make friends with fire I look at my heart, such as it is, so much lower than what language can do; but yet: the heart is itself what is, is all that is, it is all that is disguised by speech. How many words will you speak today? Too […]
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
New Year resolutions : attention…..
Posted on by James Woodward
The métier of blossoming 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
Christmas prayers for those in Pain
Posted on by James Woodward
Lord God, whose Son, Jesus Christ, understood people’s fear and pain before they spoke of them, we pray for those in hospital; surround the frightened with your tenderness; give strength to those in pain; hold the weak in your arms of love, and give hope and patience to those who are recovering; we ask this […]
Christmas prayers for Syria
Posted on by James Woodward
A Prayer for Peace in Syria Spirit of wisdom and grace, the power of truth and judgement; we pray for all who are working for peace in the tangled conflict of Syria today. For international leaders holding a thread of control, for the politicians holding a thread of power, for the religious leaders holding a […]
Christmas prayers for the homeless
Posted on by James Woodward
God of compassion, your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus, whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross: we hold before you those who are homeless and cold especially in this bitter weather. Draw near and comfort them in spirit and bless […]
Christmas prayer for reconciliation
Posted on by James Woodward
Lord God of compassion, whose will is for peace built on righteousness, we pray for peace in Gaza: for an end to hostilities, for comfort and help for all who suffer, and for reconciliation between Palestine and Israel, through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Christmas makes a diffrence
Posted on by James Woodward
People often complain that religion doesn’t make a difference – that people aren’t better because of it. So what difference does worship this morning make to our lives? Does Christmas mean anything? Yes – today makes a world of difference. For in the message of this Christmas morning God gives us so much that can […]
Light on our Lives
Posted on by James Woodward
Last month I travelled to Paris for a short break and spent some time with in the Louvre. It was good to catch this wonderful painting by George de la Tour ‘ the Adoration of the Shepherds’. I captured some fragments of photographs and have been dwelling on it in these last hours as the […]
Advent: Light and Darkness – knowing and not knowing
Posted on by James Woodward
where the moon lives From the tawny light from the rainy nights from the imagination finding itself and more than itself alone and more than alone at the bottom of the well where the moon lives, can you pull me into December? The black moon turns away, its work done. A […]
Advent: and our thirst.
Posted on by James Woodward
water Like the water of a deep stream, love is always too much. We did not make it. Though we drink till we burst, we cannot have it all, or want it all. In its abundance it survives our thirst. In the evening we come down to the shore to drink our fill, […]
Advent :Life and Death
Posted on by James Woodward
sweet day SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright! The bridal of the earth and sky— The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; For thou must die. Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou must die. Sweet spring, […]
Advent and our hope of salvation?
Posted on by James Woodward
In our postmodern culture self-fulfilment has become a matter of individually self-chosen goals. Freedom – in the sense of the absolute autonomy of the individual – has become the single, overarching ideal to which all other goals are subordinated. I must be free to be whoever I choose to be and to pursue whatever […]
Advent and our need for Patience
Posted on by James Woodward
patience An absolute patience. Trees stand up to their knees in fog. The fog slowly flows uphill. White cobwebs, the grass leaning where deer have looked for apples. The woods from brook to where the top of the hill looks over the fog, send up not one bird. So absolute, it is no […]
What makes for Good Church?
Posted on by James Woodward
Perhaps ‘good’ Church has a few essential things in common? 1. They share a deeply incarnational view of the world, the recognition that matter is the scaffolding of spirit, the two deeply entwined; each Church knows that the commonplace, when seen with the eye of the heart, is holy, and that the ordinary is […]
Advent :Longing and Desire
Posted on by James Woodward
climb the stair Turn from that road’s beguiling ease; return to your hunger’s turret. Enter, climb the stair chill with disuse, where the croaking toad of time regards from shimmering eyes your slow ascent and the drip, drip, of darkness glimmers on the stone to show you how your longing waits alone. What alchemy […]
Lord help us to see
Posted on by James Woodward
Vision is quite simply about seeing. In religious terms it means seeing the world as God’s world. It means refusing to conform to the world’s standards and values, or to go along with that cynical pessimism which some call realism but is in fact a terrible, destructive despair. To believe in God is to […]
Seeds
Posted on by James Woodward
seeds You come to fetch me from my work to-night When supper’s on the table, and we’ll see If I can leave off burying the white Soft petals fallen from the apple tree. (Soft petals, yes, but not so barren quite, Mingled with these, smooth bean and wrinkled pea;) And go along with you […]
Advent and contemplating our mortality ?
Posted on by James Woodward
coins 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 snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox: when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through […]
A Lack of Soul?
Posted on by James Woodward
AGEING AND CARE OF THE SOUL Thomas Moore has described the fundamental psychological problem of contemporary life as a lack of “soul.” As Moore understands the problem, “soul” is not exclusively a religious term but rather “a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. It has to do with depth, value, […]
Yellow
Posted on by James Woodward
A yellow flower (Light and spirit) Sings by itself For nobody. A golden spirit (Light and emptiness) Sings without a word By itself. Let no one touch this gentle sun In whose dark eye Someone is awake. (No light, no gold, no name, no colour And no thought: O, wide […]