During the second half of my life, I am learning to grow by subtraction. These are the decades of the inner work. We move into another place, the afternoon of our life, which cannot be lived by the drives and energies of life’s morning. ‘What is a normal goal to a young person, becomes a neurotic hindrance in old age,’ wrote Carl Jung. At this time of life, one learns that to be transparent and […]
Much of all this is challenging and confusing, but only because it is different from what we were often (very erroneously) told. It is the heart of our faith but in a new language and imagery. It is worth all the energy and passion we can muster to understand it more profoundly. This theology tries to tell the Christian Story in terms of a deep and endless love: always flowing from within, the work of […]
Occasionally in the middle of my restlessness and worry I will reach for a pen and a page to take my mind off the situation I want to deny. I find a blessed relief in mulling over the love-story of Incarnation, ruminating on the forgotten theological and spiritual teachings, and their implications for our lives and that of our precious world. And so, in the lovely light of these thoughts in many of these pages, […]
ONLY CONNECT! Our wisest people keep insisting on the healing power of connecting things in our minds, of trying to complete some fragments of life’s mystery as we experience it. You may have noticed this connecting dimension of my illness as expressed in these pages. How to see my personal pain as part of the universal and incarnate, beloved and broken presence of the Risen Christ, or of the free Holy Spirit at work and […]
What have Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin in common? All three scientists suffered some bruising encounters with the Church authorities of their time. Each of them experienced extreme difficulties in having their scientific discoveries accepted. In 1988, conscious of this past ‘failure in dialogue’, Pope St John Paul II asked the participants of a conference in Rome this question: ‘Does an evolutionary perspective bring any light to bear upon theology, the meaning of the human person […]
Summer days and childhood memories! When they come together, they twist our hearts without warning. Like a high-octane cocktail, they hit us suddenly and mercilessly with emotions. The smells, the sights, and the feel of summer so often strike, with painful intensity, at the tender, forgotten and sleeping magic of those special years. There is a pathos, a poignancy and the strangest sadness in those moments of memories ‘that bless and burn’, as my mother […]
I’m alone for a moment, on the ferry home, half-way between Calais and Dover. It is Sunday morning and the sun is shining on the green-blue sea. As spring turns to summer, millions travel to Lourdes. Our own parish pilgrimage is almost over. Our hearts are full of stories of pain and joy, of some dark moments and many bright ones, of shared secrets, and glimpses of the mystery and paradox of the human spirit. […]
Wet and weary we entered the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela. The 100 km Camino walk was over and our bones ached during Mass. As we got up to leave, a huge thurible (the botafumiero) was let down on a thick rope on to the sanctuary floor. A tangible frisson of anticipation stirred throughout the packed pews. The censer weighed 80 kilos and stood 1.60 metres tall. The Camino de Santiago, the Way of St […]
As Autumn’s golden colours ring their own blessing, our Olympic champions enjoyed victory parades in Manchester and London. And memories of Summer glory return. ‘Unbelievable’, ‘awesome’, ‘surreal’ – words uttered by Andy, Becky, Jess and Mo, all medal-winners of the Olympics Games, all over for another four years. The papers are still full of ecstatic accounts and pictures of champions in a carnival city of sun, happy faces, colourful costumes and stunning natural scenery. Team […]
(August reflections are all short pieces from Travelling Light) What I’m setting out to do is to show that any attempt at reaching union with God that is based on the deepening awareness of one’s own inner being, or of the inner heart of anybody or anything, has a basis in the true meaning of the mystery of creation and of incarnation. This is how I see it. Out of the overwhelming intensity of divine […]
Sometimes I get a card that says ‘I love you.’ It is always a shock when someone writes or says those most special words. Sometimes they are said between friends and relations in a most beautifully meaningful way. Whereas I never said ‘I love you’ to my father before he died, I said it repeatedly to my mother during the last precious years of our time together. It is so important to tell people that […]
We reveal and reflect their creativity to Mother Earth and Mother God In reflecting recently on Pope Francis encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, there was a stirring deep within me and the following memory of time past surfaced:- ‘I want,’ she said, ‘to live more deeply. My life is flat. It has no echoes.’ It was the kind of remark you tend to remember. With several painful relationships behind her, and a dismal Scottish tour with a […]
Whenever I introduce people from different ends of the planet to each other, I am often struck by the fact that within minutes they have focused in on at least one person they know in common. A little reflection has clarified the situation. Bottom Line researchers have established that the vast majority of people in the world are linked by no more than two intermediaries. They have also concluded that two of the most isolated […]
St Francis (of Assisi) invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants to us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness. Beyond the language of mathematics and biology he takes us to the heart of what it is to be human …. Just as happens when we fall in love. (Laudato Si) Do we need to rediscover and embrace our graced imagination, to reawaken and […]
To be attentive to the things of the Spirit, in a frantic age such as ours, is pure gift. There is nothing more important. Without exploring the depths of our own hearts, we can never be truly happy. The unexamined life is not worth living. We notice a difference about those people who take time out each day – even a few minutes – to reflect on their lives. There is something special about them. […]
In my pastoral experience a common cry from those seeking a fuller life concerns the inbuilt sense of inferiority and the fear of being judged. That is why we pretend; tell lies; it is why we try to impress in a thousand ways; it lies at the heart of our untold misery and even tragedy. Whether in the least competitive of small communities, or at the heady heights of political or religious power, you will […]
People are surprised at the extent of the choice they have about the direction of each day’s living, leading to profound satisfaction or disillusion. With God’s power in us, we are all blessed with the grace of choosing our way of being in the world. We do not have to be victims of what happens to us; instead we are blessed with the power of discerning our demons as disguised occasions of grace. But we […]
As priests what are we doing when we bless? Are we actually making something holy, adding on something that was missing, spiritually disinfecting a merely natural object? Or are we revealing hidden richness, divining a wellspring of sacred presence, already secure below the surface of everything? Is that not the true meaning of Incarnation? Is consecrated ground more sacred than the kitchen floor burnished and blessed by the feet of the families who played and […]
The coming of summer touches us all and opens our hearts. At these times there is often a pathos, a poignancy and a bitter-sweet tinge to our emotions. Many of us have memories of one special day, recently or long ago, when deep in our soul something beautiful happened. As summer approaches do you have any such intimate recollections to linger over, memories that will never go away, a shining moment you will never forget? […]
When I look at the utter magic of nature, at the exquisite colouring and shaping of all things, the endless variety of species, the time and tuning of things, the rhythm and rhyme of things, the miracle of scientific discoveries, the astonishing newness of life’s unfolding, I say to myself, ‘Is this source, force and energy of life the same mystery that we call God; the God we worship as the Father of Jesus, the […]
Pentecost reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a power at work in a continually renewed universe, and is present in the innermost mystery of all things. Grace and science come together to offer a fuller picture of what is true: that God’s love is embodied in all humanity, and in the evolving world itself Breakthrough into new vistas is an essential dimension of Pentecost. This Sunday’s collect implores God to, ‘fill now once more […]
Our understanding of the Holy Spirit is mostly too limited and too undeveloped. It is time now to acknowledge and release her surging power throughout all life. We need to begin delighting in, and celebrating the dynamic Spirit pulsing through the Church, through humanity, through the evolving universe and through every corner of our own hearts. We were on our way back home after Benediction one bright night, many decades ago, my mother and myself, […]
The balance of our minds is a fragile thing. The daily diet of bad news has profound effects on our moods and our thinking. The terrible tragedies and mindless acts of cruelty that are relentlessly reported eventually disturb the delicate equilibrium of many souls. The resulting insecurity is constantly spreading and is too often expressed in break-down, despair or thoughts of suicide. A serious, silent tipping point is gradually being reached and vulnerable people are […]
Caro Papa Francisco, After reading your encyclical Laudato Si’ I had a dream. Before I tell you about it may I thank you on behalf of millions who are finding new hope in your redeeming leadership. You are parting the veils for us, allowing us glimpses into the meaning of mystery, liberating us by the beauty of your vision. Like Plato and St Thomas Aquinas before you, your word for this way of seeing and […]
You are away from your family. Your family is in trouble. You pray for the family. You hope the prayers will work. But you are still anxious. You decide to go back home. You arrive at home. You bring your full attention to the whole situation. You are there in person, with your total concern, your full involvement, your truest self. It is your home, where you began your life’s journey. It is where you […]
Echoes of Intimacy The Risen Christ told St Theresa that he needed her eyes to look with love on people and places. ‘The real aim’, wrote Simone Weil, ‘is not to see God in all things; it is that God, through us, should see the things that we can see.’ And touch the things that we can touch. And hear the things that we can hear. The theological giant Karl Barth, somewhat infatuated with the […]