thinking honestly about life and faith
Thinking about love is a good spiritual discipline! There is so much that could be said.But maybe in another sense really engaging with this theme brings me to hold back. Really I should not say much at all, as I … Read More »
Love: What does it mean to say that the Spirit produces love? That’s what I am thinking about. What is the nature of this love, and to whom is it directed? One of the most challenging thoughts is that the … Read More »
I’m doing some deliberate reflection on the classic idea of the ‘fruits of the Spirit’: love joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.I want to engage with each of them in turn, but just now I am thinking about … Read More »
I’ve just finished reading A J Jacob’s The Year of Living Biblically, (Heinemann, 2008). It’s a great read: Jacobs is a secular, agnostic Jew from New York, a writer, who decides that he would personally like to engage with the … Read More »
I have greatly appreciated a short prayer that I first saw several weeks ago, called A Franciscan Blessing.It actually wishes for discomfort. It’s a bit like the paradox we see everywhere in our cushy Western societies, where people seek out … Read More »
The newspapers are today reporting that the Roman Catholic Church has revised the classic list of ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, to include a few more. It’s worth thinking about: what are these deadly sins, and what makes them deadly? And what … Read More »
I wrote this reflection on St Valentine’s Day, thinking about the difficulty many Evangelical Christians have with the basic idea that we can enjoy life—even romantic love! I have a resistance to the kind of commercialization we see on St … Read More »
Last week I had the privilege of launching Val Webb’s new book, Like catching water in a net: Human attempts to describe the divine (New York: Continuum, 2007) Here is some of what I said, telling you what it’s about … Read More »
This week I have been at several retreats, one with the staff and another with students. A good time.I’ve also been working hard, especially internally, on a strong sense of new directions which has come to me, and which now … Read More »
All those ‘blessings’ at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5. 1 – 12 is the reading for today …) have always been a puzzle to me.I preached on this passage for the induction of a pastor, … Read More »