“Mellow out,” they say. If I only could. Adolescent patient quoted by Dr Michael Piechowski Three times, the Apostle, says he cried,yet three times denied:within his side the unnamed thorn remained.To fester? To infect? No, to be the site of grace,for only this reply came: My grace is sufficient; in your weakness will my powerContinue reading “Peace and the Thorn”
Tag Archives: Incarnation
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 10
“What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah 2:9b-10 And here we arrive at the point that the children’s bibles are always leading: Jonah leaving the fish for dry land and “making good” what he has “vowed”. YetContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 10”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 8
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,Continue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 8”
Flesh
So the word of God became a human being and lived among us.(John 1:14 – J.B. Phillips Translation) By any standard it would beextraordinary to findthe infinite, immortal constrained in time but to find Divinity where it knew full wellthe hearts of manand how they turned, mostly away – to find the all-sufficient taking onthisContinue reading “Flesh”
Logos
At the beginning God expressed himself.(John 1:1 – J.B. Phillips Translation) The urge to speak, to connect:is it heresy to find this in the Immortal,the all-sufficient? Havingno need of us, and yet He speaks –is Word. And we,the subjects of His sentences,are warmed by the light of His present tense, turningthis way, and that,choosing darknessContinue reading “Logos”
Christmas 3: Beloved
As well as being the day when my true love sent me three French hens, the third day of Christmas traditionally remembers St John the Evangelist, who contrasts with Stephen the martyr for being the only one of the apostles not be martyred. He also saw the glories ahead revealed to him when imprisoned forContinue reading “Christmas 3: Beloved”
Advent 4: Correction
So now: as we wait in rapt expectancy, will we unwrap our dreams? Our loves? Or unravel with the pressure, the hallowed table proving to be full of holes. When the day and its gestures disappoint, what will tell us, You matter? Frantic to complete the list, we quickly pass the simple scene: a teenageContinue reading “Advent 4: Correction”
Poetic Translations: The King and the Maiden
One of the great mysteries and wonders that we can be reflecting on this Advent season is the Incarnation: the mystery that the God of the universe would become a human, even a defenceless baby. To explore this mystery, Søren Kierkegaard tells the story of a king who loves a poor and humble girl andContinue reading “Poetic Translations: The King and the Maiden”
20 Contemplations #15: Intimacy
He comes near, able to touch, to be touched, and be wounded, to kiss and to be kissed: the grateful kiss, the sleepy child dismiss- ing himself to sleep; the mother’s kiss, a smudge on freshly-bathed cheek; the plotter’s grudge expressed in the curl of doubled lips, the final, false farewell, the fatal tryst. He comesContinue reading “20 Contemplations #15: Intimacy”
20 Contemplations #14: Wonder
…the astonishment of the Angels: for it is not in them (pure spirits), but in the human race, that God unites himself, and the Son of God incarnate “is not ashamed to call us his brothers.” (Olivier Messiaen) Flames of fire, yet only servants. They long to look into what we hold as child: God-made-flesh.Continue reading “20 Contemplations #14: Wonder”
The Consolations of Writing 