God is a beckoning word Gerard Hughes Patrick White, the Nobel Prize winning Australian novelist, wrote of a defining moment in his life: “During what seemed like months of rain I was carrying a tray load of food to a wormy litter of pups down at the kennels when I slipped and fell on my […]
“Prayer is….God’s breath in man returning to its birth” George Herbert Spirit as “inexpressible closeness of God” Jurgen Moltmann Image: Georgia O’Keeffe, Ballet Skirt or Electric Light (from the White Rose Motif) John V. Taylor, closes his book “The Go-Between God” with a story of a West Indian woman who had been told that her […]
We were conceived in the mind of God as the partner in a dialogue. Hans Urs von Balthasar We are the beings created as bearers of the Word, and only in responding to the Word do we rise to our full dignity. We were conceived in the mind of God as the partner in a […]
For the Word of God is a happening, not a thing. Karl Barth For the Word of God is a happening, not a thing. Therefore the Bible must become the Word of God, and it does this through the work of the Spirit. Karl Barth Image: Carlos Cazares, Anticipation The Word of God in Scripture […]
We believe in a Spirit that emerged into visibility. Michael Morwood Rowan Williams talks of Jesus, Incarnate Word of God, as “earthly visibility, open availability”. Jesus is the place of meeting, always pointing beyond himself to the Other. Reflect upon how, in the gospels, Jesus is the place of meeting and encounter with Other for […]
There lives the dearest freshness, deep down things. Gerard Manley Hopkins We are not given our eyes just to stop us from bumping into things.Stanley Spencer Word is what is said, Spirit is the saying.Michael Downey Image: Filippo Rossi, Hidden Streets 12, 2021 Think about Spirit as wind, air, breath. Pay attention to your breathing…and […]
A symbol should go on deepening. Flannery O’Connor The world offers itself to your imagination.Mary Oliver Image: Daniel Arredondo, Hidden Below, Our Roots A sacramental universe is a symbolic one. This life, and this world says to us that the starting point for becoming who we are intended to be is not striving after another […]
Everything that meets our gaze is a parable veiling and unveiling its higher meaning. Hugo Rahner Sacramental vision is not instant photography of the world – it is something learned by patient education of our sensibility to the engagement of God with the world. Alan Ecclestone The sacramental principle means that God is present to […]
Days pass when I forget the mystery… Days pass when I forget the mystery…. The mysterythat there is anything, anything at all,let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,rather than void: and that, O Lord,Creator, Hallowed One, You still,Hour by hour sustain it. Denise Levertov Image: Caitlin Connolly (American 1986-), An Earth So Quiet She Could […]
Flawed as you are you stand on holy ground. Angela Tilby Flawed as you are you stand on holy ground.This is the ground God has cleared for you.God meets you here, and nowhere else.Angela Tilby Listen to the language of your wounds.Jim Cotter Image: Seonna Hong, In Tribute to the Gate of Heaven and Earth […]