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
- Explore more by using the tags
- Feel free to share Faith Shapers
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
The cloistered rose
And God is the weight that bends the bough of the young tree gently as spring snow. He is the lightness of the summer flower, of the bee’s touch, and his the power that tames the sea and poises like a feather or a loose leaf the world. He threads together the stars...
The poet must carve a path out of the world’s stone
The poet must carve a path out of the world’s stone that leads up to the word of God. And this without knowing whether his words have the fine engraved edges of words in a monument or the movement you see in the travelling stars or opening flowers. In a child’s...
What I can say to you, my God?
Shall I collect together all the words that praise your holy name? Shall I give you all the names of this world, you, the unnameable? Shall I call you, “God of my life, meaning of my existence, hallowing of my acts, my journey’s end, bitterness of my bitter hours,...
‘His Eye to Watch’
I bind unto myself today The power of God to hold and lead, His eye to watch, his might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need, The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, his shield to ward, The word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to by my guard....
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
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A new small-rented lease please
Having been tenant long to a rich Lord, Not thriving, I resolved to be bold, And make a suit unto him, to afford A new small-rented lease, and cancel the old. In heaven at his manor I him sought: They told me there, that he was lately gone About some land, which he...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Me First!
I came out alone on my way to my tryst. But who is this that follows me in the silent dark? I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not. He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger; He adds his loud voice to every word that I utter. He is my own...
They wanted swine
And Christ went sadly. He had wrought for them a sign Of Love, and Hope, and Tenderness divine; They wanted - swine. Christ stands without your door and gently knocks; But if your gold, or swine, the entrance blocks, He forces no man's hold - he will depart, And leave...
I am
Here in this transport I, Eve, With my son, Abel. If you see my elder son, Cain, Son of Adam; Tell him that I am. (Scribbled in pencil in a sealed wagon used for transporting Jews).
My move
… The saint knows That the spiritual path Is a sublime chess game with God And that the Beloved Has just made … a Fantastic Move…. Whereas, my dear, I am afraid you still think You have a thousand serious moves. Hafiz...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Judas: the first to be forgiven
In Hell there grew a Judas Tree Where Judas hanged and died Because he could not bear to see His master crucified Our Lord descended into Hell And found his Judas there For ever hanging on the tree Grown from his own despair So Jesus cut his Judas down And took him in...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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Wash my Feet
Swift, tired, true, headstrong, tender, merciless – your feet have more persona than your head: born for earth that you may be freed for sky – Does anything that serves you serve like this? So why should someone say, ‘Not my feet, Lord – far rather wash my hands or...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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Mysteries yes: look with astonishment
Truly we live with mysteries too marvellous to be understood…. Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say ‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment,...
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
Resentful friend
Hello it is me, Your old friend and your old enemy, Your loving friend who often neglects you, Your complicated friend, Your utterly perplexed and decidedly resentful friend, Partly loving, partly hating, partly not caring. It is me. Harry Williams...
God stopped stars in flight and listened
He placed a prayer-wheel where the wild winds dance, And some complained his piety was lazy; But then his thoughts on prayer were rather lazy; Yet God attended to his suppliance. He knelt on scarlet plush before his Lord’ And mumbled words of ancient litanies, But...
Prayer: Watching and Waiting
Prayer is like watching for the Kingfisher. All you can do is Be where he is likely to appear, and Wait. Often nothing happens; There is space, silence and Expectancy. No visible sign, only the Knowledge that he’s been there, And may come again. Seeing or not seeing...
Silent Disapproval
The relation between us was silence; that and the feeling of each one being watched by the other... It had begun by my talking all of the time repeating the worn formulae of the churches in the belief that was prayer. Why does silence suggest disapproval? The...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
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Time for Christianity to vanish?
On the whole Christianity I suppose is kinder than it was, Helped to it, I fear, by the power of the civil arm. Oh Christianity, Christianity, That has grown kinder now, as in the political world The colonial system grows kinder before it vanishes, are you...
The Mission of God
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Dangerous Day Dreaming
All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mindsj 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. ...
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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Injustice
Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and twisted mouth, Scent of magnolia sweet...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
God inhabits Creation
For as God is infinitely the greatest Being, so he is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent: and all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation is but the diffused beams of that Being who hath infinite fulness of brightness and glory....
Lord for ever mine
My God, how perfect are thy ways! But mine polluted are; Sin twines itself around my praise, And slides into my prayer. When I would speak what thou hast done To save me from my sin, I cannot make thy mercies known But self-applause creeps in. Divine desire, that holy...
In case of fire what will I save?
And whereas I had said; letters and photos And seen myself muscling through the flames, You would go back especially for your houseplants – Those dreamy weeping figs, this stocky yucca – What’s worth remembering remembered, leaving Both hands free for carrying out the...
In case of fire
And whereas I had said; letters and photos And seen myself muscling through the flames, You would go back especially for your houseplants – Those dreamy weeping figs, this stocky yucca – What’s worth remembering remembered, leaving Both hands free for carrying out the...