Dear One, I want you to enjoy your life. I want you to enjoy being alive. Life is full of beautiful and interesting things, and people, and places. There's far more here than you can ever possibly experience. Follow your curiosity. Let it be your guide. Do not worry about making mistakes.Do not worry about … Continue reading To you
One needful Lenten discipline
Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. John 3.5 I have understood something new about Lent this year. It starts with a question: Why did Jesus go into the wilderness immediately after his baptism? I’ve always imagined Jesus discerning who and what … Continue reading One needful Lenten discipline
There is no one but us
A light has gone out. When I heard the news, my first thought was, “Who is going to proclaim truth now?” Annie Dillard’s unsettling retort to Psalm 24:3-6 came immediately to mind: Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. … Continue reading There is no one but us
Only basic goodness gives life to technique
Years ago, I dipped into Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I was hit between the eyes by this sentence: Only basic goodness gives life to technique.p. 21 I am not good, but I’d like to be, and this sentence has stayed with me as a standard to live up to. It … Continue reading Only basic goodness gives life to technique
A letter to three faith leaders
Dear Archbishop Justin Welby, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, I write as a Christian and a member of the Church of England. I hear that you have written to the House of Lords about your disquiet over the Assisted Dying Bill. There are two things I wish to say in response to … Continue reading A letter to three faith leaders
8 ways to be with thoughts in prayer
How’s it going in surrendering yourself to the Mystery that has intimately accessed your heart and has brought you to this place that it might translate you into itself?James Finley If you ask me just precisely how one is to go about doing the contemplative work of love, I am at a complete loss. All … Continue reading 8 ways to be with thoughts in prayer
Lost and found
I went to Durham Cathedral recently with a friend and my daughters. I don’t remember having been before. I’m not much of a visitor of buildings. I’m happier in the woods or by the river. Nevertheless, I liked the space, its age, the beautifully carved columns, the heft. At the east end, there is a … Continue reading Lost and found
Ignatian Scaffolding
In case you haven’t guessed, I am a big fan of Ignatian Spirituality. And with that couplet is the genesis of a problem. By using the phrase ‘Ignatian Spirituality’, I am already creating something that I’m not sure has much substance. I’m a fan of God and Jesus. I’m a fan of prayer. I’m a … Continue reading Ignatian Scaffolding
Coterminous
Sunday morning: sitting, praying. I have taken to moving my chair to face the window so I look out on the simple morning light. I tend to alternate between journaling and a still and silent awareness of being this body. I say ‘praying’ but really I am pondering what I want to do today: what … Continue reading Coterminous
Lass auch Dir die Brust bewegen, Liebchen, höre mich!
Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation, whose meaning none of us will ever know. Mary Oliver: In Blackwater Woods I was listening to Radio 3 over breakfast on Wednesday. Bryn Terfel was interviewed and … Continue reading Lass auch Dir die Brust bewegen, Liebchen, höre mich!
It’s only your imagination
By their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7.16 A person is walking along the street and a thought comes to her: “I ought to phone my Auntie Julie. I know it is boring, and I never know what to say, but she must be lonely stuck in her flat with no visitors.” Another person … Continue reading It’s only your imagination