Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience

O God, can a man find you when he lies with his face downwards And his nose in the rubble that was his achievement? Is the music playing behind the door of despair?   Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67).  

‘Like me,’ she said to them, ‘you were late in coming. The shepherds were here long before; even the cattle. They had joined the chorus of angels before you were on your way….’ ‘How laboriously you came, taking sights and calculating, whereas the shepherds had run...

… Young I pronounced you. Older I still do, but seldomer now, leaning far out over an immense depth, letting your name go and waiting, somewhere between faith and doubt for the echoes of its arrival.   R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), Frequencies,...

The summer leaves fall from the trees. The branches stark and naked against a grey sky, Yet one day the sap will rise again. You, Lord, will send the Spirit Rushing through our veins, And there will be flowers and fruit And shade on a summer’s day.   Ian Bunting...

Drained is love in making full; Bound in setting others free; Poor in making many rich; Weak in giving power to be.   W.H. Vanstone (1923-99), Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense.

I’m a Christian in my way; How it’s difficult to say; I’ve the haziest sort of notion What I mean by my devotion. Clichés clutter in my head, Catch words are my daily bread, Exquisitely undefined is the thing I call my mind.   David Elton Trueblood...

At heaven's gate, at break of day, Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think of thee - and then my state (like the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate ; for thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, that...