The Mission of God

Peace

Peace

When will you ever, Peace, wilddove, shy wings shut, You round me roaming end, and under be my boughs? When, Peace, will you Peace? I'll not play hypocrite To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows...

Tell the Truth

Tell the Truth

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind — Emily Dickinson...

Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come

Lord, it belongs not to my care whether I die or live: to love and serve thee is my share, and this thy grace must give. Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before; he that into God's kingdom comes must enter by this door. Come, Lord, when...

Caged Skylark?

Caged Skylark?

As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells - That bird beyond the remembering his free fells, This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age....   Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest  -...

Holy Island – What Me?

Holy Island – What Me?

Leave me alone with God  as much as may be, as the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make me an island,  set apart, alone with You, God, holy to You.   Then, with the turning of the tide, prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world, beyond...

Far From Home

Far From Home

All day long we’ve walked, my little boy so fretful, turning in my arms to stare behind us, back along that dusty road.   It’s as if he hears a distant sound, he’s listening, it seems, but much too young to know the dreadful things we’ve heard.   Now it’s...

Saved to save others

Saved to save others

Are you content, have you no higher aim Than just to gain admittance at the door, In faintest characters to trace your name Among the list of those who die no more?   Do you not feel that you are saved to live? Do you not know you are saved to save? Forgiven that you...

Remember

Remember

Do not face us, O living God, with the future of a world without justice or a future without mercy; in your mercy, establish justice, and, in your justice, remember your overflowing mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen   Michael Vasey (1946-98).    ...

An old age is out, time to begin a new

All, all of a piece throughout; Thy chase had a beast in view; Thy wars brought nothing about; Thy lovers were all untrue. ‘Tis well an old age is out, And time to begin a new.   John Dryden (1631 – 1700), The Secular Masque, 1700.

Let all the world sing

Let all the world sing

Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King ! The church with psalms must shout, No door can keep them out ; But above all the heart Must bear the longest part. Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King !   George Herbert...

The words of the prophets

The words of the prophets

People talking without speaking People hearing without listening ‘Fools’, said I, ‘You do not know Silence like a cancer grows.’  The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls.   Paul Simon (1942-), 1964.