Watch, dear Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and let your angels protect those who sleep. Tend the sick. Refresh the weary. Sustain the dying. Calm the suffering. Pity the distressed. We ask this for the sake of your love. St. Augustine So the Wise-Ones were directed from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Continue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 23”
Tag Archives: faith
#adventapertures2025: day 19
I praise you because you are artist and scientist in one. When I am somewhat fearful of your power, your ability to work miracles with a set-square, I hear you murmuring to yourself in a notation Beethoven dreamed of but never achieved. You run off your scales of rain water and sea water, play theContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 19”
Blue Christmas: for mourning
Grief is a response to an irreversible loss… To generate grief rather than sadness, the thing lost must carry great emotional weight, and it must pull back the veil that covers a transcendent aspect of the world. Breathe out to push the fog away from a brilliant pinpoint of light. … Gravity holds my feetContinue reading “Blue Christmas: for mourning”
Sunday 3: for presence
… dig your toes into the earth and know that you are evolving here and now, even among the untidy mess of the unknown. It’s all becoming mulch for the green growing heart of you, coming home to yourself. Jenneth Graser, Unlocking the Secret Garden (Day 28, 85) On the death of Queen Elizabeth IIContinue reading “Sunday 3: for presence”
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”
All Hallows. All Souls. All Saints. 2021.
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.”
day 17
She,In the dark,Found lightBrighter than many ever see.She,Within herself,Found loveliness,Through the soul’s own mastery.And now the world receivesFrom her dower:The message of the strengthOf inner power. ‘She’ Langston Hughes In a meditation on the ‘night hour’, Macrina Wiederkehr includes Helen Keller’s description of her faith, in the midst of permanent silence and darkness, being aContinue reading “day 17”
psalms for passiontide: Holy Saturday Psalm 31.1-4,15,16
refuge rock refuge fortress rock fortress refuge These are the images of Psalm 31.1-4, the oh-too-solid opposites of the tangled net the psalmist feels closing around him. On Holy Saturday, these are also images of a tomb in which an already much-mourned, much-loved, broken body lies waiting for its final anointing and arranging once theContinue reading “psalms for passiontide: Holy Saturday Psalm 31.1-4,15,16”
be the epiphany
A miraculous event unfolds when we throw the lead of our personal story into the transformative flames of creativity. Our hardship is transmuted into something golden. With that gold we heal ourselves and redeem the world. As with any spiritual practice, this creative alchemy requires a leap of faith. When we show up to makeContinue reading “be the epiphany”
Christmas Day 2019
May all the blessings of the One who is Light and Dark in our dark and our light, be on you, this day and for evermore. Amen. Word whose breath is the world-circling atmosphere, Word that utters the world that turns the wind, Word that articulates the bird that speeds upon the air, Continue reading “Christmas Day 2019”
image into ikon 