Make room for us in your hearts. (2 Corinthians 7:2) She found herself aboard a ship Southward bound to Melbourne where Her husband would take up his post. But she did not stand by passive, Heart made open to take others In where doors were rarely open, Making beds and room enough for Those whoContinue reading “Room (For Frances Perry, Founder of the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne)”
Category Archives: Devotional
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 Lesser Brother (For St Andrew, Apostle and Martyr)
Somehow always in the shadow Of that larger, louder brother, Always kept behind in lists, Not taken up the mountain-top; And yet the small one heard Him speak Whose words were fire in his heart And went to get his brother, said, We’ve found the one who is the Christ. If all the small onesContinue reading “The Lesser Brother (For St Andrew, Apostle and Martyr)”
King (Last Sunday After Pentecost: Christ the King)
They will look on Him they pierced – If they can look Him in the eye, If they are not blinded by The blazing Son’s bright, golden light Refracted in the clouds – They will look on Him, the first, The last, the bright, eternal One, And see His sceptre and His keys, And ifContinue reading “King (Last Sunday After Pentecost: Christ the King)”
Brother (For James Noble, First Aboriginal Clergyman)
The day will come when all our wrongs Are shown for what they truly are And all our motives, all our deeds Will shine or rot before the Son; The day will come when all our tracks We covered up and all we burned Will be revealed and we will stand In all our nakednessContinue reading “Brother (For James Noble, First Aboriginal Clergyman)”
The Anchor (For Clement of Rome)
Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto him. (The Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians) From age to age, the anchor stands, The anchor in the waves of death AndContinue reading “The Anchor (For Clement of Rome)”
The Bird’s Brief Song (For Elizabeth of Hungary, Princess and Philanthropist)
When the time approached that God had ordained, that she which had despised the reign mortal should have the reign of angels, she lay sick of the fevers and turned her to the wall, and they that were there heard her put out a sweet melody; and when one of the chamberers had enquired ofContinue reading “The Bird’s Brief Song (For Elizabeth of Hungary, Princess and Philanthropist)”
Birthpangs (Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost)
In the meantime, nation will rise against nation; The earth will quake and rumours will spread; Many will stand and say, I am he, And many kings will kill other kings. If at times you quake too with the earth, If your prayers sometimes shudder in silence, Lift up your eyes, wipe the dirt fromContinue reading “Birthpangs (Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost)”
St. Hugh and the Swan (For Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop)
When King Henry sought to absolve his guilt Planting a Carthusian order – A penance, they say, for killing a priest Who had changed from a friend to a thorn – Hugh came across from Avalon to Lead the new order he’d placed there, No less a scourge to Henry’s proud will, Yet winning himContinue reading “St. Hugh and the Swan (For Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop)”
The Dream of the Jewel (For Hilda of Whitby, Abbess)
Hilda’s mother had a dream: She was searching for her husband, Banished by the Briton king, And she, searching, could not find him, Though she looked wherever she could. And yet it came to pass in her dream That beneath her garment she found A jewel, radiant and bright, Covering all England with its light.Continue reading “The Dream of the Jewel (For Hilda of Whitby, Abbess)”
The Consolations of Writing 