Category: Uncategorized
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Ash Wednesday: Go simply in belief and faith
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. In the first week of our Lent meditations, we journey with the Apostle Thomas. Doubting Thomas. Honest Thomas. The apostle who wasn’t afraid to express his doubts, his uncertainties, the dilemmas of belief. Over this week we will explore some of our own doubts and questions, and live…
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Go Simply: Reflections for Lent
A series of Lenten reflections to attend to our doing and being, the active and contemplative Traditionally, there are 40 days of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (not counting the Sundays of Lent), which means February 18 to April 4 in 2015. Starting from Ash Wednesday, 18th February, we…
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Living in the Gap (A Poem for Helen)
We are living in the gap between the way things are and the way they will be. We are living in the gap between starving children and MTV, living in the gap between military budgets and illiteracy. We are living in the gap between the world that’s…
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Learning to live
Welcome to my new, updated website: Vacare Deo – learning to live in the unforced rhythms of grace. The past three years have been an incredible journey for me – a journey of upheaval, discovery, challenges and joys. I have struggled, and continue to struggle, with grief at the loss of my wonderful wife, Helen;…
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A different resurrection story
Is the Creator here, too, in our garden, walking quietly in the cool of the morning, putting finishing touches to this magnum opus? Surely it is an opus Dei. Profusion of colours brought forth by the intensity of the radiant sun which yet is behind me, hidden and distant. Deep copper plum bursting…
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The Sabbath is over
Dawn was breaking on the first day of the week; the Sabbath was over. So Matthew, in a quiet, unassuming way, begins his account of the resurrection. Their sabbath was over – the three years they had spent with Jesus, following him as their disciples; learning; journeying; resting – a break from their ordinary…
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Five nights in Bangladesh
While the world’s cricket teams battled it out on the fields of Bangladesh in the ICC 20:20 series, I, too, was facing my own battles, wondering what on earth I was doing here for five nights at the end of this incredible sabbatical. I had been so warmly welcomed by Brigadier General Golam Zakaria and…
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Wellington: the city never sleeps
The hours and I lie awake, listening to the sounds of the city night. Across the way a halyard flaps on a flag pole outside the Parliament. A handful of taxis languidly scour the streets, scooping up their home-bound fares from clubs and bars. In the docks below, clunking cranes lift their heavy boxes,…
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Silence and Honey Cakes
In his book, Silence and Honey Cakes, Rowan Williams tells the story of a young brother who sets out to learn from two of the Desert Fathers. The first, Abba Arsenius, sat with the young man in complete silence. Not a word was said. The other, Abba Moses, welcomed the young man warmly, sharing food…
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Labyrinth
What an incredible journey – with all its twists and turns; the rough and the smooth. All leading me, inevitably, to this present moment. Here, at the centre, resting, still, I find you. My life source, my centre, the silent whisper of eternity. My life is the labyrinth – its paths unfolding as I…