Integrity is one of those qualities we want to carry with us throughout life. It’s one of the things on which others tend to judge us, one of the things on which we judge others and indeed one of the things on which we judge ourselves. But what is integrity? It can mean wholeness, being complete and not divided in any way; it can mean having every quality that we should have, and nothing in the wrong place. It can mean being well-rounded. Integrity of character avoids any and all kinds of duplicity, deception, artificiality, or shallowness. One of the difficulties with developing integrity is that it’s most easily done in reflective silence and that isn’t an easy thing to achieve. Our goal as people of faith is to respond to God’s call to new life with the risen Lord, a life that results both from His gift and our efforts to value and use those gifts in daily like. Fulfilment of that goal is worth the struggle involved in retaining our integrity. We can’t fake integrity or hide it, so let’s try deliberately to develop it. St Paul, as always, challenges us: keep on working at the Lord’s work, always!

… bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above!