Most of us fail to look and see – the failure to see what is truly there in front of us – because our own vision is clouded by self-obsession or self-satisfaction. There are several variants of a story in which some young monk goes in despair to one of the great […]
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Loving One another
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Our life and our death is with our neighbour. If we win our brother, we win God. If we cause our brother to stumble, we have sinned against Christ.’ From the writings of the desert fathers And this is where the desert monastics have an uncompromising message for us: a relationship with eternal […]
smile
Posted on by James Woodward
One day people will touch and talk perhaps easily, And loving be natural as breathing and warm as sunlight, And people will untie themselves, as string is unknotted, Unfold and yawn and stretch and spread their fingers, Unfurl, uncurl like seaweed returned to the sea, And work will be simple and swift as a […]
Growing great?
Posted on by James Woodward
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” -Greek proverb
For the Gift of Music
Posted on by James Woodward
Let us bless God for the gift of music O Christ, whose birth was greeted with the song of angels, whose mother sang as she magnified the Lord, and who was greeted in the Temple by the song of Simeon, we bless you for the gift of music. For music which calms our fears, […]
Pearl
Posted on by James Woodward
This poem is about the wordless, the beautiful. What, do you need a manual, to feel the heat of the sun? Look, look at this beauty. It has no reason. Feel its blessing. Nothing is as good as this. Perhaps this poem is a miracle. Perhaps it’s a trick. It was written by the […]
Do we know what nourishes us?
Posted on by James Woodward
Diet is a key challenge to Christian communities. While it is certainly the case that phrases such as ‘food as fuel’, ‘garbage in garbage out’, ‘an army marches on its stomach’ and ‘you are what you eat’ can seem simplistic, there is a truth here which has particular importance for a church seeking to recover […]
Befriending Strangers?
Posted on by James Woodward
During Lent we should recall the challenge of Jesus to welcome and pay attention to the stranger. This was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry because it is at the heart of God’s relationship to creation. The stranger represents the one different to us. The Pharisees sought to establish a Jewish comfort zone beyond which […]
What kind of leadership?
Posted on by James Woodward
So often we think of the Church as an organisation that needs to be run! It might be worth remembering Bishop Edward King. The words are those of G. F. Wilgress, who was, I think once his chaplain. ‘Without any very visible method in his administration of his diocese, there was a deep underlying […]
Ash Wednesday
Posted on by James Woodward
Ash Wednesday T.S. Eliot Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished […]
leaves
Posted on by James Woodward
Life is the only way to get covered in leaves, catch your breath on the beach, rise on wings; to be a dog, or stroke its warm fur; to tell pain from everything it’s not; to squeeze inside events, hang out in views, and seek the least of all possible mistakes. A fantastic […]
BACH’S ST MATTHEW PASSION St Georges Chapel Windsor 24th March 2012
Posted on by James Woodward
ST GEORGE’S CHAPEL, WINDSOR CASTLE ST MATTHEW PASSION J.S. BACH 24th MARCH 2012 at 7.00pm (doors open 6.00pm) Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Oxford Bach Choir ‘Supers’ Choir (St George’s School) Oxford Philomusica James Oxley (Evangelist) Soprano: Miriam Allan Other solos: Lay Clerks of […]
white flower
Posted on by James Woodward
He said, I am with you always. That means, when you look for God That God is the looking itself, Yes, and the thought of looking And the you that thinks the thought Always, already, all of it; There is no outside. A white flower grows in the silence Let your speech be […]
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
eyes
Posted on by James Woodward
Love is the cure. Your pain will keep giving birth to more pain. Just let your eyes breathe out love as easily as a flower breathes out its sweetness. Rumi, Love is the cure,
Reading the Bible?
Posted on by James Woodward
The Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, challenges us to immenrse ourselves in the Bible : “The texts a culture teaches its children shape their landscape of literacy, their horizons of aspiration. People who can quote the Bible walk tall. They sing with the tongues of poets; walk with the wisdom of Solomon; find solace in […]
prisoner of time
Posted on by James Woodward
Lord, said David, since you don’t need us, why did you make the two worlds? The Real replied: O prisoner of time, I am a secret treasure of kindness that wishes itself to be known. So, I made a mirror: its shining face is one world, its dark back, the other. You’d like the […]
the double bass
Posted on by James Woodward
He is a drunk leaning companionably Around a lamp post or doing up With intermittent concentration Another drunk’s coat. But close your eyes and it is sunset At the edge of the world. It is the language Of dolphins, the growth of tree-roots, The heart-beat slowing down. John Fuller
CandleMass
Posted on by James Woodward
Homily preached at St Pauls University Ottawa for The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple 2 February 2012 Are you a cynic or a realist? What kind of world do you inhabit? How do you read the signs of the times? Whenyou stop and I mean really stop to listen […]
GRACE APPROACHING
Posted on by James Woodward
There is a grace approaching that we shun as much as death, it is the completion of our birth. It does not come in time, but in timelessness when the mind sinks into the heart and we remember. It is an insistent grace that draws us to the edge and beckons us surrender safe territory […]