CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (Brother Charles of Jesus) was born in Strasbourg, France on September 15th, 1858. Orphaned at the age of six, he and his sister Marie were raised by their grandfather in whose footsteps he followed by taking up a military career. He lost his faith as an adolescent.His taste for easy living was […]
Stillness
Posted on by James Woodward
stillness Whatever you hoped, you will not find yourselves in the garden, among the growing plants. Your lives are not circular like theirs: your lives are the bird’s flight which begins and ends in stillness– which begins and ends, in form echoing this arc from the white birch to the apple tree. From […]
Advent
Posted on by James Woodward
God our Father, you loved the world so much you gave your only Son to free us from the ancient power of sin and death. Help us who wait for his coming and lead us to true liberty. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you and […]
Advent Antiphons
Posted on by James Woodward
O Wisdom, Holy Word of God You rule all creation with power and true concern. – Come teach us the way of salvation. O Sacred Lord and leader of ancient Israel You communicated with Moses at the burning bush and gave him the law on Mount Sinai – Come to set us free by Your […]
Wisdom is knowing that comes of loving.
Posted on by James Woodward
Wisdom is knowing that comes of loving. It is a conjoining of knowledge and love that I have been trying to find, first of all, in human embodiments, as ‘’a person in the persons’ I have known. I encounter it whenever ‘‘heart speaks to heart,’’ whenever a person who loves me seems also for a […]
Hot sweet and spicy beetroot soup
Posted on by James Woodward
Ingredients 1 tbsp olive oil 1 shallot, sliced 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 large beetroot, grated 2 tbsp red wine vinegar pinch of sugar 200ml/7fl oz beef stock Greek yoghurt chives, chopped to garnish This is a Dig In recipe. Method 1. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry […]
Isaac Watts
Posted on by James Woodward
Isaac Watts – (1674-1748), English hymn writer Watts was born July 17, 1674 at Southampton, England, the eldest of nine children. His father was a Dissenter from the Anglican Church and on at least one occasion was thrown in jail for not following the Church of England. Isaac followed his father’s strongly biblical faith. Isaac was […]
Listen to Older People!
Posted on by James Woodward
Robert C Atchley, Spirituality and Aging, John Hopkins University Press 2009 – This book is a reminder that sometimes wisdom is reserved for those who have had a lifetime of listening, study and reflection. This mature book is a compendium of wide-ranging research that processes two decades of interviews, observations and study to explore […]
Potato and Pumpkin Cheese Bake
Posted on by James Woodward
Potato and Pumpkin Cheese Bake (Serves 4) Cooking time: 1h20 minutes Ingredients: 500g small potatoes, halved 750g pumpkin, chopped 125ml apple cider 280ml salt reduced vegetable stock 1 small sprig of rosemary 1large red onion, halved and thinly sliced 3 beefsteak tomatoes, thickly sliced 2 sprigs of oregano, stalks discarded 170g grated parmesan cheese […]
Christ the King
Posted on by James Woodward
Today the cycle of the Churches year ends as we commemorate and celebrate Christ the King. Here are some prayers and images – Almighty and merciful God, you break the power of evil and make all things new in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May all in heaven and earth acclaim […]
Finding Wisdom?
Posted on by James Woodward
Perhaps religion best helps us to dig and question and search for truth and wisdom? This coming week all of us will be given the opportunity to discover something new about who we are and how God holds this process of living and loving….. consider this: Asking my questions about the time of my […]
My favourite politician!
Posted on by James Woodward
Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography by Shirley Williams 432pp, Virago, £20 Few politicians are loved or even liked.Shirley Williams was and is an exception. The warmth of her mellifluous voice can unfreeze the frostiest public meeting. Rumpled, unbrushed and late, she brings intensity and informality into any room. Likability, affability, apparent normality, sounding as if they mean […]
The métier of blossoming
Posted on by James Woodward
If humans could be that intensely whole, undistracted, unhurried, swift from sheer unswerving impetus! If we could blossom out of ourselves, giving nothing imperfect, withholding nothing! From Denise Levertov, The métier of blossoming
The Boundaries of Personal Power
Posted on by James Woodward
When we are young, we imagine that we are doing everything ourselves. We have our work because we deserve it. We believe that we generate our own opportunities, our own luck, our own unstoppable bodies. There must be something to this, we intuit, that our fate varies according to those powers of attention […]
Elizabeth of Hungary
Posted on by James Woodward
St. Elizabeth was born in Hungary in 1207, the daughter of Alexander II, King of Hungary. At the age of four she was sent for education to the court of the Landgrave of Thuringia, to whose infant son she was betrothed. As she grew in age, her piety also increased by leaps and bounds. In […]
The scandal of Care?
Posted on by James Woodward
Poor dementia care in hospitals costing lives and hundreds of millions Published 17 November 2009 People with dementia – who occupy a quarter of all hospital beds – are staying far longer in hospital than people without the condition who go in for the same treatment. This is costing hundreds of millions of pounds to […]
Our Loneliness
Posted on by James Woodward
“We have our loneliness and our regret with which to build an eschatology,’’ Peter Porter says in a poem, speaking of secular modernity. Our loneliness, I think, is our sense of God’s absence, our unfulfilled longing for God that runs unseeing through all our relations with one another, making human relations take all the weight […]
Your Spirituality?
Posted on by James Woodward
Like the word health, spirituality is hard to define in the abstract and is better understood by discussing it functionally. It points to our relationship to the mystery dimension of human existence, the transcendent realm, the ultimate reality. It turns us to the great issues of identity, meaning, purpose, and integrity. It calls for discernment, […]
A new Bishop?
Posted on by James Woodward
From the Guardian Diary page…… At this, the beginning of our week, let us give thanks for the elevation of the Reverend Donald Allister. Who is he, you ask? So did we. But last week, rather quietly, he was unveiled by Downing Street as the new Bishop of Peterborough. Whole new ball game now. National press, […]
Charles Simeon
Posted on by James Woodward
Charles Simeon was born on September 24, 1759. He attended school at Eton and enrolled at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1779. Although baptized as an infant, his family was not particularly religious and neither was Charles, until an experience during his first few months at university. All Cambridge students were required to receive communion […]