The Pilgrim Chapel at Malling Abbey: Drawing in light
Refuge from the heat. Saturated with silence. Present to my presence.
Preaching to the birds
Gradually becoming aware that I was surrounded by birdsong, I began to muse and murmur…
For as soon as…
“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” (Matthew 7.7-8; NRSV)
A blessing from Desmond Tutu
God wants you to be like God. Filled with life and goodness and laughter—and joy.
The Great O Antiphons
The Great Os are the antiphons used with the Magnificat at vespers or evensong on the last seven days of Advent. They are the material for the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.
Greenbelt ponderings
I got Greenbelt wrong this year. Not totally – in many ways it was wonderful – but enough to make me wonder: What might I do differently?
On writing guided meditations: open questions
“How does God invite you?” could be construed as a leading question, presupposing that God is a God who invites and would invite the likes of me. Yet it is an important part of the meditation, is open and invites all sorts of responses.
Intercessions, The Eighth Sunday after Trinity 2022
Written for the 10am Eucharist at Exeter Cathedral
“To what purpose is this waste?” by Christina Rossetti
With reference to Matthew 26:8 (AV), it is as though God has anointed our heads with the precious ointment.
Guided meditation: SMILE
Saturday’s Prayerdle was SMILE, which brought a smile to a friend’s face. So I thought I would write and offer this short meditation.
A prayer of St Brendan the Navigator
Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.
Praying with Prayerdle
Prayerdle, an off-shoot of Wordle that can help you pray as you go through your day.
Considering the body
I don’t necessarily articulate in my mind my understanding of an action as my body performs it during the liturgy. Most of the time, I let that physical action be my expression of intention and my offering.
The gift of the blue bottle
It is prayer hour in the convent chapel on a sunny summer morning. Dust motes swirl idly in the sun’s rays streaming through the high windows. The chapel is still, apart from a solitary blue bottle.
New blog, old posts
I was increasingly feeling that I wanted to write more about my prayer and spirituality. I therefore started this new blog…
Life is like a box of tesserae
There is a bi-i-ig difference between jigsaws and mosaics. Jigsaws have only one correct solution. Mosaic tiles can be pieced together in many different ways to create many different images.
Intercessions, The Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Written for the 12.15pm Eucharist at Exeter Cathedral
Psalmathon
This St Peter’s day on 29 June, Exeter Cathedral held a Psalmathon – reading all 150 Psalms in about 8 hours.
Where prayer is valid
During the days between Ascension and Pentecost, I found myself ruminating about Exeter Cathedral as building and people, prompted by the lack of access of most people during the Coronavirus lockdown to the church buildings we know and love.
“Springs in the Desert” for ViaMedia.News
O wilderness God, I do not ask to avoid the journey and the struggle. Only help me to trust that you are always beside me holding my hand fast in yours, even when all seems dark and dry, and that you will lead me to a place of refreshment, and blessing at the end. Amen.
A prayer story
This is a slightly longer version of an article I wrote for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly magazine, the first in what is hoped to be a regular feature focusing on the prayer lives of members of the Cathedral community. There are as many different understandings and types of prayer as there are different people.
Action in a World of Contemplation *
Greenbelt is a festival of arts, faith and justice, held over the August Bank Holiday. The programme is huge, so to help me manage it I often choose a theme. This year I didn’t, consciously at any rate, but it became apparent as the weekend unfolded that I’d ringed quite a lot of talks relating to contemplation and action.
Sign of the Nazarene
Many of my Facebook friends have changed their profile picture to the Arabic letter N. It stands for ‘Nazarene’, or Christian. ISIS is drawing it on the houses of Christians in Iraq, to indicate who to target.
Great expectations
Expectation can be good; having high expectations of students can lead them to do better. People in general tend to live up to or down to expectations. The problem is when the expectations are unrealistic.
Inside and outside the Cathedral
What it means to be the people of God, and the Occupy camp on Exeter Cathedral Green.
Talking about “Prayer”
This evening, I’ve been asked to talk about Prayer, I suppose because I have a practice of contemplative prayer and am about to go and live alongside a monastic community. Trouble is, how do I express the inexpressible? Here is roughly what I want to say.
