GOOD MORNING
Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s there were 40 miles of M1, 30 miles of M2 and that was just about it. I’ll never forget 'crossing the water' for the first time and discovering not only that motorways on the 'big island' had long since made it into double figures
but that they had three lanes rather than two! I’ve ticked off many of those 'M numbers' in the years since then but there’s one I have yet to chalk up and it etched itself on the national consciousness precisely 36 years ago today.

'Off duty' soldiers and their families were travelling on the M62 from Manchester, after a weekend break. They were on their way to an army base in Catterick, North Yorkshire, when a suspected IRA bomb exploded on their coach. Twelve of the occupants were killed, including two young children.

Lots of things move me to pray about the M62 coach bombing. There’s the innocence of the twelve people who died and their families. There’s the guilt of the perpetrators who have yet to be brought to justice. There’s the years of relative peace ushered in since 1997, by a welcome succession of ceasefires and yet what strikes me most forcefully is that I was four years old in 1974 when that bus exploded and before today I’d never even heard of it.
.PRAYER
Lord, so much in life passes us by, like traffic on the fast lane of a motorway. Make us grateful today for all those who -- like your Son --
have borne the pain of evil and wickedness for no good reason
than to expose the futility
of what they had to suffer.
Amen