Some Launde Abbey windows

Two in the Chapel and one from the bedroom in which I spent a night last week.

I've also been working on a prayer to use at a Methodist District Safeguarding Conference at which I am due to speak.  I used it at the beginning of a session at the Bishop's Council residential meeting, which is why we were at Launde.

O God, 
you know our stance is perilous, 
fragile as pottery: 
safeguard those we endanger 
as we carry your richness 
within our frailty.

It obviously draws on my recent attention to 2 Corinthians 4.7:

We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.  
 
It is also developed from a sixth century prayer (here in Latin, in a literal translation and in the Book of Common Prayer version):

Deus, qui nos in tantis periculis constitutos, pro humana scis fragilitate non posse subsistere: da nobis salutem mentis et corporis ut ea quae pro peccatis nostris patimur, te adjuvante, vincamus.

O God, you who know that we, set in such great dangers, are not able to hold out because of human fragility: grant us health of mind and body; so that, you helping us, we may vanquish those things which we suffer on account of our sins.

O God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations.