Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make the contact, where they become the conduit, or where they engage in this mysterious process. For me, light is the signal in the transaction. It’s not being in the light, it’s being there before it arrives. It enables me, in some sense.Toni … Continue reading Where is your “place”?
Tag: pending-review
Show me the place
Show me the place Where you want your slave to go Show me the place I’ve forgotten, I don’t know Show me the place For my head is bending low Show me the place Where you want your slave to go Show me the place Help me roll away the stone Show me the place … Continue reading Show me the place
Crisis at Christmas
I am volunteering at Crisis for Christmas on 23, 24 & 25 December. I shall be a general volunteer and driver at the Link Rough Sleepers venue. I am excited by this and I should be grateful if you would contribute to Crisis by sponsoring me. Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me and … Continue reading Crisis at Christmas
Kindness is Your presence
(Once in a while, as I am writing my morning pages, along come thoughts that emerge fully formed. Here is this morning's gift.) Yesterday evening, coming home on the tube, I tried to practise kindness towards the other commuters. In the midst of all our jostling for position and selfish desire to claim a space … Continue reading Kindness is Your presence
There is another world
While making my porridge I practise gratitude – gratitude for the porridge, for being able to cook, for this body that can move and make, for being alive, being safe, and having food. I think about the importance of practising gratitude as a way to make explicit and grounded what is only implicit and theoretical. … Continue reading There is another world
The fear of God
I feel a little distant from You. I like to sit, to be quiet and still, to write, to ponder. I can do this without any memory of You, without reference to You. But I think You are inviting me into a deeper relationship. You are always present, so being fully present means being present … Continue reading The fear of God
Practising kindness
I had a salutary experience yesterday evening. I was leading Open Soul Space, a facilitated gathering for meditation, contemplative prayer, sharing and teaching that is offered monthly at the London Centre for Spiritual Direction. We had all just settled down for 20 minutes’ silence when a man started talking on his phone in the street … Continue reading Practising kindness
On being less
I am at St Beuno's for a conference of Ignatian trainers. It is so quiet here. I can hear my ears sing! The idea of progress, of self-improvement, of 'sorting it all out' and 'getting there': these ideas have such a hold on me. They pull me forward in my chest and head. Influenced by … Continue reading On being less
Vastness, presence and meaning
It is a profound mistake to imagine that Christianity ever intended to dissipate the bewilderment and even the terror, the sense of our own nothingness, which come upon us when we think about the nature of things. It comes to intensify them. Without such sensations there is no religion. Many a man, brought up in … Continue reading Vastness, presence and meaning
Meaning and purpose
I am feeling better this morning. (I always feel better after a good shit! [It was suggested by an early reader that I shouldn't say this. This is probably good advice which I have chosen to ignore. Spirituality, if understood as the life though which we become more and more transparent to God, more than … Continue reading Meaning and purpose