Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith

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He Died Climbing

On the throne of emptiness I sit and wait To see wings of freedom appear From a land enthronged with gold – Such a beautiful state – As to put a mind at rest And throw away my fear.   Arthur De Kusel was killed climbing in Chamonix in July 1970. ...

Jeu d’esprit

Flame-dancing Spirit, come, Sweep us off our feet and Dance us through our days. Surprise us with your rhythms, Dare us to try new steps, explore New patterns and new partnerships. Release us from old routines, To swing in abandoned joy And fearful adventure. And in...

Catching the Sun

The Spirit breathes upon the Word, And brings the truth to sight; Precepts and promises afford, A sanctifying light.   A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic, like the sun: It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none.   The Hand that gave it...

Wrack of mortal things!

Man at the best a creature frail and vain, In knowledge ignorant, in strength but weak, Subject to sorrows, losses, sickness, pain, Each storm his state, his mind, his body break, From some of these he never finds cessation, But day or night, within, without,...

Quiet Revival?

I walked abroad in Easter Park, I heard the wild dog’s distant bark, I knew my Lord was risen again,- Wild dog, wild dog, you bark in vain. Stevie Smith (1902-71), Conviction (11),1978.

Elections

Their threats are terrible enough, but we could bear All that; it is their promises that bring despair. If beauty, that anomaly, is left us still, The cause les in their poverty, not in their will. If they had power ('amenities are bunk'), conceive How their insatiate...

George MacDonald (1824-1905) – Faith Shaper

George Macdonald was born in Huntly, in the western part of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of a farmer and his wife Helen MacKay (1790-1832). He was educated in country schools where Gaelic myths and Old Testament stories were common currency. At King’s College,...

Emily Dickinson (1830-86) – Faith Shaper

Emily Dickinson’s father was a leading local lawyer and treasurer of the well-known Amherst College, founded in 1821. From 1840 she was educated at the Academy and then for a year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. At the age of 23 she withdrew from most social...

John Milton (1608-74) – Faith Shaper

John Milton rejected the faith of his Roman Catholic father. He became a strongly Protestant Puritan, and a radical Christian with regard to the contemporary culture and powers in the land, including the Crown, Parliament and the Church. Although in 1630, he...

Faith-shaping Poets

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Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven

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Elected

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,...

The Bible: Bestowed Word of God

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Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person

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Be my Way, my Truth, my Life

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...

Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless

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Not just ordinary

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...

The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting

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Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living

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Unanswered prayer

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...

Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience

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Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful

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Longing to believe

Longing to believe

While faith is with me, I am blest; It turns my darkest night to day; But, while I clasp it to my breast, I often feel it slide away.   What shall I do if all my love, My hopes, my toil, are cast away? And if there be no God above To hear and bless me when I...

The Church: Provisional but Necessary

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Prayer in forgotten places

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...

The Mission of God

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The poet’s prophetic task

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.

Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom

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Glory: Now and Then, Here and There

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Old age: make it bright

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...