October 2025

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. It is not intended to be definitive.  In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

Saying for the month: ‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’ (NRSV). Jeremiah 32.41.

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:  ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28).

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

We take this Saying into our minds, allowing it to speak to us: … ‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

The fuller text is this: ‘I will … never… draw back from doing good to them … I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

Chapter 32 of the book of Jeremiah is very poignant in historical and spiritual meaning. Jeremiah was born in the city of Anathoth, just north of Jerusalem. He was called to be a prophet around 627BC when he was only 20 years old. The book is named after him but was actually written by Baruch who was Jeremiah’s faithful secretary. Jeremiah dictated much of the work to him.

The international situation of that time involved a threefold conflict for supremacy of the near-Eastern world between Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, was caught between these struggles for power and domination. Babylon eventually emerged supreme, to become the instrument of God’s judgement on His godless people.

In chapter 32 we read how the Babylonian army are besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah had been imprisoned by the King of Judah, King Zedekiah, for prophesying the fall of Jerusalem and that the King himself would be taken into captivity in Babylon (v.2-6). The prophesy is direct and uncompromising about the fate of Judah and Jerusalem. The reason given for this forthcoming disaster is God’s anger about His people’s apostacy, turning away from God, not listening to Him (v.33).

Jeremiah is however also given instruction by ‘the word of the Lord’ to buy his uncle’s field at Anathoth. This was to be sign of hope in the midst of disaster. (v8) And God will not abandon them but bring them back, restore them in their own land and make an everlasting covenant  ‘that I will not turn away from doing good to them …. I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

These words from the mouth of Jeremiah and penned by Baruch would have been a source of great comfort and consolation, in the midst of fear and despair that they had been abandoned by God. Jeremiah himself must have felt abandoned in prison, yet he knows that The Lord is with him and giving him the words to prophesy this very encouraging and joyous message. ‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

Jeremiah, the prophet, experiences and is a symbolic figure of God’s judgement and everlasting steadfast love which will bring about a return to their land. In His imprisonment Jeremiah arranges for the signed deed of purchase to buy his uncle’s field at Anathoth. He is reassured of God’s steadfast love. In this, he becomes a Christlike figure from the Jewish scriptures, one that shows us the extent of God’s love: ‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

 The first silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the hea 

‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

This is the message from God given to the prophet Jeremiah for the people, whilst Jeremiah was in prison. God sometimes uses the suffering of his special messengers. We can think of St Paul writing some of his letters whilst incarcerated: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Others wrote likewse, more recently, John Bunyan for example who wrote the Christian classic Pilgrim’s Progress while in prison. We can think also of the testimony of others who have endured prison sentences in which they have found an awareness of God’s presence in their plight and suffering. Nelson Mandala is perhaps the best example in recent times.

It is an amazing paradox that so often human suffering can bring out the best and sometimes the most creative parts of our existence. In these great men of God, this is clearly manifest. They have given us some of the most profound words and oracles, emanating from God, written for all time. We, reading them hundreds of years later, can still learn from them and take them to ourselves: ‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

How much can we embrace these words of God and take them on board both for ourselves and our world? It’s perhaps difficult to see God’s hand at work in some of the conflicts, wars and worrying geo-political shifts of this present time. We need however to hold on to the belief that God is working in and through all the vicissitudes and complexities of our present times.

And what of ourselves and our own personal lives? The Christian poet W.H. Auden wrote in his 1939 poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’:

In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountain start,

In the prison of his days

Teach the free man how to praise.

(ll. 54-65).

In some ways we are imprisoned in our human frailty and sinfulness, but we are also, as Christians, free! ‘Teach the free man how to praise’, these are the words with which Auden’s whole poem ends. And in our praises, God rejoices and assures us in this month’s Saying: ‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

Now we take this Word into our hearts, as we allow God’s’ words to speak in us, to let it touch us and let it work more deeply upon our lives.

A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

The second silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.

Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world.

‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’.

Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison and your family … “I will rejoice in doing good to them” ’.

As we allow the word to speak through us we might direct Jesus’ word towards those people and situations where there is suffering, hurt and an absence of joy and where abiding in Christ would bring comfort.

Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

The Conclusion

Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer:

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen

You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.