Category Archives: The Swelling Year

Out of the depths, I cry and I sweat. Wasting and waning, I call out to you, For I believe there may still be hope yet. “The Lord,” I say, “is my portion”, and yet Weighty with sin I cannot stand before you – Out of the depths, I cry and I sweat. From murkyContinue reading “De Profundis (Psalm 130)”

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12) I. Readily he left his nets, Left the boat to walk upon The water just as Jesus did, Only then to sink within The waves, thenContinue reading “Pillars, Rocks and Scales (For Peter and Paul, Apostles and Martyrs)”

Against the stormy sea of gnosis (rising, so transcendently, on waves that lifted high above the flesh, the concrete, physical!), while wandering philosophers preached gnosis all throughout his see, sweeping all their hearers up in currents of their eloquence, a Bishop stood and bucked the tide, and lifting up a bulwark to hold against theContinue reading “Gnosis (For Irenaeus of Lyon)”

If any one confess not, that the Word of God the Father hath been personally united to Flesh, and that He is One Christ with His own Flesh, the Same (that is) God alike and man, be he anathema. (Cyril of Alexandria, Adversus Nestorii Blasphemias) Icon contained in an icon, he holds A picture ofContinue reading “The One True Image (For Cyril of Alexandria)”

The name was not a family name. But no-one in your family has That name! they said, as he wrote down, Faithful now at very last, Just what the angel said to him. And true – it was an unusual name; Yet as he scratched upon the page, “His name is John”, he felt aContinue reading “His Name is John (For the Nativity of John the Baptist)”

III. “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41) And in the wildly shaking boat, The waves full in their tempest fury, The Lord asleep there in the boat, Calmly sleeping, fearless, sleeping While all about him roared the waves; Waking then he stood and turned Upon theContinue reading ““…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Part Three)”

I. Exegi monumentum aere perennius. I have raised a monument more permanent than bronze. (Horace, Odes, Book III) Out from the camp – the Philistine camp – came the champion, the fearful champion, height six cubits and a span, armed in mail, helmed with bronze, in a coat of bronze and on his legs twoContinue reading ““…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Fourth Sunday After Pentecost)”

(Tomorrow is actually the day in which the Anglican Church remembers St. Alban, Britain’s first martyr. I have written his poem today, however, knowing I will not have time for it tomorrow.) Alban Yields Albanum egregium fæcunda Britannia profert. Fruitful Britain holy Alban yields. (Venantius Fortunatus, quoted by Bede, trans. William Hurst) The stream flowedContinue reading “Alban Yields”

I. In the forest of trees, They looked for a king Mid the loftiest tree-tops That scraped the canopy, Where the eye soared to see; They looked there for a king, And staggered drunk to see Such height there. But the priest of the trees Turned then to see The lowliest sprig On a tallContinue reading “King of the Canopy (Third Sunday After Pentecost)”