Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith
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R.S. Thomas (1913-2000) – Faith Shaper
Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2000), or R.S. Thomas, the name under which he was published, was a leading British poet of the twentieth century. He wrote about the people of Wales in a style that some critics have compared to that nation's harsh and rugged terrain. Many...
Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven
Walk with God
The Lord of all, himself through all diffused, Sustains, and is the life of all that lives. Nature is but a name for an effect Whose cause is God. He feeds the secret fires By which the mighty process is maintained, Who sleeps not, is not weary; in whose sight Slow...
God’s a Phone, Maybe
...say God's a phone, maybe. You know you didn't order a phone, but there it is. It rings. You don't know who it could be. You don't want to talk, so you pull out the plug. It rings. You smash it with a hammer till it bleeds springs and coils and clobbery metal bits....
Flood our Hearts
God of time and God eternal, God beyond millennia; God whose fingerprints reveal you In the atom and the stars: Flood our hearts with hope and wonder, Fill us with your healing love. God, in Jesus, you have lived life, Shared constraints of...
Wintering Out
I remember this woman who sat for years In a wheelchair, looking straight ahead Out the window at sycamore trees unleafing And leafing at the far end of the lane. Straight out past the TV in the corner, The stunted, agitated hawthorn bush, The same small calves with...
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
Revelation before religion
Thus man by his own strength to heaven would soar: And would not be obliged to God for more. Vain, wretched creature, how art thou misled To think thy wit these God-lie notions bred! These truths are not the product of thy mind, But dropped from heaven, and of a...
View me Lord, a work of thine
In thy word, Lord, is my trust, To thy mercies fast I fly; Though I am but clay and dust, Yet thy grace can lift me high. View me Lord, a work of thine: Shall I then lie drowned in night? Might thy grace in me but shine, I should seem made all of light…....
Storehouse of Life
The chief and top of his knowledge consists in the book of books, the storehouse and magazine of life and comfort, the Holy Scriptures. There he sucks and lives. In the Scriptures he finds four things; precepts for life, doctrines for knowledge, examples for...
This book I read
This book I read Floats in my hand like a water lily, Coming out of the nutrient waters of thought And light shines on us both, The morning’s breviary. Diane Wokoski (1937-).
Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
Christ My King
No one can come to spiritual delight in the contemplation of Christ’s godhead except he come first in imagination by painful identification, by compassion and steadfast thinking on his humanity. Walter Hilton (1343 – 96), Toward a Perfect Love. ...
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).
The wise men’s dilemma; a life or death
… were we led all that way for Birth or death? There was a Birth certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places,...
Down to the World’s Cradle
Down to that littleness, down to all that Crying and hunger, all that tiny flesh And flickering spirit – down the great stars fall, Here the great kings bow. Here the farmer sees his fragile lambs, Here the wise man throws his books away. This manger is the universe’s...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Man was made to mourn
A few seem favourites of fate, In pleasure’s lap carest; Yet think not all the rich and great Are likewise truly blest: But oh! What crowds in every land, All wretched and forlorn, Thro’ weary life this lesson learn, That man was made to mourn. Many and...
Rich and weary
When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by; Let us, said he, pour on him all we can; Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie Contract into a span. So strength first made a way; Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure; When...
Two deaths: here and hereafter
Hark, how the birds do sing, And woods ring. All creatures have their joy; and man hath his, Yet if we rightly measure, Man’s joy and pleasure Rather hereafter, than in present, is…. Not that he may not here Taste of the cheer, But as birds drink, and straight...
Christmas Check Out
"I'm not looking forward to Christmas," The lass on the store check-out cries, Pinging the goods on the rumbling belt - The bread, and the wine, and the pies. I watch, as I stand in the fidgety queue As the lassie enlightens us all. "The fuss and the...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
Give me a thankful heart
Thou hast given so much to me, Give one thing more, a grateful heart. See how thy beggar works on thee By art. Wherefore I cry, and cry again; And in no quiet canst thou be, Till I a thankful heart obtain Of thee: Not thankful when it pleaseth me; As if thy...
Content with what I have
He that is down needs fear no fall, He that is low, no pride: He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide. I am content with what I have, Little be it or much: And, Lord, contentment still I crave; Because thou savest such. John Bunyan...
A stricken deer that left the herd
I was a stricken deer that left the herd, Long since with many an arrow deep infixed. My panting side was charged, when I withdrew To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. There was I found by One who had Himself Been hurt by the archers. In his side He bore, And...
On a Friday Morning
It was on a Friday morning that they took me from the cell and I saw they had a carpenter to crucify as well. You can blame it on to Pilate You can blame it on the Jews You can blame it on the Devil But it's God that I accuse 'It’s God they ought to crucify...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
Contemplation’s door to wisdom and virtue
Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. And wisdom’s self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where with her best nurse Contemplation, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings That in...
What the Lord has done for me
Have you no words? Ah, think again! Words flow apace when you complain And fill your fellow creature’s ear With the sad tale of all your care. Were half the breath thus vainly spent To heav’n in supplication sent, Your cheerful song would oft’ner be: ’Hear what the...
Yes: uphill all the way
Does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Will the day’s journey take the whole long day? From morn to night, my friend. But is there for the night a resting place? A roof for when the slow dark hours begin. May not the darkness hide it from my...
Forgiven and Forgiving
History teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves - from our recklessness, or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person - neither a philosopher nor a general - but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
Beauty beyond reason
… here you stand, adore and worship, when you know it not, pious beyond the intention of your thought, devout above the meaning of your will. Yes, you have felt, and may not cease to feel, The estate of man would be indeed forlorn If false conclusions of the reasoning...
We grow accustomed to the dark
When light is put away - As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp To witness her Goodbye - A Moment - We uncertain step For newness of the night - Then - fit our Vision to the Dark - And meet the Road - erect - And so of larger - Darknesses - Those Evenings of the Brain -...
Get a glory
Oh you gotta get a glory! In the work you do, A Hallelujah chorus In the heart of you. Paint or tell a story, Sing or shovel coal, But you gotta get a glory Or the...
I am the live God
… These people know me only in the thin hymns of the mind, in the arid sermons and prayers. I am the live God, nailed fast to the old tree of a nation by its unreal tears. I thirst, I thirst for the spring water. Draw it up for me from your heart’s well...
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
My Signal Box
The signal box sometimes feels like one of those invitation tests: go to the wilds, endure the emptiness of yourself and return reformed. Confront that which is most you: stray to the dark realm of your bruised heart and let the light in, let the grand voice of...
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....
See Yourself
The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less; The times are winter, watch, a world undone; They waste, they wither worse; they as they run Or bring more or more blazon man's distress, And I not help.... Hope holds to Christ the mind's own mirror out To...
Lent
Lent is a tree without blossom, without leaf, Barer than blackhorn in its winter sleep All unadorned. Unlike Christmas with decrees The setting-up, the dressing-up of trees, Lent is a taking down, a stripping bare, A starkness after all has been withdrawn Of surplus...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
How to go to church
When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. God is more there, than thou: for thou art there Only his permission.... Resort to sermons, but prayers the most: Praying's the end of preaching.... In time of service seal up both thine eyes, And send them to...
Pray with the most
Though private prayer be a brave design, Yet public hath more promises, more love: And love's a weight to hearts, to eyes a sign. We all are but cold suitors; let us move Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven; Pray with the most: for where most pray, is...
We are the Lord’s last message
Christ has no hands but our hands To do His work today; He has no feet but our feet To lead men in His way; He has no tongues but our tongues To tell men how He died; He has no help but our help To bring them to His side. We are the only Bible The careless world will...
You’re Welcome
You're welcome until you're homeless. Until you're drugged up, or drug dealing. Welcome until you're angry, or angsty, or anything other than sane.... Welcome until it's harder to let you in than keep you out. Until the questions you carry are a gospel of...
The Mission of God
Not another redemption song?
Won’t you help to sing These songs of freedom ? ‘Cos all I ever had ; Redemption songs. Bob Marley (1945-81).
The words of the prophets
People talking without speaking People hearing without listening ‘Fools’, said I, ‘You do not know Silence like a cancer grows.’ The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls. Paul Simon (1942-), 1964.
Seed Planting
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, Knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We...
Holy Island – What Me?
Leave me alone with God as much as may be, as the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make me an island, set apart, alone with You, God, holy to You. Then, with the turning of the tide, prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world, beyond...
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
Human rights matter
W’en wi can’t face reality Wi leggo wi clarity; Some latch on to vanity, Some hol’ insanity, Some get vision, Start preach relijan But dem can’t make decision W’en it come to wi fight; Dem can’t make decision W’en it comes to wi rites. Linton Kwesi Johnson...
Pave Paradise with a Swinging Hot Spot
Don’t it always seem to go. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone…. They paved paradise And put up a parking lot, With a pink hotel, A boutique, and a swinging hot spot. Don’t it always seem to go. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone…. Joni...
Newspapers?
Why do we buy a newspaper For it’s plain for us to see The pulp that it is made of Was better as a tree. George Knowles (1937- ), Pit to Priest, 2007.
Not another redemption song?
Won’t you help to sing These songs of freedom ? ‘Cos all I ever had ; Redemption songs. Bob Marley (1945-81).
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
I am immortal diamond
Across my foundering deck shone A beacon, an eternal; beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash Fall to residuary worm; world’s wildfire, leave but ash: In a flash, at a trumpet crash, I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and This jack, poor potsherd,...
Unbelieving Saturday
A solemn, sombre, leaden Saturday – the muscles and joints of the day lie slack. Silence entombed in stillness – dread Sabbath. Who can be a believer on this day? I’ve come so far to shed tears here at last in the city of my heart. No one stirs. Faith creeps...
Uninhabited Cross
Not the empty tomb but the uninhabited cross. Look long enough and you will see the arms put on leaves. Not a crown of thorns but a crown of flowers haloing it, with a bird singing as though perched on paradise’s threshold. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000),...
Deathbed
Now, when the frail and fine-spun Web of mortality Gapes, and lets slip What we have loved so long From out our lighted present Into the trackless dark We turn, blinded, Not to the Christ in Glory, Stars about his feet, But to the Son of Man, Back from the tomb, Who...