Roberta is a SPA at St Luke’s church – and she leads both Morning and Evening Prayer this week. Morning Prayer on Ash Wednesday – Roberta reads a passage from the first book of Timothy, Chapter 6, verses 6 – 19, where Paul the Apostle writes to Timothy. This scripture explains Paul’s sense of the innate personal qualities that should matter to a Christian. Paul encourages those who are wealthy, oftentimes wealthy because they co-operated with the existing Roman administration, to use their riches to support the church and for the good of others; “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains… But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

We pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia, for world peace, for wise decision-making and the moral integrity of all world leaders – most especially this Ash Wednesday morning.