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
Disclosure II
Brahms: A German Requiem I am sitting on a chair. I am not comfortable. My bottom is sore. I am unsure of this selection of music. It is one person’s choice of their favourite pieces and performances, much of it firmly within the core canon of the Western classical tradition: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and … Continue reading Disclosure II
Disclosure I
[This is a first attempt to articulate experiences in Ceremony and how they have opened me to more of God.] Thursday 17 March 2022 Gorecki: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, I Qobuz | Spotify | YouTube I am sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion. My eyes are closed as I listen to the music. I am … Continue reading Disclosure I
Coming Out
It all started with an email. Of course, it had been going on before that. Annette and I had been reading Gabor Maté, particularly When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress. On 29th October 2021, an email dropped into my inbox: Psychedelics and Compassionate Inquiry with Dr Gabor Maté. [The original details … Continue reading Coming Out
Authority and Tradition
I have been pondering how authority and tradition work together. I have thought for many years that spiritual direction offers an opportunity to relocate the locus of authority from without to within. I mean by this that, rather than constantly looking to scripture, church tradition, books on theology and spirituality, or teachers, preachers, and leaders … Continue reading Authority and Tradition
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