December 2010

Away with our fears!
The Godhead appears
In Christ reconciled,
The Father of Mercies in Jesus the Child.
He comes from above,
[...]

{ 1 comment }

Happy birthday, baby Jesus,
born in awkward circumstance,
named in heaven “God is with us”
while the world looked on askance.
You were praised by simple peasants,
not by princes nor by priests.
Who should bring you priceless presents?
Unbelievers from the [...]

{ 0 comments }

Without Mary’s obedience, without Mary’s willingness to receive the Holy Spirit, our salvation would be in doubt. Raniero Cantalamessa, therefore, quite rightly entitles his 1992 book Mary: Mirror of the Church. With some justification Mary is often identified as the second Eve, but Mary is also our Abraham. Just as Abraham obeyed [...]

{ 50 comments }

Heaven is so far of the Mind
That were the Mind dissolved -
The Site - of it - by Architect
Could not again be proved -
‘Tis vast - as our Capacity -
As fair - as our idea -
To Him of adequate desire
No further ’tis, than Here -
******
The Fact that Earth is Heaven -
Whether Heaven is Heaven or [...]

{ 3 comments }

via Andrew Brown

{ 0 comments }

Can a Homosexual be a Christian. One might as well ask, can an insurance man be a Christian? Can a lawyer be a Christian? Can an ecclesiastical bureaucrat be a Christian? Can a rich man be a Christian? Can an infant be a Christian? Or one who is sick, [...]

{ 108 comments }

You’ve got to laugh…
From Pithless Thoughts via Lansbury’s Lido

{ 4 comments }

Over at Faith and Theology, Kim offers a PowerlessPoint Presentation

{ 0 comments }

Even from the cabin window I sensed the wind’s
contagion begin to infect the rags of leaves.
Then the alders are gilded to it, obeisant, the way
angels are said to bow, covering their faces with
their wings, not solemn, as we suppose, but
possessed of a sudden, surreptitious hilarity.
When the little satin wind arrived
I felt it slide through the [...]

{ 0 comments }

Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
triumph o’er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Daystar, in my heart appear.
Dark and cheerless is the morn
unaccompanied by thee;
joyless is the day’s return,
till thy mercy’s beams I see;
till they inward light impart,
glad my eyes and warm my [...]

{ 0 comments }

‘Tis the season of shameless reblogging. So here’s a post I did on December 11th, 2007. I leave it unrevised, its social location intact.
Recently the Catholic League in the US idiotically called for a boycott on the film version of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (it turns out there is nothing to boycott [...]

{ 2 comments }

Expectations are hard things to live with. In a culture increasingly driven by “targets”, the expectations we have of ourselves and others can be a source of great hurt and confusion. This is especially true when our expectations do not match those of others. And it has to be said that there are many times [...]

{ 3 comments }

Sometimes, the bizarre way my mind works (if you can call it that) disturbs even me. Working on a sermon, pondering the meaning of the phrase “Saviour of the World”, what should pop into my head but the words of the 1968 (I think) hit “Lily the Pink” by The Scaffold. Such thoughts have to [...]

{ 5 comments }

Many Christians are apt to be just a little bit churlish when it comes to Christmas. I sometimes get a sense that Christians are resentful that “our” festival has been stolen, taken over by revellers who are happy to sing carols and watch a school nativity play but will give little or no thought to [...]

{ 9 comments }

Ben Myers tells how and when God made his full and final revelation
The Revelation took place on a Sunday, the evening of February 28, 1983. The sky was bright and clear that Sabbath night – almost supernaturally clear, as one TV weatherman remarked the following day, with scarcely a cloud in sight anywhere across the [...]

{ 0 comments }

Silly, but quite fun. With thanks to Postmodernbible

{ 2 comments }

When the M40 motorway comes to the Chiltern Hills, it doesn’t really climb them. It slices straight through. And when it comes to the valley of High Wycombe, it doesn’t go down to it. It strides across on stilts. It never turns any sharp corners. It goes on in a [...]

{ 7 comments }

{ 0 comments }

In Mary’s song of praise and peace
we call “Magnificat”,
a peasant maiden mocked the claims
of earth’s proud plutocrats.
An angel whispered, “You’re the one
who’ll carry heaven’s child.”
The girl, in fearful faith, said, “Yes!”
but barely forced a smile.
She went to see a kindred soul,
who praised what God would do;
yet Mary felt a deep unease
about the coming coup.
But then [...]

{ 2 comments }