By way of completing the circle of communication I can see that social media has its advantages by way of sharing information! So after six years here in Windsor I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of a new phase of my work and life. Here is the Press Re
In the End – our choice for Love ?
Posted on by James Woodward
You see, only love can move across boundaries and across cultures. Love is a very real energy a spiritual life force that is much more powerful than ideas or mere thoughts. Love is endlessly alive, always flowing toward the lower place, and thus life-giving for all, like a grea
Light
Posted on by James Woodward
light
O splendour of what is, by which I saw
the high delight, the true communion:
please show me how to say all I could see.
Up there there is a light. The light is God.
Creation contemplates its own creator,
and only in that seeing is there peace.
It stretches in a
Compassion and Patience
Posted on by James Woodward
Compassion and patience are the absolutely unique characteristics of true spiritual authority, and without any doubt are the way both Francis and Clare led their communities.
They led not from above, and not even from below, but mostly from within, by walking with their brothe
Blossom
Posted on by James Woodward
blossom
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
From Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms
people vote for different reasons!
Posted on by James Woodward
crystal
I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.
My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness.
I, the unloving, say life should be lovely.
I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.
Man is a curious brute — he pets his fancies —
Fighting mankind, t
Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede
Posted on by James Woodward
The Air Forces Memorial, or Runnymede Memorial, in Englefield Green memorial dedicated to some 20,456 men and women from air forces of the British Empire who were lost in air and other operations during World War II. Those recorded have no known grave anywhere in the world, and m
Spiral
Posted on by James Woodward
spiral
wine the colour of day
wine the colour of night
wine deep purple
o topaz blood
wine:
starlit son
of earth
wine, smooth
as a golden sword
wine like a spiral seashell
wondrous
loving
marine
unconfinable in one glass
or one song, or drunk alone:
choral, gregarious
and
Writing the Self: David Lodge
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Quite a good time to be born’ – by David Lodge
As an avid reader of biography and autobiography it is intriguing, I think, to wonder about the criteria of choice at work in the writing of such texts. Put simply, what you put in and what you leave out? What might
Hughenden Manor
Posted on by James Woodward
The manor of Hughenden is first recorded in 1086, when formerly part of Queen Edith's lands it was held by William, son of Oger the Bishop of Bayeux, and was assessed for tax at 10 hides.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister (1868 and 1874–1880, and Earl of Beaconsfiel
Strange Glory : A life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Strange Glory’ by Charles Marsh
It is always extraordinary to be reminded about the gaps – and sometimes very significant indeed – in our knowledge. The life and death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of these areas. Born in 1906 and executed by the Nazi regime i
Easter
Posted on by James Woodward
a stone at dawn
cold water in the basin
these walls’ rough plaster
imageless
after the hammering
of so much insistence
on the need for naming
after the travesties
that passed as faces,
grace: the unction
of sheer nonexistence
upwelling in this
hyacinthine
Easter eve
Posted on by James Woodward
Glorious Collect for Easter Eve
Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him;
and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass
Holy Saturday
Posted on by James Woodward
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snap the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the should
Sunday pause for Thought
Posted on by James Woodward
thorn
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread:
you put this rather beautifully,
and gave me leave to sing my work
until my work became the song.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it:
a line on which a man might ring
the changes as he tills the ground
from which he w
what we need is here
Posted on by James Woodward
what we need is here
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear.
PABLO CASALS ON AGEING
Posted on by James Woodward
On my last birthday I was ninety-three years old. That is not young, of course.
In fact, it is older than ninety. But age is a relative matter.
If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world about you, you find that age does not necessarily mean getting
THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MEMORY
Posted on by James Woodward
"Nothing holds firm. Everything is here today and gone tomorrow. But the good things of life-- truth, justice, and beauty-- all great accomplishments need time, constancy, and memory, or they degenerate. The man who feels neither responsibility towards the past nor des
Posted on by James Woodward
the endless knot
The endless knot is one of the eight fortunate symbols in Tibetan Buddhism. It has many meanings.
It is a pattern that is closed in on itself with no gaps, signifying the interrelatedness of everything.
It shows that the apparent disharmony and contr
morning rain
Posted on by James Woodward
morning rain
The dawn light. A light rain.
I hear it on the treetop leaves.
Then, the mist. The morning wind
blows it and the clouds away.
Now colours deepen, and a sense of grace:
the presence of water.
And then, across the landscape
the smell of morning rain.