Day with Canon Noel Battye - Script
Good morning.
βBliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven.β
Wordsworth writing in βThe Preludeβ about the French Revolution as it appeared to enthusiasts at the time and that expresses exactly how we felt around the last week of June during our middle teenage years: for in southern Ireland in those days this weekend was Sports Day, the end of term with over 2 months of holiday stretching out into the future towards a distant horizon in September.
Now there was nothing particularly awful about school to cause this apart from the total lack of freedom. Things like school food will always be despised by the young and school discipline a source of resentment which might otherwise be directed towards archaic parents.
But summer term was undoubtedly the best of all when the wooden floored dormitories seemed less cold and bleak but we still yearned for the freedom of the terms ending and nothing else, no holiday in later life could ever quite compare with the ecstasy of this particular weekend in youth.
I suppose the nearest thing I can think of in recent years with which I could compare it is getting an all-clear following a very serious health scare: when you realise that like Scrooge on Christmas morning youβre not leaving it all behind just yet and there are still some wonderful prospects before you.
Like holidays from school they will not necessarily be filled with bucket lists that include great adventures and far off shores:
But with countryside and companyAnd chances to say βthank youβAnd to do countless little ordinary things now given an enhanced premium in all of that future that now stretches out before us which is why I prayLord thank you for this precious day and whatever it may hold for me.Β Amen. Β Β
βBliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven.β
Wordsworth writing in βThe Preludeβ about the French Revolution as it appeared to enthusiasts at the time and that expresses exactly how we felt around the last week of June during our middle teenage years: for in southern Ireland in those days this weekend was Sports Day, the end of term with over 2 months of holiday stretching out into the future towards a distant horizon in September.
Now there was nothing particularly awful about school to cause this apart from the total lack of freedom. Things like school food will always be despised by the young and school discipline a source of resentment which might otherwise be directed towards archaic parents.
But summer term was undoubtedly the best of all when the wooden floored dormitories seemed less cold and bleak but we still yearned for the freedom of the terms ending and nothing else, no holiday in later life could ever quite compare with the ecstasy of this particular weekend in youth.
I suppose the nearest thing I can think of in recent years with which I could compare it is getting an all-clear following a very serious health scare: when you realise that like Scrooge on Christmas morning youβre not leaving it all behind just yet and there are still some wonderful prospects before you.
Like holidays from school they will not necessarily be filled with bucket lists that include great adventures and far off shores:
But with countryside and companyAnd chances to say βthank youβAnd to do countless little ordinary things now given an enhanced premium in all of that future that now stretches out before us which is why I prayLord thank you for this precious day and whatever it may hold for me.Β Amen. Β Β
Broadcast
- Fri 26 Jun 2015 05:43ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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