Each day through Lent, we have been encouraged to recognise and let go of various ideas, feelings or beliefs that have been holding us back and dimming our light, to reconnect with our beautiful, radiant Christ Self within.
 
Sometimes we can do this easily – we recognise the thought or idea and can let it go. I often experience this as a visceral feeling of relief – I have been set free, which is powerful indeed.
 
In my experience however, when it is a long-held belief or deep-seated feeling, that is not so easy to release. It takes repeated practice as we learn new ways of responding and being, alongside patience and compassion with ourselves.
 
Sometimes, feelings can arise and take us over, so that we find ourselves stuck, perhaps even in a downward spiral. It is important, at times like this, not to make the experience wrong or push it away. Instead, we can use this as an opportunity to ask for help and support, by connecting with others in prayer and call the Silent Unity prayer line.
 
Connecting with one of our prayer volunteers, who responds with compassion, understanding and faith in God’s presence in the midst, helps us know we are not alone. Instead, praying together, we can know God as love and healing is with us and working through us, enabling us to experience our way through to freedom.
 
If ever you find yourself in a challenging or difficult situation/experience, Silent Unity is always here for you. To help you through the hard times and celebrate the good times. Our prayers are always confidential and faithfully continue for thirty days.
 
You are also welcome to join us on Zoom and share our prayer meetings each day. This experience of united prayer builds a sense of family, love and support. We are strengthened and empowered to live happy, healthy lives.
 
Prayer changes us. Let our united prayers support you and return you back to your beautiful, radiant Christ Self.
 
"If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit."
John 15:7-8

Rev Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

Have you ever found yourself praying for an easy life? Rather like Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane – take this cup from me. Yet Jesus almost immediately repudiated this by adding, not my will but thy will be done.
 
It can feel like the hardest thing, surrendering into God’s will, as so often we think that God’s will for us will be different from our own. Yet the divine in us, our Tue Self, is already in alignment with Divine will – that inner desire, nudge, or knowing, is Spirit seeking to express through us. Thus, when we pray for an easy life, we are getting in the way of Spirit flowing through us. We are potentially blocking our good.
 
Of course, our egocentric minds believe they know best. They definitely shout the loudest! Further, no one wants to experience a hard life full of struggle and pain. Yet that is not God’s will, or desire for us. Instead, it is that we fulfil our potential, to live creative and loving lives, just as you, I am sure, also want for you. And truthfully, we do that by facing the hard times with God at our core, becoming stronger, clearer, confident and alive with Spirit.
 
So how about, instead of praying for an easy life, we pray to stay open to God’s will; affirm strength and guidance; that we listen for and be receptive to Spirit-nudges, that may take us out of our comfort zone, but are only here for our good.
 
My prayer for all of us is that we know God more fully, let God be the light within which guides and strengthens us, the love that connects us and the life that energises us, so we can be the blessing in the world we came here to be.
 
"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." Mt. 26:39
 
Rev Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

​​“Turn to the other side of your nature. You are both human and divine. There is that in you that can never be hurt, that is always poised and peaceful, that knows your spiritual unity with God and knows no-one can take your good from you” – ERIC BUTTERWORTH, from Discover the power within you.
 
Some days when I am anxious, I can’t face making dinner or cleaning the bathroom. So I go to the kitchen, and I lay out the chopping board and the onion and then I just walk away. I take a cloth to the bathroom, and I just polish one tap. Because I know I need to keep moving. Even when it’s hard. Doing that one tiny thing is me rising up and reclaiming my power. Yes, I have anxiety, but I also have other parts of me too. Those who deserve time and nourishment. It is for those parts of me that I write this.
 
Plurality of causes. Anxiety is both response and symptom but not cause. The development of an anxiety disorder can be caused by multiple factors. Personality type, behavioural conditioning, biology, life experiences, lifestyle, diet and overall mental health. For a “sensitive” person, who feels empathy and emotions deeply it is easy to be influenced negatively by outside energy, but, it is also true that this sensitive person will also experience joy and beauty in the world more easily and deeply too.
 
What first appears to be a weakness can be looked at as a superpower.
 
Worrying in its evolutionary and biological capacity has arguably been advantageous for humans. Awareness for survival in a wild world was necessary. A fantastic application to outsmart a mountain lion but with new threats like nuclear wars, mortgage rises and global warming, anxiety can become a burden. So, with the awareness of what can happen if anxiety becomes the only running programme within the body. How do we awaken the other parts of ourselves?
 
Where attention goes, Energy flows.
 
I purposely plan into my days and weeks, healing activities which nourish the parts of myself that I want to see more of. The artist, the chef, the lover, the wild fierce woman who would fight a bear for her children. She’s in there. I just need to shift my focus and call her forward.
 
‘…for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline’ – 2 Timothy Ch 1 vs 7
 
Stefanie Bridges
Unity finance officer