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
Author: Julian Maddock
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
Retreat Day: “What do You want me to do?”
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking Many of us long to know what we should do with our lives and how we should live on a day by day basis. Those of us with a religious bent want … Continue reading Retreat Day: “What do You want me to do?”
Retreat day: Coming home (last call)
The truth is that we are always home. On this retreat day, we will explore coming home to our bodies, to ourselves, to the present, our own presence and The Presence, and to our place and purpose in the world. I will offer what I consider to be some important landscapes for exploration, but the … Continue reading Retreat day: Coming home (last call)
Retreat Day: Coming Home
When we take up occupation of the site of our bodies in stillness before God, we are granted a place to be, simply in virtue of being there as material beings made by God. Rowan Williams: Lear and Eurydice The truth is that we are always home. On this retreat day, we will explore coming … Continue reading Retreat Day: Coming Home
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!