Glimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 21 Lonely
I remember the first weeks in grammar school.I was lonely.In the village primary school I had known everyone. I was secure in the village where I had always lived. I knew the lanes, the woods, the...
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Glimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 22 Emptiness
Today the meditation is challenging. In 'Emptiness' Stephen Cherry describes that weariness which means I have nothing to give.This is the desert experience.This is the realisation of inadequacy.This...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 23 'I hate, I despise your festivals'
I hate, I despise your festivals,and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. (Amos 5:21)Hate is such a strong word, such an emotive word. It is a word that makes me recoil. It is a word that...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 24
'I am disappointed with you'.Words spoken by a friend or loved one. Words that cut to the core.Words speak of pain caused to others.Words that rebuke me.How often God must be disappointed with me.And...
View ArticleSmiles, pride, tears and anger
Yesterday I visited Shrewsbury Shared Care. This is an Action for Children project which provides short term residential care for disabled children and young people. This is home for the young people...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 25
Loving the unlovely in others is difficult.Loving the unlovely in others is so much easier than loving the unlovely in myself.(Very brief reflection in reponse to Unlovely by Stephen Cherry in Barefoot...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 26
Doing Justice is the title of today's meditation (Sunday March 30th).To do justice is the Lord's requirement of us, according to the prophet. Few of us would argue with that. The problem is that it...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 27 The Depths of the news
"Let me attend to the depth of the news" (Stephen Cherry - On hearing the news in Barefoot Prayers)It can be so easy to miss the depths of the news:to listen to it in the background as I do something...
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Glimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 28
Rain.Rainbow over WolverhamptonRain can be life-giving when it falls on fields and waters crops.Rain can be life-threatening when it causes floods.Rain can be refreshing when it falls after a hot dry...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 29 - A woman lost
This evening I saw a woman lost in grief. She was crying so that it was hard to speak. She was small in stature and seemed lost in the vast clean lines of the television studio.The interviewer was kind...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 30
In a meditation on sitting, Stephen Cherry invites us to remember those who have nowhere to sit. Those who have no resting place and nowhere to abide.As I sit and write this at the end of the day, I am...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 31 "Those who cry out"
Who are the ones who cry out tonight?I look at the news website and read about:Afghanistan where more have died as the nation prepares to elect a president.A nine month old boy accused of planning...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Days 32, 33, 34
When I began my attempt to blog every day during Lent I wrote of the blogs, "They may be very brief and because I am human I may miss the occasional day." I have missed three days and this evening I...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 35 Gentleness
Gentleness is so often underrated.Too often gentleness is equated with weakness.In this meditation we pray that we will be gentle when angry, gentle in word and work. (Read it here)These things are...
View ArticleAn Easter Reception in Downing Street
This evening I was the guest of the Prime Minister at an Easter reception for leaders in the Christian community. After going through the Downing Street gates I went through the front door of No. 10...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 36
Praying for space in which to have my complacency challenged - now that is a challenge. Asking for the irony that troubles my certainty - do I really want that?Well, maybe not, but it is probably good...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 37 The Courage of Gethsemane
Courage was the theme of Thursday's meditation (Read it here)"Bless me, I pray, with the courage of Gethsemane"This is courage of a different order.It is not the courage of the popular super-hero.It is...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 38 Kindness
Kindness is such a precious gift. Precious to give and precious to receive.Stephen Cherry reminds us how easily kindness can be tarnished, becoming patronising, bland or diminishing. (Read the...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 39 Generosity
A very brief blog today.It is best to read the meditation (here)I note that in the final words generosity is linked with doing God's will (not mine), the smile of uncertainty and the joy of...
View ArticleGlimpses of Glory in Lent - Day 40 The Speed Skating Nun
The crowds shouted Hosanna! Expecting power and glory, greeting a king.But Jesus lived by a different story. His way was that of true humility, his power was the power of the word become flesh, he came...
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