Category Archives: Devotional

I was too busy yesterday writing another poem to note that my fairly long break from writing the liturgical poems was over and I now had another poem to write. This one is for Margaret of Scotland, a remarkable woman normally celebrated on November 16 but, due to my disorganisation, remembered here today. The BeggarContinue reading “The Beggar Queen (For Margaret of Scotland, Queen and Helper of the Poor)”

Yes, you are tired, it hurts, you are weak; the stubborn pewholders are locking their pews, the church doors are closed on Sunday afternoons; and every sabbath morning hearts and ears are locked; the harvest falls daily upon the hardest soil and while you speak to parched, dead bones, your throat too grows dry. ButContinue reading “…and after you have done everything, to stand (For Charles Simeon, Evangelist)”

Too long he had served Caesar; now The soldier put down his arms. He gave his cloak up to the beggar And stood while others called him weak. When peace was signed, they let him go, That coward who’d betrayed his king, But Martin had another Lord And left to fight for Him. He felledContinue reading “Armistice (For Martin of Tours)”

Naomi cries for joy because A child now rests at her breast; The mother and her child eat – The oil is still pouring; The widow offers up her coins, The all she has to give, for He Is her all in all. And all the lowly ones lift up Their heads to see HimContinue reading “The Widow’s Offering (Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost)”

They say that as he stood before Attila, angels by his side, The force of truth and all the church Sent the violent host away. They say the angel’s sword gleamed bright; They say Attila ran in fright; They say, they say so many things, And many things have gone astray. Another story, firm inContinue reading “For Leo of Rome”

The stories are told of the many who died; Some of them rest in the Abbey. The bricks there stand firm over hundreds of years; But some stories fade with the passing. The pillars still hold but the truth, sometimes shaky, Whispers and shudders through ages, For the towers we built and the books thatContinue reading “Communion (For Saints, Martyrs, Missionaries and Teachers of the Anglican Communion)”

Then Orphah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her. (Ruth 1:14) Many and wide are the roads you may take, Bitter and sweet is the journey; Many the gods you may may bow down before, Legion the altars to worship. Blessed the path that’s hardest to take, Sweetest the fruit with most poison;Continue reading “Cleave (Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost)”

Law…is bound up with the compatible variety of things in the universe…In creating, God chooses to make a world of limits – that’s what creation is; his purpose being to secure the greatest possible variety of imitations of his own being, a complex of realities each…’participating’, sharing in his own being in a unique. (RowanContinue reading “The Law of Limits (For Richard Hooker, Theologian)”

Some have gone to sleep at night, Their souls secure within His grip, The sins of yesterday, today Already washed and cleaned. Some have tapered slowly out, Every last breath a long release, The daily giving up of life, The agony of gasping prayer. Some are taken by surprise, The unexpected thief at night, TheContinue reading “All Souls”

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours… (1 Corinthians 1:2) All saints, and yet The pagans quake To see the livesContinue reading “All Saints”