I have had the most remarkable year being a deacon. I wrote these four sonnets to try and express some of how it’s been, they originally formed some of my portfolio this year. They are based on the metaphor of water. Sonnet 1 – Water Flows ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow streams of …
Cast out demons – a homily for ordinary time
Good morning everybody. May I speak in the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, This week the Church enters the long period known as ordinary time, weeks and months which stretch out before us and will carry us back around to Advent. You’ll notice that our priests have green stoles on today, and …
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After Ascension. Luke / Acts
After he left usWe ran, knees bruised with blessing,dust and joy spilling out of us.We ran to the temple,The only place we knew to go.Where lamps were lit and the prayers already ascending,Chasing him up.Our home.Our place of consolation, of rising, falling,Of all our ageless story.We joined old men, and prophets who’d followed Anna,And we …
The Good Shepherd
A reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday. Thanks to all the sheep!
‘Wine to remember’ – sacramentality and lockdown
Lockdown begins and I am glum. I feel cast off and out of my depth. Sunday mornings pass and I sit at home, in the Deacon doldrums. I sit in all the doldrums. I’m not sure how to move through the week without the sustenance of Sundays. My spirituality is centred on receiving God in the …
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For all who kindle
Blessed are the fire starters. Search light, held tight, snapped twigs of vulnerability, wisps of dreams to fleeting flames. Ragged flint and steeled courage, twist of palm-worn prism catching spark of starlight. Wildness and the fiery hope of risk. Blessed are the hearth keepers. Pump of bellows, puff of clearing smoke, chop and feed and …
Maundy Thursday. Service.
‘If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other’s feet’. In the world of Jesus’ time, washing another person’s feet was not a glamourous task, it was not an important or honourable task, it was not a particularly special or unusual task. It was a job that …
Deacon poem 1 – Water flows
These poems were written in the first few days of lockdown, as I looked back over my time as a deacon, and forward to the prospect of a very different type of Holy Week. It is now Holy Week and I return to them as I reflect upon Jesus’ own ministry in these times. They …
Tomb and womb; these times of waiting
A reflection on Lazarus and the incarnation, for the first week of lockdown. This week the church celebrated the feast of the annunciation;the arrival of the angel to Mary, the shock of good news, the joy, and no doubt the fear, of the woman who said yes to God. And today we reflect upon Lazarus; with more shock …
Walsingham
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the one to give you an unbiased account of or reflection on Walsingham. I have avoided going for a number of years now, shed many tears, and half-planned many angry protests. I’ve dreamt of many days when this catholic-called-woman-(nearly)-priest would be home - in England’s centre of …
