A Prayer of St Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which you have given us, for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
ABC Day 37: The end is a new beginning – returning by another way
An Epiphany. A striking revelation. Advent has been and gone; it is twelfth night. Today the church remembers the visit of the magi – trusting in the revelation through study of scripture, they followed a star to Bethlehem. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own […]
ABC Day 35 – Born in a borrowed room
Hello. Remember me? I was blogging every day with the #adventbookclub. And, whilst I’ve been following along the words of others, and reading Maggi’s book, and praying, actual blogging time has been limited. Half-formed thoughts just haven’t made their way onto the laptop; the laptop couldn’t make its way onto my lap during a prolonged […]
ABC day 22: Coming, ready or not…
The secret is out today. Mary goes to visit her husband Elizabeth, who knows Mary is pregnant (Luke 1:39-45). Not just the normal excitement for Elizabeth at good news in the family; she knows that the baby will be her Lord – the fulfilment of the promise God has made to all generations, as well […]
BigRead13 Day 36 : Stream
Day 36’s post from the BigRead13 can be found here. From The Silver Chair we have an excerpt where Jill is scared of Aslan (a lion – not unreasonable to be scared of a lion) – and doesn’t want to approach him when he might swallow her up, yet he stands in the way of […]
BigRead13 Day 22 : Fix
You can find day 22’s post from the #BigRead13 here. Hebrews 12:2 today: Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. We’re asked […]
Lent 2013
Why is Lent important to me? Lent is here again. It seems early – yesterday there was a serious threat that the clergy’s annual humiliation entry in the town’s pancake race might be snowed off. To be fair, they do handicap themselves by racing in full fig – cassocks flowing, birettas flying – but this […]
Advent Book Club Bonus Day 10
7 Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil. 9 For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall […]
An intermission… What are the Great ‘O’ Antiphons?
There are many good explanations of what the Great ‘O’ antiphons of Advent are, and meditations on each. For example, this one, this one (click forwards for the rest of the antiphons) and this one. And even Wikipedia has some good material. What am I talking about? The seven antiphons historically used by the ancient church at […]
Advent – a musical interlude
Some of you may have spotted by now that music is a big part of my Advent preparations. Somehow it sets the soul and soothes away the general background hubbub of my commute and lets me start to focus. I posted at the start of the #adventbookclub about our church Advent Procession and the melding […]