“The Conversion of Saul” by Michelangelo, Pauline Chapel fresco, Vatican City.
This “I” we each inherit, made spine
of the world, axis, pole,
look-out from the world’s helm
gazing on the universe,
gazing on you,
gazing on death…
“Mummy,” I said,
seven or eight years old,
“I have decided
that I am God.”
We were walking east
along Glebe Road… continue reading
Category belief
West of Caritas
… Dame Julian of Norwich
Dame Julian of Norwich was an anchoress. She lived in the fourteenth century and wrote “Revelations of Divine Love.”
She “good counsel did give” to her visitors, one of whom was Margery Kempe who wrote an autobiography, a rare and perhaps unique thing to do at that time, especially for a woman.
Likewise, Dame Julian’s “Revelations” was perhaps the first… continue reading
Poet on the Cliff
Let’s look again at St Aldhelm’s chapel, a small square Norman building on a cliff-edge. It stands at the very tip of a promontory on the Dorset coast called – a bit confusingly – St Alban’s Head.
The chapel is small and dark and inside it is very damp. This is because the door into it is always open and… continue reading
Shavings from The Rainbow
What is God, after all ? If maggots in a dead dog be but God kissing carrion, what then is not God ? And when the war began it seemed that the poles of the universe were cracking and the whole must go tumbling into the bottomless pit. You feel an agony of helplessness. You can do… continue reading
The Angel Overhead
In his grief, he asked the angel hanging overhead, his faceless confessor : Why, Lord, do sinners’ ways so grossly prosper ? How can you allow the Lie so fatly to preside ? And the angel answered : I invited you to my feast, my laden tables, my radiant halls, and for my reward, through each fraught breath of… continue reading
The late David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham
Following the death of David Jenkins on September 4th, I want to bear witness in my own small way to his great stature as a man and true priest. The first obituaries I read gave prominence to his Virgin Birth and Resurrection “denials.” And of course, in his time, he was called “The Red Bishop” by our tabloid press. All… continue reading
Sayings
Reaching for words is like searching the earth for stones and then shaping them one after another into a path. Your words took my breath away. They killed me with their song. They made my womb turn over. Sing to me again. The words I must speak will sentence me to death. I believe this, not that,… continue reading
Shahada
I have recently imagined myself standing before a man of good sense, deep learning and positive engagement with humanity, and professing to that person my basic beliefs. A profession of faith. A sort of Shahada. Once, in a much less comfortable public situation than mine, Martin Luther found himself setting out his position in similar fashion, concluding with the statement,… continue reading