Today is the first day of a new month and the first day of new regulations which let up to six people from different households meet together outside. We still cannot meet together within a church building, but we are meeting often online and by phone. For me it feels as if we are more connected than ever during this time, and that is because of our constant prayer. We may pray similar words, perhaps the Lord’s Prayer, or perhaps we pray without words, sitting or standing in the silence to be close to God.  But our prayers, in whatever form, are connections with God and with each other.

Today’s reading speaks of Hannah’s prayer. She could not conceive. Being childless then was a cause of shame for married women, and Hannah was desperate for help. She turned to God in prayer. Strangely Eli, the priest who heard her pray, thought at first she was drunk, so incoherent was her prayer. And just yesterday at Pentecost we heard that people thought the disciples were drunk as they prayed in thanksgiving through the Holy Spirit. Such is the power and wordless might of prayer.

God heard Hannah’s prayer and quietened her, giving her a child. We heard today her prayer of thanksgiving for the great blessing she had received. But there is a twist to this story. In her desperate prayer for a child, she promised God to give the child back to His service in the temple. Imagine a longed-for son, to be given away to a life of service in the temple, away from his mother’s home. But she did make this sacrifice, as she had promised in her conversation with God; she was rewarded later with more children, but at the time – how hard that must have been.

Many of us pray for the growth of the church in Heathfield Benefice and have been praying between Ascension and Pentecost for five friends to come to know Jesus. These prayed conversations with God are of great value; but like Hannah, there are strings attached. It is down to us to follow through with our promises, to show our faith through our example to our friends. And to use the vision, the wisdom and the power we pray for in this Benefice, to build and to grow our church family.

SG