To Cleopas and his friend, the revelation and its impact no doubt stuck. Their paradigm, irremediably shifted, could hardly go back. Such things as resurrections we don’t forget in any hurry. Yet for those serving at table, I wonder: did the light dawn so quickly, so decisively? More or less a normal night’s work, andContinue reading “Chiaroscuro”
Category Archives: Devotional
Recognised, Became Invisible: For Jean-Luc Marion
Was it the breaking of bread that did it, That act just so like the Bread of Life? Or was it how the Word opened up the word And our hearts were like flames within us? Our eyes Beheld but did not understand, intuit What lay behind all those parables, rife With intimations of truth,Continue reading “Recognised, Became Invisible: For Jean-Luc Marion”
Easter Sunday
Unintentionally, I keep vigil the night before while my son, restless for the dawn, unsettled by the changing of the clocks, bids me stay awake and pray. Some sleep gained before sunrise, yet when the lights comes it feels somehow the natural outworking of the night, for I’ve walked through all its stations, met itsContinue reading “Easter Sunday”
Holy Saturday
I know this day well, have often lived here, yet rarely for good reason, only the wounded pride of disappointment, the failure of God to sate expectations. Licking my wounds, embalming my life goals, I sit beneath a Jonah tree and await the explosion. Nothing comes, only Sabbath: the time for waiting, for preparing spiceContinue reading “Holy Saturday”
Good Friday
Lent ends with a mirror: I am the mocker, the spitter, the thief. Like a child resenting their small role in the pageant, I greet grace with a petulant, What about me? This is me. My role is the soldier with the reed and the crown, the voice crying, Crucify! and, Messiah, come down. I’mContinue reading “Good Friday”
Maundy Thursday
Like Peter, I am thrown. The new commandment is old – older than water – but never does it feel old when it knocks where the heart’s most calloused, with desert-worn feet, soles encased in grime and travail. Water washes, but the command penetrates. And the action – the knees bent, the teacher’s degradation –Continue reading “Maundy Thursday”
Palm Sunday
I have been there in the festal throng, the waving of palms, the shouting of Psalms: Hosanna – the highest – hosanna. And I have felt the surge of pride to see my king, as prophesied, come in, triumphantly, astride his Zechariah-steed, and I confess that I have hoped to find what, in the end,Continue reading “Palm Sunday”
Kyrie in the Desert
Father, What have I done with the food you gave me? The bread of life grows mould where I left it. The leaven of self sickens and spoils. Puffed up by bread alone, no Word, I am fat and famished. In the desert of abundance, Lord have mercy. Brother, All the kingdoms of the worldContinue reading “Kyrie in the Desert”
The Consolations of Lent
Comfort sits, unexpected, in our waiting with weakness. No giant leaps needed, only the baby steps of the heart slowly learning contrition. Begin with incapacity, then the slow-dawning knowledge that you are nothing but dust. Dust transfigures at His breath. Exhale in the sigh of your Lenten frailty. Then inhale, inspire. O brother in ourContinue reading “The Consolations of Lent”
L is for learning, L is for Lent
This year I do not so much give up my temptations as face the temptation to give up. Perhaps it was so for the forty desert days when stone may have seemed a fair alternative to bread. Yet stones, when given the chance, can become a chorus of praise. So this year I teach stone:Continue reading “L is for learning, L is for Lent”
The Consolations of Writing 