Since awe sometimes is out of reachand mind strains in its own finitude, I will take the elements, the staples of the day’s endand breathe in their meaning: grace like the sourdough I stir through the bowl,holiness like the wine I savour though kids tip their food and yell,a table ripe with Godeven now.
Tag Archives: grace
Devotional Seeing: Thoughts for Ordinary Time
Through the ninety-something days of Lent and Easter this year I set myself the discipline of taking a photo each day and posting it with a spiritual reflection. It was an enormous task and one that I often regretted setting for myself. But it began to do something in me that has continued now thatContinue reading “Devotional Seeing: Thoughts for Ordinary Time”
The other side to success
Year 12 results come out today in my state, after a year in which no-one would have chosen to sit their final high school exams. I live through Year 12 results every year as a teacher and this year because of people close to me receiving results I’m experiencing it more close to home. ThisContinue reading “The other side to success”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 22
Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose,Continue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 22”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 21
Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose,Continue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 21”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 20
Are you right to be angry?The question smarts like a slapped face.Wrong wording.Whether or not I am right, my anger deserves the time of day.So turn a sullen, smarting cheek.Stare into the raging haze.Grace taps your chipped shoulder.Grace takes the heat from your brow,yet inwardly you burn with a summer sun that has no roomContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 20”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 19
Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Jonah 4:5 Jonah, like me, has no answer to God for his anger. He can give the reason for it, butContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 19”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 18
But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah 4:4 The answer, of course, has to be no. No, it isn’t right for Jonah to be angry. He has just identified one of God’s must defining characteristics for Israel – His mercy – and framed it as a problem, something to “forestall”. SoContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 18”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 17
He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, takeContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 17”
Ubi Caritas: For World Mental Health Day
What happens, he wonders,shattered by the mess, by the day,by the constancy of demands,by the ever-present lesson of patience,by the daily failure to learn this patience -What happens, he asks, when my love is broken?Nothing happens. The day goes on,all is reset as night arrives;all but the weight that pulls at his shoulders,that sags likeContinue reading “Ubi Caritas: For World Mental Health Day”
The Consolations of Writing 