Category Archives: Devotional

I cannot foretell the future. I cannot guarantee that all will be well – that we shall all come through unscathed. One thing only I can guarantee is that, if we do not forsake Christ here in Papua in His Body, the Church, He will not forsake us. He will uphold us; He will sustainContinue reading “Bishop Strong’s Broadcast, 1942 (For the Martyrs of New Guinea)”

My heart is stirred and the wind is blowing From the gentle south; it brings Spring’s soft footsteps with each stirring Song it sings from winter’s aisles. Look, the fig-tree is now blooming; See it herald in the springtime. Look, the bridegroom comes for his bride And my heart stirs with his theme. You, myContinue reading “My Heart Is Stirred (Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost)”

On his island amid the temper of seas and warring armies, conquering waves, Aidan, it seems, sat still, calmed somehow by the Prince of Peace, and with eyes quietly opened wide enough to see the doors that stood ajar for him to walk straight through with the words of truth that others had before himContinue reading “Lindisfarne (For Aidan, Bishop and Missionary)”

One day as I was passing into the field…this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could notContinue reading “The Pilgrim in Heavy Chains (For John Bunyan)”

Tomorrow I will be going away for a few days, on a school hiking trip, so there will be no poems posted here while I’m gone. To get ahead on the poems left for August, here is the poem for August 29, the second poem for John the Baptist. His Name is John Part 2Continue reading “His Name is John Part 2 (For the Beheading of John the Baptist)”

I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when suddenly I heard the voice of a boy or a girl – I know not which – coming from a neighbouring house, chanting over and over again, “Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.” Immediately IContinue reading “Tolle Lege (For Augustine of Hippo)”

For by the light of the faith and spirit which she received from thee, she saw that I was dead. And thou didst hear her, O Lord, thou didst hear her and despised not her tears when, pouring down, they watered the earth under her eyes in every place where she prayed. Thou didst trulyContinue reading “Monica’s Dream (For Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo)”

What no building can contain Has made its dwelling place among us; What no temple can withstand Has come to live within our walls. What no body can perceive Has entered in this living body; What no heart can understand Has come to dwell inside the heart. What no eye can bear to see HasContinue reading “Dwelling Place (Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost)”

Tradition says he lost his skin, Being flayed alive and then Beheaded; so the paintings show Him with a large knife and his own Skin, draped sometimes as a shroud, Sometimes like a robe of glory. And there is only one story Which the Scriptures tell of him; He carries there another name – Nathanael,Continue reading “Skin and Soul (For Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr)”