Draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love

Draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love

I have mentioned my trip to Walsingham in April on here before. It was a quite profound experience in many ways, and I often find myself thinking about it in one way or another. When I read the Collect for today, Trinity Sunday, my thoughts were once again drawn to Walsingham.

While I was there, I spent a pleasant afternoon in the grounds of the old abbey. I hadn’t realized that they covered such a vast area as they do. I wasn’t able to explore everywhere, but during the course of the afternoon, with lots of stops to rest, I did manage to see quite a lot — and next time I go to Walsingham I will try to see some of what I had to miss.

Everywhere you looked there was something drawing you ever deeper into the grounds: a new path to follow; sunlight peeping through into a clearing ahead; wild flowers to see; the remains of a building or wall that was hundreds of years old. It was an incredibly peaceful place to be; the only sounds to be heard were the birds singing, and the occasional chatter of other people enjoying the place too.

It occurs to me that God’s love for us is a little like that. There are always new aspects of his love to explore and experience. And the more we experience it, the more we want to experience of it. We are drawn ever deeper into God’s love, we can feel it encompassing our very beings, and bringing us peace and joy.

I was disappointed on that day in Walsingham because my poor health prevented me from seeing so much more of the grounds. But there are no such barriers to experiencing God’s love; nothing will ever get in the way of that. As St Paul writes, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Let us all allow ourselves to be drawn ever deeper into God’s amazing love, to experience again and again the peace and the joy it can bring us.

Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Additional Collect for Trinity Sunday
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The pictures on this post were taken in the grounds of the old abbey at Walsingham. Larger versions, and other pictures, can be found in my “Four Days in Walsingham” set on Flickr.