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 circle […]
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
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 brothers and sisters, or “smelling like the sheep, as Pope Francis […]
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, to win sweet luxury. […]
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 many were lost without trace. The name […]
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 always shared from Neruda, To wine, […]
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 any of […]
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 Beaconsfield 1876), whose father rented a house […]
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 in 1945, this is the story, the […]
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 freshet of the unnamed the faceless Amy Clampitt
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 to our joyful resurrection ; […]
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 shoulder blades, I want to step […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 old. At […]
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 desire to shape the future is one who forgets. And I do […]
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 contradictoriness of the world we see is, seen properly, […]
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. Du Fu (712-770 AD) […]
Together?
Posted on by James Woodward
veins Look: how they grow to be each other. In their veins there is only God. Each other’s axis, a shimmering shape that glows, like fire, a rapture, a delight. They thirst, and are each other’s wine; see, how they are each other’s seeing. Let us let each rejoice into the other: outlasting self, […]
HEALTHCARE, WHOLENESS & HEALING Saturday, 7th March 2015
Posted on by James Woodward
Diocese of Bath and Wells Diocesan Healing Group event HEALTHCARE, WHOLENESS & HEALING Saturday, 7th March 2015 Healthcare is increasingly driven by clinical outcomes, budgets, targets and political constraints. This is at the expense of whole-person care and personal well-being – for both healthcare professionals and patients alike. Could the Church […]