We are grateful to leaders and to all who have suffered and died in the peace process that led to the Belfast Agreement on Good Friday. Thanksgiving is an essential in our feelings towards all who have contributed to the dawning of new hope.
Ever since the days of St Paul, and throughout the years, believers and churches have heeded his request to pray for those in authority: "Supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings should be made on behalf of all. . .for kings and rulers in positions of responsibility, so that our common life may be lived in peace and quiet, with a proper sense of God and of our responsibility to Him for what we do with our lives."
The fact that the Belfast Agreement took shape on Good Friday may be seen by believers as having significance. It is closely associated with Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and His sacrificial prayer of courageous dedication: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."
No doubt in the long and prolonged discussions and negotiations by those in authority involved in producing the Good Friday Agreement, all of them experienced moments of tough decision not unlike what Jesus faced in Gethsemane. We are grateful to those who found it in their conscience to be able to see the larger picture as well as their own points of view. Those in authority who provided the Good Friday Agreement are delighted at the support given by voting and by people through faithful prayer.
Many observing what can be achieved by prayer will be eager to improve the quality of their prayer life. They have a healthy desire to develop a deep friendship with God, and are not satisfied with a more distant acquaintanceship. When the disciples felt that way and said to Jesus: "Lord, teach us how to pray", He gave them the words of the Lord's Prayer. They learned about prayer from a person they knew was practising prayer himself.
I expressed condolence to a saintly man of prayer on the death of his deeply loved partner after many years of happy marriage. Accompanying the signs of his bereavement this man kept on dwelling upon God's blessings given them over long and happy years together. "Even now, in my time of bereavement," he said, "I am glad that the prayers on my behalf are being answered in the lovely serenity that has come to me at present." As we pray for the welfare of our country, that belief in a Higher Authority will give us the serenity we need.
"Almighty and merciful God, who in days of old didst give to this land the benediction of thy holy Church, withdraw not, we pray thee, thy favour from us, but so correct what is amiss, supply what is lacking, and reconcile what is divided, that we may more and more bring forth fruit to thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord."