the sensation of life
Here is something I wrote in my journal nearly 17 years ago. At the time I was living in a large, Victorian, short-life house (council housing, unfit for council tenants, leased to a housing co-operative) close to the Brixton Road. I don’t think I’d change a word today. What troubles me is that I’ve been … Continue reading The Discontents of Empire (II)
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and why do you labour for that which does not satisfy? Isaiah 55.2 In the recent months I have found myself working more, and praying and writing less. I have wondered at the reasons. Several occur to me: I'm anxious about money; I … Continue reading The Discontents of Empire (I)
I think President Donald J. Trump is the apotheosis of our system. He is not mad or bad. He is ourselves writ large. He shows us what we have become. When we demonise him, we are decrying what is wrong in ourselves. I think that all the protests – the protests against Trump and against … Continue reading I am Trump
I think that … that you work on the thing that's eating away at you. And I think that the performers that we feel are wrestling with something significant are the performers that hold … they hold our attention. Why couldn't people take their eyes of Brando? Something was always eating at him. I don't … Continue reading What’s eating away at you?
Real conversion is centred on God: it results from a deeper turning towards Him rather than a closer inspection of ourselves. … Conversion, at its root, is not the action performed but the source of that action, the experience of being loved.Dyckman & Carroll, Inviting the Mystic, Supporting the Prophet, 9 I am faced with … Continue reading Only
Prayer is subversive activity. It involves a more or less open act of defiance against any claim by the current regime… [As we pray,] slowly but surely, not culture, not family, not government, not job, not even the tyrannous self can stand against the quiet power and creative influence of God's sovereignty. Every natural tie … Continue reading Sermon to self
Rows of contemporary middle class homes near Los Angeles, California. Spiritual direction is sometimes accused of being for the worried, white, middle classes. It is true that many who come for, and train in spiritual direction are white and middle class – mostly women, mostly well into the second half of life. Maybe the criticism … Continue reading Middle-class spiritual direction
Blessed are you, Sovereign God, creator of all, to you be glory and praise for ever. You founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands. In the fullness of time you made us in your image, and in these last days you have spoken to us in your … Continue reading How sophisticated are you?
Tent tethered among jackpine and blue- bells. Lacewings rise from rock incubators. Wild geese flying north. And I can't remember who I'm supposed to be. I want to learn how to purr. Abandon myself, have mistresses in maidenhair fern, own no tomorrow nor yesterday: a blank shimmering space forward and back. I want to think … Continue reading Summer
The night is terrifying. In the dark and the solitude, in the chasm between the lighted bustle of the days, everything drops away and disappears in the depths. No identity left, given, assumed, or invented. No work. No significance. No ambition. No façade. Only being is left: this small, naked, freshly-minted mite of the Universe. … Continue reading The naked night