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,...
Climbing out of bed
Teach me thy love to know; That this new light, which now I see, May both the work and workman show: Then by a sunbeam I will climb to thee. George Herbert (1593-1633), Mattens.
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).
I wonder
Men go abroad to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. Augustine (354-430),...
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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Liz Truss ‘I will deliver’ But…
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction Of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying That the kingdom always lies beyond us: No statement says all that can be said. No prayer fully expresses our...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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A flash of rare delight
Enjoyment is a flash of rare delight, While only Christ illuminates for me The fear and darkness of this Earth’s strange night. Audrey Milner (1924-2017), Southwell.
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
Search my sense and know my heart
Search me O God, my actions try, And let my life appear As seen by thine all-searching eye; To mine my ways make clear. Search all my sense and know my heart, Who only canst make known, And let the deep, the hidden part, To me be fully shown. Throw light into the...
I have only today
An hour which passes by; My life is a moment Which I have no power to stay. You know, O God, That to love you here on earth – I have only today. Therese of Lisieux (1873-97).
New every morning
New every morning is the love Our wakening and uprising prove; Through sleep and darkness safely brought, Restored to life and power and thought. John Keble (1792-1866) 1822.
Morning Preen
Early every morning the eagle preens its feathers for more than an hour. Sitting on the side of its nest, the eagle passes each feather through its mouth, something like steam cleaning while depositing a liquid that makes its feathers water repellent. This is...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
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The English Reformation: more political than dogmatic
If one has to choose between the sole authority of the Bible and the sole authority of the Church, in Heaven’s name let us have the Church, which is alive, and, because plainly subject to error, is also capable of truth. And above all, let us be profoundly...
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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Wasting the earth
O shame to men! Devil with Devil damned Firm concord holds; men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each...
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...