Peter and Alana have spent the day shopping for Christmas presents. The task is always a challenging one. Peter’s family is small and easily pleased but Alana’s is another matter. She has two brothers and one sister, and they have their respective partners and families to shop for. This year her oldest brother Simon, theContinue reading “The Gift: Second Candle (Day Seven)”
Category Archives: Advent
Our Flesh (For Ambrose of Milan, Bishop and Teacher)
Of wondrous purpose took He our flesh, to the end that He might show that the law of the flesh had been subjected to the law of the mind. He was incarnate, that He, the teacher of men, might overcome as man. (Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Christian Faith) Minds explode to hear theContinue reading “Our Flesh (For Ambrose of Milan, Bishop and Teacher)”
The Gift (Day Six)
The neighbours were all ready to hurl their puddings and their dishes right in the mother’s face, only they were interrupted by a small, unobtrusive family who appeared in amongst the crowd and started to speak, quietly at first but with a quality in their voices that made everyone else stop and listen. It wasContinue reading “The Gift (Day Six)”
Window Gifts (For Nicholas of Myra)
Passing by these open panes, Window-shopping with the lives Of those whose dreams are not like ours, Whose hopes lie closer to the ground And do not shop with us, We cannot know, cannot conceive, The endings that their evenings fear, Can only walk by window-sills And guess at reasons for those looks Of sullenContinue reading “Window Gifts (For Nicholas of Myra)”
The Gift (Day Five)
Finally the time for pudding arrived; the mother snuck away from the table to fetch the pudding and, as she returned, the pudding glazed in brandy and a secret extra drop of the magic liquid, the whole room fell into a hush, struck with awe, almost meditative. Whatever feuds had made them forget the prospectContinue reading “The Gift (Day Five)”
The Gift (Day Four)
When the mother and father came back inside, their search yielding no results, the mother got back to the task of making the pudding. She looked at the mixture; it was all ready, except for one more ingredient. There was a small bottle in the pantry that had no label on it. The bottle wasContinue reading “The Gift (Day Four)”
The Gift (Day Three)
The goblin knew that at the foot of one of the hills lived a very bitter family. Life had been hard for that family and, with every misfortune, they had planted bitter fruit in their garden – gourds and eggplant and bitter melon and the bitterest of grapefruit that you could find. There was notContinue reading “The Gift (Day Three)”
The Gift (Day Two)
The Story of the Goblin Who Poisoned the Christmas Pudding Once upon a time, there was a goblin. (“You don’t know what the story is about,” says Alana. “You’re stalling.” “Just listen,” says Peter. “Okay…” says Alana.) Once upon a time, there was a goblin, and he… No, once upon a time, there was aContinue reading “The Gift (Day Two)”
The Gift: First Candle (Day One)
Today is the first Sunday of Advent and this year I have decided to see Advent in with a story that I have written. It is the 200th anniversary this year of Charles Dickens’ birth and not only was Dickens one of my first and most profound literary influences but also one of the mostContinue reading “The Gift: First Candle (Day One)”
The Lord Our Righteousness (First Sunday of Advent)
See among the broken branches, See amidst the withered stalks; See below the rotting roots, the Cut-down trunks and stumps. See beside the barren fig-tree, See where buds shrink and abandoned, Worthless fields turn fallow with us; See inside our failing garden: See the branch of Jesse growing, Slowly, slowly, growing with us; See theContinue reading “The Lord Our Righteousness (First Sunday of Advent)”
The Consolations of Writing 