All Hallows. All Souls. All Saints. This is one of my favourite liturgical seasons. A mini-season of three days which encapsulate so much of my faith about people and place. All Hallows. All Holies. Celebrating how we can hallow our daily surroundings. How the world of spirit is perhaps not so distant from the worldContinue reading “All Hallows. All Souls. All Saints. 2021.”
Tag Archives: encounter
a monk in the world of 2021
I am honoured to have written another guest post for the Abbey of the Arts, which was published yesterday: As a contemplative photographer I thought I knew quite a bit about light and brightness, shadow and darkness. It appears I was wrong. During 2020 and 2021 a series of COVID-19 ‘Lockdowns’ have been offering meContinue reading “a monk in the world of 2021”
wisdom of the gut: (Imbolc 2021)
If Candlemas Day be fair and brightWinter will have another fight.If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,Winter won’t come again. (Traditional) It has been a very grey January outside my window, and I although I resist turning on a light as soon as I wake up in the morning then leaving it on all dayContinue reading “wisdom of the gut: (Imbolc 2021)”
day 25
I was afraid that with their blocks of concrete the skyscrapers might wound the dawn. But you ought to see how sensitive they are to the morning light, how they disarm and lose their cutting edge and steely soul! They too are caught in the irresistible spell of the holy hour when the whole naturalContinue reading “day 25”
day 21
Your green all dissipated and dissolved, you part company with freshness and sap, suddenly alone and falling. Down and down, lower you swoop, till the ground greets you. Different colours are yours now, burnished golds and reds, as though the sunset of your days has painted itself on your canvas. The light shines through yourContinue reading “day 21”
day 20
In the film Dead Poets Society, Robin William’s character, Mr Keating, provides an aspirational figure for the boys he teaches … In an iconic moment, Keating climbs on his desk, to the bemusement of his pupils, and begins to speak: ‘Why do I stand up here? Anybody … ? […] I stand upon my deskContinue reading “day 20”
day 19
Other incarnations, of course, consonant with the environment he finds himself in, animating the cells, sharpening the antennae, becoming as they are that they, in the transparency of their shadows, in the filament of their calculations, may, in their own way, learn to confront the intellect with its issue. And his coming testified to notContinue reading “day 19”
day 13
You see, there is much I want. Perhaps everything: the darkness of each infinite fall, the scintillant play of each ascent. So many people live without wishes, calm of spirit, light of judgement, muted as princes. But you rejoice in every soul that thirsts and serves, rejoice in all whose hands reserve you for aContinue reading “day 13”
day 10
Sometimes, gliding at night in a plane over New York City I have felt like some messenger called to enter, called to engage this field of light and darkness. A grandiose idea, born of flying. But underneath the grandiose idea is the thought that what I must engage after the plane has raged onto theContinue reading “day 10”
day 9
What I fear and desire most in this world is passion. I fear it because it promises to be spontaneous, out of my control, unnamed, beyond my reasonable self. I desire it because passion has color, like the landscape before me. It is not pale. It is not neutral. It reveals the backside of theContinue reading “day 9”
image into ikon 