Over the holiday period I watched both of the Paddington Bear films. I find them very entertaining and the special effects make Paddington very real, but if you look below the surface there are so many moral issues involved in these films. Paddington was a refugee from Peru who was looking for a better life…
Poems can express our feelings and help us reorganise them. I am in awe of poets who manage to allow me to think differently about a situation with a few well-chosen lines. This poem by Mark Strand takes us into those feelings we often have in winter, rearranges them and can help us utter a…
Just after sunrise on the shortest day I went out for a walk, wondering what to ‘think’ and to share on 6th January. This day is known as Epiphany and on this coming Sunday we reflect on The Baptism of The Lord. And then it was there – a setting moon in a clear blue…
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with…
Psalm 119 v 33.Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end A Scottish shepherd stood waving his arms on the lush green hillside. His flock had broken away and was straying across the road while motorists honked their horns further adding to the sheep’s bewilderment. From the top…
Live wires : powerful stories of changed lives by DJ Carswell 10Publishing, 2013 134 pages £5.99ISBN 978 1 906 173 135 Live wires is a collection of 15 individual stories of real people. Whatever their background or circumstances, all of them have had an encounter with such good news (they were introduced to Jesus somehow…
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Hannah was a troubled young woman. She shared her husband, as was the custom, with another wife, who had produced many sons and daughters. Sadly, Hannah was unable to…
First Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 9th January 2022 Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 43 v1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8 v14-17; Luke 3 v15-17, 21-22. Symbols of God’s presence. In response to the crowd’s speculation that he might be ‘the Messiah’, John the Baptist said, “I am baptizing with water. But someone more powerful is…
I have never been a great lover of parties. I know, that makes me sound like a bit of a misery and I put it down to the fact that I have never really enjoyed surprises, I like to know what to expect and even now have a dread of the unexpected. One of the…
A gift of light for you. If you would like a star word to help you with a spiritual focus for 2022, use the star word generator linked to this post.