VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are healthy and that life is treating You and Your loved ones well. This week I would like You to look around You. It may be that You are looking at Your children, or photos of children. Look at Your home, Your car, Your pet. Look at the sky, the trees, the wildlife. Don’t … Continue reading A Prayer of Thanks
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well this beautiful, sunny Sunday morning. I hope Your loved ones are also well and that You all enjoy a peaceful day. I meet many families whose parents carry around with them piles of debt. I admire those fathers or mothers who keep the worry to themselves but I often fear for their … Continue reading A Prayer for Workaholics
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and that Your families are happy and healthy. Today I ask of You to pray with me for leadership for our country. Arguably these have been fallow days at a time when we have needed a strong leader rather than a manager for our country. Is that about to change? Is the … Continue reading A Prayer for Leadership
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust You are well and that You and those around You are enjoying the clement weather. As You sit down to Your Sunday lunch, give thanks to the efforts of our farmers, many of whom are feeling the stress across the country. Either worried about the potential loss of subsidies or lonely, such is the work of a … Continue reading A Prayer For Our Farmers
VICAR I trust that You are well, Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine. This is a bank holiday weekend and I insist that You find time to put Your feet up and have a quiet think. How is Your faith? The reality is that should a loved one be in danger or an event confront You that is totally beyond Your control, You will likely … Continue reading A Prayer for the Faithless
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust my weekly prayer finds you well this week and that your families are happy and healthy. It is not my role to criticise economic or political systems. However in Venezuela how can one come to any other conclusion? What we see now as violence prevents a convoy of aid reaching Venezuela from Colombia are the last … Continue reading A Prayer for Venezuela
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and have had a good week. Our garden here is full of snowdrops and daffodils. Have we got through the winter already perhaps? There are times when the throwaway culture we live in gets frustrating. People start on projects but get distracted and take the easier option. Youths drop out of university … Continue reading A Prayer for Perseverance
VICAR Have you ever needed strength to face a situation head-on, but not known what to pray? God is waiting and wants to offer us strength in time of need. Do not be afraid to pray and ask God for His strength to fall upon You. When you are weak, weary or unready to stand, and unsure of what to ask, pray along with these … Continue reading A Prayer for Strength
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You and Your families are well. These early months of the year are often a financial struggle for many families, perhaps after a Christmas splurge, perhaps as tax bills await. The Citizens’ Advice Bureaux are full at this time of the year, debt counsellors are at their busiest, and, unfortunately, too many take their own … Continue reading A Prayer for Help with Finances
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine I trust that You and Your families are healthy and well. This week I would like to draw Your attention to violence and its futility. On a day when two bombs at a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines have killed 27 people and injured dozens more; the morning after a man was slashed in the face … Continue reading A Prayer for Peace
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well. I have been away resting my bones and now look forward – refreshed – to my third year on the magazine with No Article Sunday. This week I’d like to look ahead to a successful 2019. The new year gives us a chance to plot and plan. In those plans should be … Continue reading A Prayer for 2019
VICAR Happy Christmas, Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine! God Bless You and Your Families this Christmas Tuesday. As You sit back to swig another glass of wine, or tuck into another mince pie, please remember those who are alone this Christmas – that they may find solace. Please remember the homeless this Christmas – that they may find warmth. Remember too the poor this Christmas … Continue reading Happy Christmas
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, this Sunday I wish You all well and trust that You and loved ones are healthy and happy. This week I would like to focus on persecuted Christians around the world. A growing number of people it seems, as many countries fail to prevent harm coming to those of the Christian faith. For the 16th year in a … Continue reading A Prayer for Persecuted Christians
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and healthy. I write to You this week from Norway, where I am staying for a conference. And this week I would like us to think of those men and women who man our cargo ships and all those other workers out at sea – the navies, the fishing communities and others … Continue reading A Prayer for Our Seafarers
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I hope my weekly missive finds You well and healthy. That You are enjoying the mild weather and are not too exhausted, as many seem to be at this time of the year. This week I would like to draw your attention to the innocent victims of others’ evil. Particularly, I’d like You to think of those wives … Continue reading A Prayer for the Embarrassed
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, this week I would like to focus on the unsung heroes who spend their days working for law enforcement, going through photos and videos of child abuse in order to catch perpetrators. This may seem like a very specific prayer. Indeed it is. I met with one of these gentlemen this week and I could see by the … Continue reading A Prayer for the Investigators
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I wish You all well. This week 29 year old Richard Russell – a ground worker at Seattle airport – stole a 76-seat, twin-engine turboprop Bombardier Q400, did some rolls with it and then crashed into an uninhabited area, killing himself and destroying the plane. People I have met have brought up the subject of Richard’s demise with a … Continue reading Prayer for the Mentally Ill
VICAR We live in divisive times, Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine. Take a look at the Trump “angry baby” blimp which protesters plan to fly during the Presidential visit to the UK this summer. Brexit has split the country. The World Cup may have united the sensible parts of England but the other nations in the Union seemingly cannot wait for them to slip … Continue reading A Prayer for Unity
VICAR Good day to You, Country Squire Readers, on this beautiful, sunny Sunday. I trust that I find You and Your families well and happy. There are too many families in the UK who are split and not talking to each other. I see them every day. An old lady whose son shows up just at Christmas to hoover up presents and never calls her, … Continue reading A Prayer for Reconciliation
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire, I trust You are well and happy. First, I must apologise for my failure to appear in the magazine last week. I was distracted by a family emergency and did not manage to upload my weekly prayer. I ask your kind forgiveness. This week I’d like You to pray for your children or the children of a loved one … Continue reading A Prayer for Our Children
