See clockwise how the candle-steps arise, New wick ablaze as old wicks stand beside. Some rise in hope with freshness in their eyes, Some simply stand; His Nonetheless abides In hearts that quicken, hearts of smouldering wick. Though Zion is not tall, though nations scoff, The small, the humble, now are tall. Come quick! TheContinue reading “Fourth Candle: Advent is Trusting”
Category Archives: Devotional
Too Much Light 5: Prepare Your Knees
The climb – up hills, up bridges, up avenues – may smart on feeble knees, yet walk. This is not a path for driving. There are no lanes free and your mind will not process the path from inside a car. Static and traffic-bound, you will not see the guiding star and will notContinue reading “Too Much Light 5: Prepare Your Knees”
Third Candle: Advent is Rising
Rejoice. The third candle, pink and fresh with life, Alights and sparkles while the hope grows long. Rejoice: Advent is rising; though the strife Of ways unprepared may hurt our knees, the strong Will hold the weak and walk. Advent is stretching The stiff joints of silence. Advent is latent Yet stirring with noise; AdventContinue reading “Third Candle: Advent is Rising”
Second Candle: Advent is Slowing
One candle grows short, a second descends, And three others wait for the rising of light. Wicks burn down and dwindle, yet hope still appends The longing of prayers in the slow Advent night. In the day, though the shouting of sun may shut out The lamenting of captives, yet watch in the night, ForContinue reading “Second Candle: Advent is Slowing”
Too Much Light 4: Prepare Your Feet
No room, and yet there is room: in shoulders, between lanes, by roadsides, in industrial paddocks. No room, perhaps, for cars, yet feet have space to move, if you, traffic-sore, should rise and step into the space where lavender shifts in wind, gnarled tree trunks climb to upward possibility.Continue reading “Too Much Light 4: Prepare Your Feet”
Too Much Light 3: Prepare your ears
Slow down. Road, rain, traffic slow you down but you are fast. Your heart pounds to silence the road, and buds turned inward block out growth. What speaks is asphalt and the music in your ears, the hum of engines idling, the unexpected pause. Yet sky is telling another story: look, the clouds gather roundContinue reading “Too Much Light 3: Prepare your ears”
First Candle: Advent is Waiting
Advent is not simply Christmas extended: Calendar flaps decked with chocolate each day; Shops tinsel-lined as though God intended The season to dazzle our wallets away. Advent is not for the first-fruits of commerce, Nor is it for month-long pre-parties and drinks, And not for fluoro-lit reindeers dispersed In gardens, despite what the suburbs mayContinue reading “First Candle: Advent is Waiting”
Too Much Light 2: Prepare Your Eyes
Highways have no beauty in heat of summer: the road flattens and grass lies thirsty by the way. Nothing to see (the asphalt carpet rolls through nowhere fast), we dream of nothing but our pedestrian destinations. Should someone tell the day that new light might dawn across a languid, surprised hill, it would chuckle. And so the road stays nonchalant,Continue reading “Too Much Light 2: Prepare Your Eyes”
Too Much Light 1: Prepare the Way
Delays are bad today; nothing moves. Contained at interchange, a stencil house smiles, as though to make this place feel more like home. Small comfort: we go nowhere fast. The morning yawns through Western traffic haze; the day’s light’s too bright. We squint in glare. Lane changes ache; all is standstill until a way canContinue reading “Too Much Light 1: Prepare the Way”
Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted (Cornucopia of Heaven)
Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted After Hammock, “Tres Dominé” O God – the empty horn is lifted; the hollow shell is given voice; the broken branch is whittled out and sings. Three persons, my emptiness becomes Your fullness; my earthen jar becomes Your vessel; my bruised reed hums with Your song inContinue reading “Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted (Cornucopia of Heaven)”
The Consolations of Writing 