Author: Jonny N
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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…
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A harvest reflection
I wrote the following reflection for a the lead up to the lord’s supper at the harvest event we had last night. We sow seeds, but we did not create them. We plant them in the ground; a soil we did not form. The rain nourishes it, with waters we did not produce. The sun…
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Imagination and the role of the artist
This Image is a visual response to a collection of beautiful images created by my brother Paul. “Why is our world beautiful, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our world is beautiful? Why is our world ugly, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our…
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Celebration and Value
What we celebrate determines what we value and reflects what we believe. (I’m sure I’m quoting or paraphrasing someone here). We celebrate birthdays because we believe in life and value the existence of friends and relatives. We celebrate weddings because we value loving-committed relationships and believe in family. We celebrate the birth of a baby…
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Reality and Hope
It’s taken me a while to continue the series of post that have stopped off at points of pain, hope and the prophetic imagination. My eldest brother has wonderfully distilled Brueggemann’s thesis as follows: In his book The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann identifies two modes of Old Testament prophets. The first is the message of future…
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A prayer for the blessed life
The following is a Franciscan Prayer I stumbled on: May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.…
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Energizing Visions
I ended the last post with a couple of quotes from Henri Nouwen concerning eschatological dreams and visions of harmony. Here’s a quick reminder: These visions… offer us hope when we are close to despair, courage when we are tempted to give up on life, and trust when suspicion seems the more logical attitude. Without…