“To discover how to be human now is the reason we follow this star”. W H Auden “Mysteries mustBe our way of life. Without them we mightStop trying to learn and hoping to succeedIn the work we half-choose and giving thelove we need.” Elizabeth Jennings Image: Marian Hall, Desert landscape, Xenotopia II We are inescapably […]
The poetry of faith: waiting beyond words
“Love’s not love unless it’s vulnerable” Dennis Potter, in an interview only days before his death from cancer said that “Religion has always been to me the wound, never the bandage”. Being vulnerable is meaning to carry our wound (vulnus). It is not, as popularly thought, overcoming weakness and vulnerability, but accepting that this place […]
The poetry of faith: the treasure is everywhere
Fr Philip Carter offers a ministry of spirituality, with a series of meditations on some questions that we may ponder as we consider our life in God. You will find here his reflections and questions for meditation, images, music and poetry to enrich your life’s journey. “We live the given life, not the planned”. Wendell […]
The poetry of faith: let the desert bloom
Fr Philip Carter offers a ministry of spirituality, with a series of meditations on some questions that we may ponder as we consider our life in God. You will find here his reflections and questions for meditation, images, music and poetry to enrich your life’s journey. To “be in the desert and let it bloom”. […]
The poetry of faith: daily bread
Give us today our daily bread “Earth’s the right place for love. I don’t know where it’s likely to go better”. Robert Frost Image: Meg Hitchcock, Self portrait: The Lord’s Prayer If poetry “lacks necessity”, it lacks life. “Truth’s the heart of poetry”, as it is for prayer, and if it’s in the blood, it […]
A thinking heart: the disposition that leads to life
This is the final post in Fr Philip Carter’s series ‘A Thinking Heart’. We will be taking a break of a week before we bring you the next series, ‘Poetry of Faith’. …drawn by the Father to Jesus Sandra Schneiders This basic disposition (openness of heart, the basic readiness to see and hear what is […]
A thinking heart : otherwise engaged in the spirit
…with healing in its wings Mark Wallace The Spirit comes with healing in its wings to a world that cries out for transformation and renewal. The Spirit comes to a world in need of refreshment as the breath of God and the water of life. The Spirit comes to a world fragmented by violence and […]
A thinking heart: towards freedom
to become so rich inside ourselves Monica Furlong The most difficult and worthwhile feat of all is to become so rich inside ourselves that we become careless of other forms of wealth and status. This richness, and the stillness out of which it comes, really makes it possible to love others. Our children, our marriage […]
A thinking heart: habits of the heart
a focus of absolute trust Elizabeth Johnson As a focus of absolute trust, one to whom you can give yourself without fear of betrayal, the holy mystery of God undergirds and implicitly gives direction to all of a believing person’s enterprises, principles, choices, systems of values, and relationships. Elizabeth Johnson Image: Fernando Peña Defilló, Autoretrato […]
The thinking heart: real presence
Real presence makes a real difference Philip Carter It is sacrifice, not in the sense of a bribe to persuade a hostile deity to overlook our failings, but in the sense of something given up, handed over, so that a mutual relationship may be both affirmed and renewed. Being in the Church is being in […]