Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith
How to use Faith Shapers:
- Click on ROOMS to pick a theme
- Search for an author/poet by name
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USE FAITH SHAPERS FOR:
- Prayer or in time of personal need
- Resource for a group meeting
- Illustrations for a devotional address
- Material for a church study course
Latest Posts
Faith-shaping Poets
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Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven
God’s point of view
… All through history the great brush has not rested nor the paint dried; yet what that eye looking coolly, or, as we now, through the tears’ lenses, ever saw this work and it was not finished. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), Poetry for Supper, 1958.
What is the purpose?
In the beginning God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness. And God said, ‘Let us make creatures out of mud, so mud can see what we have done.’ And God created every living thing that now moveth and one was man. Mud as man alone could...
Beginning is the End!
What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from…. … A people without history Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails On a winter’s...
Black Friday
‘You will not sleep, if you lie there a thousand years, until you have opened your hand and yielded that which is not yours to give or to withhold.’ ‘I cannot’, she (Lilith) answered, ‘I would if I could, for I am weary, and the shadows of death are gathering about...
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Bible before reason and church
What scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason: after these the voice of the church succeedeth. Richard Hooker (c.1554 – 1600), Laws of...
Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
Coming Soon
It is this great absence that is like a presence, that compels me to address it without hope of a reply. It is a room I enter from which someone has just gone, the vestibule for the arrival of one who has not yet come. I modernise the anachronism of my language, but...
He shall win all again
What hath man done that man shall not undo, Since God to him is grown so near akin? Did his foe slay him? He shall slay his foe. Hath he lost all? He all again shall win. Is sin his master? He shall master sin…. He is a path if any be misled; He is a robe, if any...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Life’s illusions
I’ve looked at life from both sides now, From win and lose and still somehow It’s life’s illusions I recall; I really don’t know life at all. Joni Mitchell (1945 - ), 1967.
Not only me
No man is an island, entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less; As well as if a promontory were, As well as if a manor of thy friends, or of thine own, were; Any man’s death...
Bondage more than liberty?
But what more oft in nations grown corrupt, And by their vices brought to servitude, Than to love bondage more than liberty, Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty, And to despise, or envy, or suspect, Whom God hath of his special favour raised As their deliverer;...
‘Foolish soul who sinned today’
Canst be idle? Canst thou play, Foolish soul who sinned today? Hast thou tears, or hast thou none? If poor soul, thou hast no tears, Would thou hadst no faults or fears! Who in heart not ever kneels, Neither sin nor Saviour feels. George Herbert...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Blind unbelief is sure to err
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste,...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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Where now?
My road calls me, lures me West, east, south and north; Most roads lead men homewards, My road leads me forth. To add more miles to the tally Of grey miles left behind, In quest of that one beauty God put me here to find. John Masefield...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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The world’s danger
I saw a stable low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew him, had him in their care. To men he was a stranger. The safety of the world was lying there And the world’s danger. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907).
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
Live as I will
Lord, let me live as I will. I need a little wild freedom, A little giddiness of heart, the strange taste of unknown flowers… I love to bound to the heart of all thy marvels, Leaping your chasms and My mouth stuffed with intoxicating grasses; Quiver with an...
Waiting for God
Face to face? Ah, no God; such language falsifies the relation. Nor side by side, nor near you, nor anywhere in time and space... Young I pronounced you. Older I still do, but seldomer now, leaning far out over an immense depth, letting your name go and...
Stripped in my winter
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...
Grow Younger
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety....
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
The priest, these graces shall possess
Give me the priest, these graces shall possess: Of an Ambassador, the just address, A Father’s tenderness, a Shepherd’s care, A Leader’s courage which the cross can bear, A Ruler’s arm, a Watchman’s wakeful eye, A Pilot’s skill, the helm in storms to ply, A Fisher’s...
Vicar of large things in a small parish
I was vicar of large things in a small parish. Small-minded I will not say; there were depths in some of them I shrank back from, wells that the word ‘God’ fell into and died away, and for all I know is still falling. Who goes for water to such must prepare for a long...
Finding God
I went to church to find you But found in there instead The people looking inward To find you in their head. George Knowles, Pit to Priest, Hucknall, 2007.
Singing with mind and heart
The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords, Is, when the soul unto the lines accords. He who craves all the 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...
The Mission of God
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Support where it is needed
Fount of mercy, Call back the one who flees from you. Draw towards you the one who attempts to escape. Lift up the one who has fallen. Support the one who is standing. Guide the one who is on a journey. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), Opera Omnia.
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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Names of those who love the Lord: ‘Is mine one?’
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw, within the moonlight in his room, Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, An angel writing in a book of gold: Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the presence in...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
You will need it
Have you built your ship of death? O, have you? O, build your ship of death, for you will need it. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), 1933.
The dream is gone
… When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now. The child is grown; the dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb. Pink Floyd, 1979 in the context of the pop...
Dangerous day dreaming
All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it is vanity; But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act with open eyes to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence (1888 –...
No cross; no crown
No pain; no palm. No thorns; no throne. No gall; no glory. No cross; no crown. William Penn (1644-1718).