Category Archives: Devotional

“You are God’s field, God’s building” 

Good news. He also works in earthy things: not only stars but soil and grass, carves churches from stone souls, makes mud-houses whole, and knows the ways a seed must break. Good news that maimed bodies are his building, that the one-eyed, the lame, may be fed in his field, good news that his isContinue reading ““You are God’s field, God’s building” “

“A catholic taste,” she said

and I nodded, not knowing at all what she meant, for I was not, nor have ever been, Catholic. How then, I wondered, was my reading taste catholic? The word, at the time, meant Mary and popes, not expansive, far-reaching, inclusive. Now I give my old teacher’s words new meaning: yes, catholic in reading, inContinue reading ““A catholic taste,” she said”

“With pen in hand”

The fact that a work of such unperturbed objectivity and such deep, radiating peace could grow from a life which, far from being untroubled, consumed itself in strife, gives us an insight into the special quality of the man. (Josef Pieper, The Silence of St Thomas) The branch is not the root system. When youContinue reading ““With pen in hand””

Resolution: No Clutter

Too fidgety the mind’s compass (R.S. Thomas, “Adam Tempted”) I pile books on books and thought on thought. I pile obligation onto guilt, and duty  onto resignation. This is panic in my breath and limbs tingling with the pace of things. There is no end, the wise teacher said, to all flesh-weariness of thought. IContinue reading “Resolution: No Clutter”

Welcome, God’s Year

For many, 2016 will be a year that few will miss or wish to repeat. It was the year of Brexit and Trump, of many beloved public figures dying, and seemingly also a year of much personal hardship for many people. It was certainly the case for my wife and I this year. Yet I’m determinedContinue reading “Welcome, God’s Year”

How we wait

The taste of hospitals and airports says: You are here under whatever circumstances, tired, no doubt stressed. Have a coffee. Sit down. No-one will care if you cry; everyone is going somewhere different sometime soon. Everyone is crying or dazed, on edge yet kept in secure wards or waiting gates, volatile, yet in comfy chairs.Continue reading “How we wait”

Rainy Day Sermon

The text is darker in this weather,      more emphatic, as though while he wrote, outside prison walls Saint Paul             saw the fall of some Ephesian rain-drops and thought:             If my plea should fall on hard soil… Did he see the runaway slave      in the wet, uncertain, standing at his master’s door,Continue reading “Rainy Day Sermon”

How lonely sits the city

I did not see them go there with their flame to burn the city’s heart, the city’s bones. I did not see the past fall down in ash or hear the cries of covenant in pain. I did not hear the gongs of history clash or see foe-cities’ gods fight in the square. Yet inContinue reading “How lonely sits the city”

All our comings and our goings

Some wandered in deserts; I strayed Among Antarctic beeches and Bunya pine, Silver ferns and blood red soil, where I made Kingdoms and mountains from my trampoline. Some languished at sea; I saw an ocean Outside my window when the Easter rains Flooded the side path, and gazed at the scene In raptured delight. IContinue reading “All our comings and our goings”