Author: Jonny N
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The Real Work
The following is a poem by one of my favorite poets. The Real Work It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is…
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No tricks and no short cuts
I’ve been reading Thomas Merton this week and found both helpful and challenging. I love this quote in particular: “… in the the spiritual life there are no tricks and no short cuts. Those who imagine that they can discover spiritual gimmicks and put them to work for themselves usually ignore God’s will and his…
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Children of Grace
Every so often you read a book that you just love, to the extent that it seems a waste to rush it, but all the same you chug through it. Then you tell everyone about it, and then even that’s not enough and you start to think of who you could buy copies for. Culture…
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Why write?
I will post somethng of my own soon. I have more some thoughts in my notebook that I’d like to post here. In the mean time here are some thoughts from Henri Nouwen on writing: Writing to Save the Day Writing can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get…
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Becoming fully human
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on…
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Beauty and Justice
There is a great deal to lament as we look around the world, with conflicts all around: from the small places with in ourselves and the communities around us to the more tragic and dramatic unrest in the middle east and further to Sudan, the Congo and Zimbabwe. It can leave us feeling overwhelmed and…
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Silence
Following our entering through the ‘door of sanctuary’ with virtue, Abbot Christopher suggests we need to lay a floor of silence. The Abbot recommends a period of silence in the morning and another at night – effectively book ending our days with silence. Catherine de Hueck.Doherty has this to say about silence and the ‘desert…
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Door to sanctuary
For the life caught up with following Jesus, the inward journey and outward journey are linked and find energy and momentum from each other — like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Both motions orientated around the fulcrum of God, but one expressing that relationship outwardly in love and service to others and the other…
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Love mixed up
There is a presupposition that runs through theses posts which can be distilled to some thing like: the good life is a life caught up with the love of God and the love of neighbour.’ The last post touched a little on noting how the way we use love leads to the word being tainted…
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The Clod & the Pebble
The following is a wonderfully insightful poem by William Blake (1757-1827) The Clod & the Pebble ‘Love seeketh not Itself to please, ‘Nor for itself hath any care; ‘But for another gives its ease, ‘And builds a heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sang a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the cattle’s feet : But…