All the others translate: the painter sketches A visible world to love or reject; Rummaging into his living, the poet fetches The images out that hurt and connect. From Life to Art by painstaking adaption Relying on us to cover the rift; Only your notes are pure contraption, Only your song is an […]
Blog
St George
Posted on by James Woodward
The Prayer to Saint George directly refers to the courage it took for the saint to confess his Christianity before opposing authority: Almighty God, who gave to your servant George boldness to Confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that […]
Letting Go of our Control?
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Control’ in this context has two distinct meanings, both equally crucial. In the first place, ‘control’, as you would expect, means priority and ability to manage, not to force, the compliance of others, to determine what others think or do. In the second, more elusive sense – a sense which, nevertheless, saves my life and […]
radiant
Posted on by James Woodward
this blessing God’s love calls us to that elsewhere world which only lovers eyes alight, eyes aflame can see at all. only those who have self surrendered: once, they were flecks of fire; now, they are the radiant sun. Rumi
Easter
Posted on by James Woodward
Rise, heart, thy lord is risen. Sing his praise Without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise With him may’st rise: That, as his death calcinиd thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just. Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part With all thy art, […]
Holy Saturday
Posted on by James Woodward
When Death Comes When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snap the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to […]
Good Friday
Posted on by James Woodward
This is it. The is what we have always feared – The moment of surrender, the helpless moment When there is nothing to do but to let go… “Into Thy hands” – into another’s hand No matter whose; the enemy’s hand, death’s hand, God’s…The moment not to be evaded Which says, “You must,” the moment […]
Maundy Thursday
Posted on by James Woodward
Lord, in your love you wash our feet soiled as we tramp lifes well worn street As from the clamour we retreat concious of failure and defeat wash from our feet the dirt of sin scars from the past which lurk within humbly we heed your discipline faced with temptation, help us win Wash from […]
Time to look inwards?
Posted on by James Woodward
NEWS OF THE INNER WORLD “It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world.” -John O’Donohue, ANAM CARA: […]
the beauty of the heart
Posted on by James Woodward
The beauty of the heart is what will remain: it brings to your lips the water of life. in truth, it is the water, and the jug that holds it, and the lips that drink. All three become one when your talismans are broken. This is a oneness you won’t know by thinking about […]
The peace of wild things
Posted on by James Woodward
When despair grows in me and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into […]
Jungle Queen II by Hew Locke
Posted on by James Woodward
Hew Locke is a sculptor and contemporary British visual artist based in london. Locke uses a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, photography, relief, fabric, sculpture and casting, and makes extensive use of found objects and collage. Recurrent themes and imagery include visual expressions of power, trophies, globalization, movement of peoples, the creation of […]
time
Posted on by James Woodward
LET it go on; let the love of this hour be poured out till all the answers are made, the last dollar spent and the last blood gone. Time runs with an ax and a hammer, time slides down the hallways with a pass-key and a master-key, and time gets by, time wins. Let […]
Shalom and Pastoral Care
Posted on by James Woodward
The undergirding theme of pastoral care is characterized by the Hebrew word shalom. This is usually translated ‘peace’, but that is inadequate. Greek ideas dominate western thought. As a result ‘peace’ has come largely to mean ‘the absence of war’, a state which produces prosperity and well-being. But the Hebrew is more positive. God gives […]
See how these Christian love one another
Posted on by James Woodward
Church of Nigeria reacts to Archbishop of Canterbury’s Resignation The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist […]
Chagall
Posted on by James Woodward
chagall donkey or cow, cockerel, horse, right down to the varnish on a violin; a man who sings, a lonely bird, a dancer floating with his wife; a couple, soaked in their own springtime; the gold of the grass, the leaden sky; between them, blue flames and the vitality of dew: the blood […]
acting
Posted on by James Woodward
Poetry reveals that there is no empty space. When your truth forsakes its shyness, When your fears surrender to your strengths, You will begin to experience That all existence Is a teeming sea of infinite life. In a handful of ocean water You could not count all the finely tuned Musicians Who are […]
Theology and Worship
Posted on by James Woodward
Theology is positioned by God who is Trinity, and to speak or think about God, is not merely human talk, ‘because it involves the reception of the mind of God and the participation in the life of God’. To do theology is to be taken up into the realm of worship and glory. It […]
Love
Posted on by James Woodward
All that there is, is love. Nothing else is, but love. Love is the force that fires the stars, that drives our lives from seed to sepulchre, from edge to edge, from end to end.
Gift and Challenge
Posted on by James Woodward
Every segment of life is both gift and challenge, both endowment and responsibility. It is the warp and woof of the fabric we call time. The delicate interplay between the two has the power to rock us back and forth between total confidence and abject despair. We lurch through life between doubt and faith, between […]