麻豆社

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Mariama Ifode-Blease.

Good morning.

It鈥檚 the start of the Women鈥檚 Euro 2025 tournament in Switzerland tonight. Sixteen teams will be vying to be champions of Europe. And let me tell you, I am prepared. The wall chart has been printed. Profiles of players and countries have been read. And a plethora of snacks, with varying nutritional value, has been purchased.

The Lionesses, that is the England team, are reigning champions, having won the trophy in spectacular fashion in 2022. After the sad and very difficult years of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was as if the Lionesses gave us permission to celebrate, to laugh again, to hug one another again.

I should confess that I work for the England Women鈥檚 Football Teams, with the junior squads, as part of a multi-disciplinary team, that focuses on wellbeing, welfare and safeguarding. I combine this with being a priest, and can see the points of divergence between the two roles. It鈥檚 really about people, and walking with them towards flourishing and being fully alive.

The base upon which future success is built, has simple roots: love and encouragement from family and friends, a safe environment for body and mind, making friends and lifelong positive connections, and someone seeing something in you, that you couldn鈥檛 possibly see in yourself. Everyone should have this opportunity to thrive, though sometimes we know that the starts we鈥檝e had in life, may not have been helpful. Sometimes, we have to write a new story, with the love and support of others.

So today, I pray for the imagination, and creativity, to imagine new narratives for my life, and the confidence to write different endings.

Amen.