Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith
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USE FAITH SHAPERS FOR:
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- Illustrations for a devotional address
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Faith-shaping Poets
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Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven
Feeling the Cold?
I found Him not in world or sun, Or in eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye; Nor through the questions men may try, The petty cobwebs we have spun:… A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason’s coldest part, And like a man in wrath the heart Stood up...
All Things Re-aligned
Christmas sets the centre at the edge. And from this day our world is re-aligned; A tiny seed unfolding in the womb Becomes the source from which we all unfold And flower into being. We are healed, The End begins, the tomb becomes a womb, For now in him all things are...
Elected
Though the mariner sees not the polestar, yet the needle of the compass which points to it tells him which way he sails: thus the heart that is touched with the loadstone of divine love, trembling with godly fear, and yet still looking towards God by fixed believing,...
War Nearer Home!
Across our planet earth there bleed the wounds of war, With livelihoods destroyed and cherished homes no more; The people flee, abused and scarred and travelling far, Poor refugees. Across our planet earth the wounds of war go deep With generations taught...
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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The Holy Spirit’s two-edged sword
Brandish in faith ‘till then The Spirit’s two-edged Sword, Hew all the snares of Fiends and Men In pieces with the Word; ‘TIS WRITTEN’. This applied Baffles their Strength and Art; Spirit and Soul with this divide, And Joints and Marrows part. Charles Wesley...
Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
Be my Way, my Truth, my Life
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life: Such a Way, as gives us breath: Such a truth, as ends all strife: Such a Life as killeth death. Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength: Such a Light, as shows a feast: Such a Feast, as mends in length: Such a Strength, as makes his...
I was fed up with God
I was fed up with God. He wasn’t there Or had forgotten me, or did not care, Left me alone To struggle hopelessly ‘gainst odds too great for me – my heart was stone. And young people talked about him far too much, Young people, who were strong, and should be gay....
Christ is the language in which we speak to God
Christ is the language in which we speak to God And also God, so that we speak in truth; He in us, we in him, speaking To one another, to him, the City of God. H. Sisson (1914-2003), The Usk, 1973.
Let me go there too
And God held in his hand a small globe. Look, he said. The son looked. Far off, as through water, he saw a scorched land of fierce colour. The light burned there; crusted buildings cast their shadows: a bright serpent, a river uncoiled itself, radiant with slime. On...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Not just ordinary
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations – these are mortal, as their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – Immortal horrors or...
Liz Truss ‘Growth, Growth, Growth’
We have grown brave we modern folk, eager to kiss the moon’s reluctant face, defying every harness, chain and yoke, kicking our rockets down the field of space. We flout established customs undismayed, leap time and space with buttons we have pressed, attempt to...
Never Wonder
When she was half-a-dozen years younger, Louisa had been overheard to begin a conversation with her brother one day by saying, ’Tom, I wonder’ – upon which Mr Gradgrind, who was the person overhearing, stepped forth into the light and said, ‘Louisa, never...
Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries for them from prayers or bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill,...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Love took my hand
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, If I lacked anything. ‘A guest’, I answered, ‘worthy to be here.’ Love said, ‘You...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
No more solitary confinement
We never left the place where we were born, Have only lived one day, but every day, Have walked a thousand miles yet only worn The grass between our work and home away, Lonely we were, though never left alone, The solitude familiar to the poor Is feeling that the...
Unanswered prayer
Mute, with signs I speak: Blind, by groping seek: Heed; yet nothing hear: Feel; find no one near. Deaf, eclipsed, and dumb, Through this gloom I come On the time-path trod Toward ungranted God. Carnal, I can claim Only his known name Dying, can but be...
Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island
There is an island there is no going to but in a small boat the way the saints went, travelling the gallery of the frightened faces of the long drowned, munching the gravel of its beaches. So I have gone up the salt lane to the building with the stone altar and the...
My bottom dollar
Two mites, two drops (yet all her house and land) Falls from a steady heart, though trembling hand. The others’ wanton wealth foams high and brave. The others cast away, she only gave. Richard Crashaw (1613-49), The Widow’s Mite.
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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Pure beauty
The memory of a glorious moment, My soul was stirred And once again you came, A passing vision, A glimmer of beauty pure. In fullness beats my heart, feeling once again The resurrection of divinity, And inspiration, and life, And tears, and love. Alexander...
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
I wish I were a tree
Now I am here, what thou wilt do with me None of my books will show: I read, and sigh, and wish I were a tree: For sure then I should grow To fruit or shade: at least some bird would trust Her household to me, and I should be just. George Herbert (1593-1633),...
Our Saving Victim
In making victims we are judged, until we turn to the saving Victim. We are insistently and relentlessly, in Jerusalem, confronted… with a victim who is our victim. When we make victims, when we embark on condemnation, exclusion, violence, the diminution or oppression...
Batter my heart!
Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurped town to another due, Labour to admit you, but...
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 -...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
A true hymn ‘if the heart be moved’
The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords Is when the soul unto the lines accords. He who craves all mind, And all the soul, and strength, and time, If the words only rhyme, Justly complains, that somewhat is behind To make his verse, or write a hymn in kind....
Prayer in forgotten places
For the blood of thy martyrs and saints Shall enrich the earth, shall create holy places. For wherever a saint has dwelt, wherever a martyr has given his blood for the blood of Christ, There is holy ground, and the sanctity shall not depart from it Though armies...
All Shall Be Well*
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown…. But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea…. And all shall be well and...
How to listen to a sermon
Judge not the preacher; for he is thy Judge If thou mislike him, thou conceivs't him not. God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge To pick out treasures from an earthen pot. The worst speak something good: if all want sense, God takes a text, and preacheth...
The Mission of God
The poet’s prophetic task
The figure a poem makes; No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. Robert Frost (1874-1963), 1939.
The poet’s true task
Therefore he no more troubled the pool of silence. The figure a poem makes But put on mask and cloak, Strung a guitar And moved among the folk. Dancing they cried, ‘Ah, how our sober islands Are gay again, since this blind lyrical tramp Invaded the Fair!’ Under...
Christ in the weakness of his power
Grandfather sits and begins breakfast, Staring into is coffee cup…. He is a Calvinist to be sure, sound and wise if settled in his ways. He believes in hell, and firmly in damnation, but will not call it down. He sees himself growing out of this world: trying...
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...
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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Betrayed by Your Lifestyle
I was hungry And you were overweight. I was thirsty And you kept watering your lawn. I was a stranger And you called the police. I was naked And you went shopping for the latest fashions. I was sick ...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
Old age: make it bright
Gotten past the day I will give thanks, O Lord. The evening draweth nigh: Make it bright. There is an evening, as of the Day, so also life; The evening of life is old age: Old age hath overtaken Me: make it bright. Abide with me, O Lord, For even now it is towards...
Our Last Awakening
Bring us, O Lord our God, At our last awakening Into the house and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, Where there shall be no darkness or dazzling, But one equal light: No noise or silence, but one equal music: No fears or hopes, But one...
Face to face
I pray you, merciful Jesus, that as you have graciously granted me joyfully to imbibe the words of your knowledge, so you will also, of your goodness, grant that I may come at length to you, the fount of all wisdom, and stand before your face for ever. ...
Born among the trees and leaves
O who will show me those delights on high Echo. I Thou echo, thou art mortal, all men know. Echo. No Wert thou not born among the trees and leaves? Echo. Leaves. And are there any leaves that still abide? Echo. Bide. What leaves are they? Impart the matter wholly....