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 ey
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 s
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
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;)
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
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
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 na
Where do our lives point?
Posted on by James Woodward
Matthew 3 The Proclamation of John the Baptist
3In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’* 3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one
here’s to opening and upward
Posted on by James Woodward
here’s to opening and upward, to leaf and to sap
and to your(in my arms flowering so new)
self whose eyes smell of the sound of rain
and here’s to silent certainly mountains;and to
a disappearing poet of always, snow
and to morning; and to morning’s beautiful
music
Posted on by James Woodward
ah, the hidden sweetness
we find when the belly is empty!
we are no more or less than
string instruments: if
the sound box is full of something,
no music: obviously.
so: if the brain and the belly
are burned clean with fasting,
every moment a new song
c
Befriending Death
Posted on by James Woodward
MOTHER MARY CLARE SLG (1906-1988)
LIVING THROUGH THE DYING
Any Christian whether living in the world or in the Religious Life, active or enclosed, is being called as was St Antony of old to go down into the most frightening places of world history. If we are really trying to
interconnectedness
Posted on by James Woodward
Indra's net
Buddhism uses a similar image to describe the interconnectedness of all phenomena. It is called Indra's Net. When Indra fashioned the world, he made it as a web, and at every knot in the web is tied a pearl. Everything that exists, or has ever existed, ev
Learning to forgive ……………..more
Posted on by James Woodward
To forgive,” writes Mary Gordon, “is to give up the exhilaration of ones own unassailable rightness”
And there is loss in that, only it is the loss of an illusion, and what is gained is unmistakably real: the chance to live again, free from the bitterness that draws th
what we need is here
Posted on by James Woodward
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. What we need is h
leaves
Posted on by James Woodward
The same leaves over and over again!
They fall from giving shade above
To make one texture of faded brown
And fit the earth like a leather glove.
Before the leaves can mount again
To fill the trees with another shade,
They must go down past things coming u
Growing Older?
Posted on by James Woodward
BEDE GRIFFITHS: THE MONK GROWS OLD
Father Bede Griffiths was a a Catholic monk who spent most of his life as a
"Christian Yogi" in India, where he expounded the unity of world religions:
"(Father Bede) said at the age of 85 he begged to differ with those who
think that l
if only
Posted on by James Woodward
if only
Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
If only, most lovely of all, I yield my
ATTAINING HAPPINESS
Posted on by James Woodward
The Turkish folkhero Mullah Nasruddin was renowned for his paradoxical approach to wisdom as both paradox and folly.
A student sought out Mullah Nasruddin for years, hoping to find guidance from him. He finally found the Mullah in the marketplace sitting atop a pile of an
if there are any heavens
Posted on by James Woodward
if there are any heavens
if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have
one. It will not be a pansy heaven nor
a fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley but
it will be a heaven of blackred roses
my father will be(deep like a rose
tall like a rose)
&nbs
a golden petal
Posted on by James Woodward
The dawn was apple-green,
The sky was green wine held up in the sun,
The moon was a golden petal between.
She opened her eyes, and green
They shone, clear like flowers undone
For the first time, now for the first time seen.
D. H. Lawrence, Green