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

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...

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...

Hardy and Harry’s Seasons

This is the weather the cuckoo likes, and so do I When showers betumble the chestnut spikes and nestlings fly And the little brown nightingale bills his best, And they sit outside at the Traveller's Rest, And maids come forth sprig-muslin dressed, And citizens dream...

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.

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...

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) – Faith Shaper

Mary Oliver was born and raised in Maple Hills Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Abused as a child by her father and neglected by her mother, she commented ‘I was very little. But I had recurring nightmares; there’s damage.’[1] She described the setting: ‘It was...

Faith-shaping Poets

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

God’s point of view

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.

The Bible: Bestowed Word of God

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Where has he Gone?

Where has he Gone?

With many tears I went in search of him, Climbing high mountains which did still ascend, And gave me echoes when I called my friend; Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim, And high cathedrals where the light was dim, Through books and arts and works without an...

Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Know your enemy

Know your enemy

Exaggerate each feature until man is Metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect. Fill in the background with malignant Figures from ancient nightmares – devils, When your icon of the enemy is complete You will be able to kill without guilt, Slaughter without shame....

The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

In his own dungeon

In his own dungeon

He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day, But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the midday sun; Himself his own dungeon.   John Milton (1608-74), Comus (1637).

The Church: Provisional but Necessary

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

The priest, these graces  shall possess

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...

The Mission of God

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Glory: Now and Then, Here and There

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Ungranted God, one with him in me

Ungranted God, one with him in me

Faith Unfaithful 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...