We met among alphabets. I saw myself Greek: walking the walls, inviolate as logic, mistress of philosophy’s glassy tongue. Translation came slow. I learned to trust Hebrew’s rich misreadings, risk reading between the lines: language of faith, our leap in the dark. ‘Among Alphabets’ Helen Tookey And when night comes, and you look back overContinue reading “watchnight 2022”
Tag Archives: darkness
Blue Christmas 2: light is in the horizon yet
This piece was originally written for the Godspace blog to be a part of their Advent theme Proclaiming Justice, Seeking Peace Through Advent. It was published on 21 December 2022 here. All images by Kate Kennington Steer. … And if, as autumn deepens and darkens I feel the pain of falling leaves, and stems thatContinue reading “Blue Christmas 2: light is in the horizon yet”
whole: Christmas Day
Where is that place apart you summon us? Noisily we seek it and have no time to stay. Stars are distant; is it more distant still, out in the dark in the shadow of thought itself? No wonder it recedes as we calculate its proximity in light years. Maybe we were mistaken at the beginningContinue reading “whole: Christmas Day”
whole: Blue Christmas 2022
Pity me not because the light of dayAt close of day no longer walks the sky;Pity me not for beauties passed awayFrom field and thicket as the the year goes by;Pity me not the waning of the moon,Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,And youContinue reading “whole: Blue Christmas 2022”
whole: day 23
Of all that God has shown me I can speak just the smallest word, Not more than a honey bee Takes on his foot From an overspilling jar. Mechtild of Magdeburg I wonder if I have to be dead before I can see the whole of God? It isn’t unusual to hear people say ofContinue reading “whole: day 23”
whole: day 22
Though I have never caught the word Of God from any calling bird, I hear all that the ancients heard. Though I have seen no deity Enter or leave a twilit tree, I see all that the seers see. A common stone can still reveal Something not stone, not seen, yet real. What may aContinue reading “whole: day 22”
whole: Sunday 4
Let us sit in this moment of God’s creating. Rest in its uniqueness; savor its potential. It is pregnant with new possibilities waiting to be born, God’s secrets not yet heard, God’s dreams not yet seen, God’s visions not yet realised. Let us sit and look and listen. Breathe in the fragrance of its unfolding.Continue reading “whole: Sunday 4”
Whole: day 18
Every breath is a resurrection. Gregory Orr (from “Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved”) I am known by God. I am being known by God. I am knowing me with God. I am knowing God with God. Seeingdarkly and knowingdarkly is not a one way street. It isContinue reading “Whole: day 18”
whole: day 14
The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise. Jerry Sittser dazzle gradually One of Emily Dickinson’s most famous poems begins ‘Tell all the truth butContinue reading “whole: day 14”
whole: day 12
It is the whole of nature, extending from the beginning to the end that constitutes the one image of God Who Is. St Gregory of Nyssa, On the creation of Man The language of God is life itself, and I live with the unquenchable need to take my life in my hands and try toContinue reading “whole: day 12”
image into ikon 