Thought for the Day-Critical Examination

De Pannenkoekenbakster (The Pancake Maker), Jan Miense Molenaer, 1645

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service at St Olave Hart Street on Shrove Tuesday 17th February 2026 at 12.30pm based on the texts of James 1.12-18 and Mark 8.14-21.

Start-Stop : A Confession on Shrove Tuesday

The Creation of the World, Fernand Leger, 1923

Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook offers busy commuters in the City of London the chance to start their day by stopping to pray and reflect for ten minutes. This is my reflection for Tuesday 25th February 2020 - Shrove Tuesday. Good morning and welcome to Start:Stop. In many Eucharistic liturgies it is common to say together a ‘memorial acclamation’; “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” The season of Lent, which begins tomorrow, is a time when we are particularly encouraged to pause in the space after that second comma; to consider how we have filled this in-between-time after Christ’s resurrection and before His second coming.