Spiritual Reflection – On the Watching of Birds Look at the birds of the air. —Matthew 6:26 Writing in his book ‘On the Way: 100 Reflections on the Journey of Faith’, James J. Rawls compares spiritual discipline with the activity of bird-watching. He suggests that the guidelines for bird-watchers apply equally well to people who…
Wilderness “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” (Matt. 1:23 NRSV) The story of Advent begins in the wilderness, where we meet the wild and woolly figure of John the Baptist. In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom…
The Epiphany of our Lord Today we celebrate the ‘Epiphany of Our Lord’. But what does this actually mean? The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘epiphany’ as: a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you, and a powerful religious experience. The Oxford Dictionary adds…
Praying for a Wise Heart The following is a journal entry from Thomas Merton which was the subject of my spiritual reflection for Monday 18th December (titled Praying for a Wise Heart): “This morning I was praying much for a wise heart. I think the gift of this Christmas has been the real discovery of…
Advent Reflection from the Anglican Board of Mission – Sunday 17th December 2017 Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126 or the Song of Mary; 1 Thessalonians 5.12-28; John 1.6-8, 19-28; Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, has been depicted at times, as a compliant maiden and patronizingly praised for being a ‘doormat’. Listen to…
Daily Meditation from Thomas Merton’s Journal I’ve been reading “A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals” by Thomas Merton and I wanted to share this quote with you from the meditation for December 9 which is titled The Complexity of Our Real “I”. ‘When I got up it was about thirty degrees…
Advent Reflection from the Anglican Board of Mission – Sunday 10th December 2017 Isaiah 40.1-11; Psalm 85.1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3.8-15a; Mark 1.1-8; The Isaiah reading not only forms the background to the ministry of John, the Baptizer, but also fills out his cryptic message in the Gospel reading. It is a message of forgiveness,…
A Costly Freedom The theme of my sermon last Sunday, which was based on the Gospel of Mark, was once again: the “need to be alert and watchful for the second coming of Christ.” I say once again, because that had been the same theme, based on parables in Matthew’s Gospel, of two out of…
Advent Reflection from the Anglican Board of Mission – Sunday 3 December 2017. Isaiah 64.1-9; Psalm 80.1-7, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 1.1-9; Mark 13.24-37; We start this Advent with an apocalyptic vision from Mark 13. The vision is a catastrophic one where the whole creation surrounding us is folding itself into itself. The created order is…
Daily Meditation from Thomas Merton’s Journal The following is the text of the spiritual reading I did on Wednesday this week: “The Christian faith enables, or should enable, a man to stand back from society and its institutions and realize that they all stand under the inscrutable judgment of God and that, therefore, we can…