Parallel Universes

On Good Friday at the service to mark the Hour of Jesus' death - a very sombre service - we noticed that a little mouse was coming out from underneath the black cloth draped over the cross and nibbling on the bread that had been left, with the wine, at the foot of the cross for the vigil.  The bread consisted of pieces of big flatbreads. At one point the mouse was pulling on a half circle about five times its size, at other times nibbling smaller morsels.

When we were invited to bring to the cross those things which we wanted to die to, I could imagine the mouse cowering in the black cloth, listening to the thunderous treads on the wooden floor and feeling it shake.

It didn't take away from the solemnity and meaning of the moment;  (as George Bernard Shaw said: 'Life  does not  cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.)

At the Maundy Thursday vigil, the mouse was also present, watched closely and with great interest by the rector's cat. This cat is pleasantly plump, being supplied with dry food by at least one parishioner, so she didn't pursue the hunt on this occasion.

Altogether a frightening time in the mouse universe and I heard the mouse praying after the service and record its prayer of petition and thanks herewith.

O Invisible Source of all Life,
You spread a table for me in the presence of my enemies,
and though the ground shook and the thunder roared,
I thank you now for this time of peace when I may feast on your goodness.
I thank you too for deliverance from the snare of the hunter - the fish-breathing she-lion;
I thank you for the woman who fills the lion with good things
That she may not have need of me.
I ask that your bounty be made freely to me all the days of my life,
Not just for three days in April.
I ask that the cup be filled to the top, that I may also drink of that.
I give you thanks for thy feast that fills the hungry with good things;
I thank you too for fullness of wife (and young). Amen

The attached image, called "Fullness of Wife", is of a bandicoot with a very large pouch, (feasting on pieces of bread and a chicken bone so that I could get up close to her with the camera). Regular visitors to my garden here in Perth, these bandicoots eat almost anything - dry cat food is a particular favourite. The baby in her pouch would be almost ready to emerge and fend for itself (if it doesn't fall victim to cats)