Happy Birthday Pratibha!

Today is Pratibha Patil's birthday.

Pratibha was India's President and to date the only woman to have held that office.

As our Parliament - of which we are supposed to be so proud - mires itself ever more deeply in the swampy jungle of Brexit two of her comments (about the Parliament of India) are poignant, to say the least:

It is important that the decorum and dignity of the House is upheld at all times.  The image of Parliament in the public mind should be one where proceedings, debates and discussions take place with a view to resolve issues through a constructive and co-operative approach.

Parliament of the country is the repository of the sovereign will of the people and its successful functioning is the responsibility of both the Government and Opposition.

Quite.

World Cup Blogs 14: Iran

While Egypt clearly takes first place as the most Biblical nation in this World Cup, the runner up is equally certain - Iran.  In English translations it is generally called Persia and it figures in many later parts of the Old Testament.

One Bible Book is set entirely in Iran - the Book of Esther.  And one of the Bible's most famous stories also happened at least within its Empire - Daniel's deliverance in the lions' den.

The Iranian National Team have, as their most common nickname, the Lions.  This is very suitable because historically - and not just via Daniel - Persia was closely associated with the lions that populated its vast and wild countryside.

Today, apart from the odd zoo, there are no Persian lions in Persia.  The only wild population of them is found in a Reserve in India.  It is a sad story replicated over so many species of large animals.

God shut the mouths of the lions one night in the Persian Empire.  But in the end the human beings of Persia and elsewhere have brought the Asiatic lions to the brink of extinction.  The world is a poorer place when the only living expression of a lion is on the banners supporting a football team: the World Cup, we note again, is not the answer to everything.

Prayer and Worcester Sauce

Could you not keep watch with me for one hour? .. Take heed, watch and pray ... Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself ... My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning ... He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty ... They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

What are the ingredients of prayer? On the back of a packet of anything, unless it is something as simple as honey, vinegar or milk, you find a list of them. Very intimidating, too, at times. What, for example, will potassium sorbate or pantothenic acid do to me?

Sometimes, like Marcus, you just taste something that is sooo good that you want to know the ingredients in order to make it for yourself. In the days when Bombay was Bombay, Marcus Sandys (we should properly call him Lord Marcus) sat in the sunshine and tasted something sooo wonderful he knew that on finishing his time as Governor of Bengal he must take the recipe back to England. On arrival here he gave the recipe to his local chemists, Mr Perrins and Mr Lea (all right, Lea and Perrins if you prefer). They dutifully and expertly concocted the brew.

The result was awful. Marcus himself declared that the result tasted "filthy". The grim broth was consigned to the depths of the chemists' store.

And that would have been that if it were true that all ingredients are the kind of things that can be listed on a packet. But, unbeknown to Messrs Lea, Perrins and Sandys, there was a missing ingredient.

Liturgies, closed eyes, Amens, bowed heads, bedtimes and chapels. And maybe many other things.  In fact the ingredients may stack up to quite a long and daunting list. Yet perhaps still our prayer life, if not awful, is at least tasteless. Anyway, back to Worcester and the rear comer of the chemists' storeroom.

It was months later that, during a clearout, the two chemists happened upon Marcus Sandys' revolting brew. They intended to dispatch it down the drain but decided first to have one more taste. In that moment Lea and Perrins' Worcester Sauce was born. 

The missing ingredient had been time. Worcester Sauce, like even the simple things - honey, vinegar, milk, fresh fruit or vegetables - needs the added ingredient of time.  

And prayer needs time.