�鶹��

Available for over a year

Good morning. Well, as you heard at the start of the programme, today is Saturday 29th February and this, for sure, is a day we don’t have every year. A bonus day. One not to take for granted. And one which was introduced into our calendar by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century via the most complicated set of circumstances you can imagine. There’s a lot of anecdotal stuff on the web about people born on a leap day. And if it is your birthday today (happy birthday by the way) you will have had all the jokes about you being very much younger than the rest of us with a birthday only roughly every four years. What’s the chances though of the likes of Sir James Milne Wilson, a nineteenth century Prime Minister of Tasmania, who was both born and died on 29th February? We’re often told what we should read, watch or visit before we die. To be honest these lists often instil a sense of panic in me. For a start, I’ve hardly seen any of the great paintings! But the whole question inevitably results in a wide variety of responses. Many of us might have our own personal bucket lists. In an ideal world, if you were to be given an extra day, as we are today, what would you most like to do with it if you were free from all the commitments and responsibilities which frame our usual days? Perhaps we can at least try to be grateful for this extra day, whatever challenges we face [and the news today reminds us that there are many] and try to make the most of every day because so often they all seem to merge into one. St Augustine in his Confessions, famously said that he knew what time was until someone asked him the question, “what then is time?” and then he couldn’t explain it. Philip Larkin in in his poem “Days” comments simply that days are what we live in. We have no choice. But the New Testament is clear that we should always take one day at a time and not worry about tomorrow. And seize every opportunity each day to make a difference. One of my favourite verses in the book of Psalms, which Jesus would have read, is quite well known and is a popular song in many churches. This is the Day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And perhaps be even more glad on this bonus day, the likes of which we won’t see again until 2024!