Category: Spirit matters

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”. […]

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 […]

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 […]

…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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

Can we see the presence of God in the face of a stranger? Jonathan Sacks Can we make space for difference? Can we hear the voice of God in a language, a sensibility, a culture not our own? Can we see the presence of God in the face of a stranger? Jonathan Sacks Image: Jesus […]

…the act of God and human reality are allowed to belong together without rivalry or fear Rowan Williams Transcendence is a hand reached out to those close to us, to the human community, to all living creation, to nature, to the universe. [It] is a deeply and joyously experienced need to be in harmony with […]

Our life is therefore responsive and responsible The joys, the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise […]