Working with many Muslims I am also conscious that this year Ramadan starts (approximately) on the 2nd of April so Lent and Ramadan overlap and Holy Week falls in Ramadan. As we celebrate Easter, let us remember that our Muslim friends will be fasting.This year we expect to have all our usual services for Holy Week and Easter plus a Taizé service on the Tuesday of Holy week i.e. 12th April.I have referred to my paintings of the stations of the cross before. One of the first ones I chose to paint was the extra station, the 15th, the Resurrection. I chose the road to Emmaus as the theme for my painting. The painting is after the journey to Emmaus, Cleopas and the other disciple have invited Jesus to come in a have supper with them, but at first didn’t recognised Jesus. The painting is of the moment that Jesus breaks the bread and the two disciples realize that the man they had been walking with is, in fact, Jesus. In the painting Jesus sits with the bread broken, Cleopas and his friend are turned towards Jesus and raising their hand in worship and exultation. Beside the chair is the shepherd’s crook symbolising Jesus the good shepherd. The crook is green, the colour used to depict new life and the Holy Spirit in iconography. Between them all is a table on which there is the dish for the bread and the wine reminding us that every time we celebrate Mass we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. The snake under Jesus’ foot represents depicts the defeat of evil symbolised by the serpent from the Garden of Eden. The background is the gold the colour of divinity. Jesus sits on a blue throne, blue is the colour of heaven and if you look carefully you will see Jesus does not cast a dark shadow, but where you would expect to see shadow there is light because Jesus is the light of the world. A close look also reveals that the light comes from Jesus’ heart.There is a lot to be pessimistic about in the world today: Covid-19 is still a threat and the wars are very much in our thoughts. I say wars because there are many wars in the world, Ukraine is near to us but there is a long conflicts in Yemen, Tigray and many other places. This painting is an expression of optimism in a world full of reasons to be pessimistic.
Pitcher plantThe fly,drawn by its addictionto sweetness,enters the pitcher plant. Tired and drugged,slipping on downward pointing hairsit falls into the digestive juicesthat dissolve its goodnessleaving only its hard chitinskeleton.Photo by Mahosadha Ong on Unsplash
I went on a retreat at the end of the summer. As a result of that, I decided I would do the Ignatian spiritual exercises, and as part of those exercises I've written some poems.Warp and weft - I perhaps should explain that I grew up in Huddersfield, and Huddersfield was famous for weaving high quality worsted cloth; it isn't anymore. Warp and WeftThe warpof my lifestretches outon the infinite loomof God’s love.The weft crosses back and forthweaving the thread of my lifeinto the pattern of the world.Here and now,the shuttle passes this placeon the warp of my beingbut my beginning and ending,are tethered in the eternity,that is God.And now I think you can see why I thought that was a good reflection for All Souls Day. Our life starts with God before this world. As it says in Psalm 139, it is God who knits us together in our mother's womb. Our beginning starts with God, not just when we were born but before the universe came into existence, and our ending ends in God as well; in God’s infinite love and God’s infinite being, in the silence that is God. The WaterfallEager waterrushes to the precipiceaspiring to fly freeshoots overfalls down, downaccelerating downhits the wide calm lakeplunges deepthrowing up mistand rainbows.In the depths ofthe lakeslowsbecomes one withstill immense watersand finds freedom.I was thinking about the process of meditation when I wrote this poem, but when I read it back, it makes me think about life and death. Our life is like that water: aspiring, shooting over the edge, and falling down; but on the way down, as our life encounters the lake of God, it throws up mist and spry. As the light catches the mist it makes rainbows. There are rainbows in each of our lives as we fall into God. Thinking about death, our life hits the big lake and the water pushes under, forced by the force of life, until, eventually, it becomes still. Our life becomes one with the still immense waters of God’s being, and in that becoming one with God, we find stillness, and silence, and love, and freedom. So, as we pray and think of our friends and our family who have died, their life hasn't ended but it has become calm, it has become one with the still immense waters that are God.
Friday, 9 September 2022St Alban's Church will be open from 10am to 5pm, 9th September to 18th September. There is a book of condolence, a place to pray and candles.Gracious God, we give thanksfor the life of your servant Queen Elizabeth,for her faith and her dedication to duty.Bless our nation as we mourn her deathand may her example continue to inspire us;through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
