the sensation of life
There ain't no good thing ever dies I'm gonna take it with me when I go Tom Waits: Take It With Me I have often talked about 'repetition', as Ignatius of Loyola calls it, in these writings, e.g. "Where to start?", "The Kingdom of Heaven", and "Repetition". He invites us to revisit significant moments, "noting … Continue reading Audio Prayer: Revisiting a God moment
We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What … Continue reading Annunciation
It is Saturday morning. There is nothing I have to do – or nothing urgent. I sit at the open window in my pyjamas with the sunshine, the trees now in full leaf, the early morning birdsong, the air touching my face. This is what I want to do. This is how I want life … Continue reading The Kingdom of Heaven
Then sigh not so, but let them go,And be you blithe and bonny,Converting all your sounds of woeInto hey nonny, nonny.Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing People will often say that they can't pray. When asked they will say that they are unable to make their minds still or empty of thoughts. Somehow they have acquired … Continue reading Sigh no more
Every day I write 750 words, sometimes more, never less, though on some days I can’t be bothered to engage and I have been known to cheat by typing the same words over and again. Writing requires me to dig deeper into myself, which also requires (and is the same as) connecting with You. I … Continue reading Demands
Some people are fortunate enough to be overtaken by an experience they call God that is so clear and self-authenticating that no amount of argument to the contrary can really undermine that experience. Having once had the felt experience of God, they have both a yardstick and a lodestone for their slow, stumbling realisation that … Continue reading How to experience God
Whenever I walk in a London street, I'm ever so careful to watch my feet; And I keep in the squares, And the masses of bears, Who wait at the corners all ready to eat The sillies who tread on the lines of the street, Go back to they lairs, And I say to them, … Continue reading From resentment to recollection
In prayer, when I attend to this body, there are two things I do. I remember and invoke sensations of God's presence that I experienced in the past. (See Where to start?). Ignatius calls this repetition.I feel into this body and attend to the body's sensations. The body tells me what I need to know … Continue reading Repetition
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
Lift your heart up to the Lord, with a gentle stirring of love desiring God for his own sake and not for his gifts. Cloud of Unknowing, Ch.3 (tr. William Johnston) I wake up anxious, feeling layers of loss, the mess I call my life, a failure, ashamed to be me. I am sure some … Continue reading Soft heart, trusting heart