麻豆约拍

Good morning. My grandmother Katherine was born on the 25th January, 1901, three days after the death of Queen Victoria on this date, the 22nd of January. So nearly a child of the Victorian era, but not quite, Katherine鈥檚 childhood experiences were so very different from my own. My children鈥檚 ease in the digital world is a universe away from the mainly oil and gas-lit world of their great-grandmother.

And yet some things have a universal quality. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was appointed Poet Laureate by Victoria in 1850, the same year as his hugely popular poem 鈥淚n Memoriam AHH鈥� was published. This poem apparently brought great comfort to Victoria after the death of Prince Albert in 1861. Its relentless rhythm-pattern, now dubbed the 鈥淚n Memoriam Stanza鈥�, might seem monotonous to modern ears, but the sense of loss and hope for the future expressed in the 鈥淩ing out, wild bells鈥� section of the poem are powerfully presented. 鈥淩ing out 鈥�/The faithless coldness of the time鈥�; 鈥淩ing out false pride in place and blood/The civic slander and the spite鈥�. Instead- 鈥淩ing in the common love of good鈥�; 鈥淩ing in..the larger heart, the kindlier hand鈥�. Finally, Tennyson hears in the bells a longing for 鈥渢he Christ that is to be鈥�. A powerful hope that has sustained women and men across the generations.

Loving God, where there is faithless coldness, false pride in place and blood, may common love of good prevail and kindlier hands be offered in place of civic slander and spite. Give us a hope in the Christ that is to be. Amen.

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