Sufficiency’s source is not found in acres, nor bolstered by gathering and storing. So I empty my shelves of possession, pride and power, making way for the end of self rule. The days are so swift I am pushed to surrender, prostrate in the entropic rush. As I cease to defend, rigid thoughts turn to dross and the old scaffold withers away. To the sacred order I make a simple plea: in frailty may I know His strength. Total lunar eclipse, 26th May 2021, Wiltshire, England.
Initiation
To know reality, I must feel it
To know depravity, I must drown in it
To know flesh, I must touch it
To know grief, we meet.
To know humility, I must bow to it
To know fear, I must be it
To know sorrow, I must be lost in it
To know violence, we embrace.
To know weakness, I am broken
To know loneliness, I am born
To know futility, I am faithless
To know freedom, I submit.
To know a language, I speak it
To know falsehoods, I lie
To know truth, I am silent
To love, I forgive.
23rd January 2020, Somerset, England.
We Fragmented Few
We fragmented few travel the haunted path to salvation seeking goodness, seeking nearness. All our shuttered eyes can see is the infinite expanse of distance that stretches between here and wholeness. We breathe into the void, each exhalation a call for that feast of light, that place of purity. Waylaid by desire, capsized by fear, we yearn for the absolute freedom of the uncaged image in which we were made. Devon, England, 11th December 2020
Veritas liberabit vos
All houses of God across this country have been closed for nearly two months. The doors of the beautiful, ancient churches and cathedrals of England are locked and bolted, closed to quiet contemplation and individual prayer as well as to organised forms of worship. As a novice bell ringer, a lover of gothic cathedrals and an enthusiast for bucolic church-hopping wanders, this irks me considerably. Although Christian culture in the UK is conspicuously on its last legs, there is something especially symbolic about this latest silencing of our spiritual heritage.
Under normal circumstances, I would not post petitions here, but ‘normal’ has now retreated so far from these shores that I can barely see it anymore. The wording of an appeal against the covid restrictions started by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò struck a chord. Here is a short excerpt:
“We have reason to believe, on the basis of official data on the incidence of the epidemic as related to the number of deaths, that there are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements. The imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control…
We are all called to assess the current situation in a way consistent with the teaching of the Gospel. This means taking a stand: either with Christ or against Christ. Let us not be intimidated or frightened by those who would have us believe that we are a minority: Good is much more widespread and powerful than the world would have us believe. We are fighting against an invisible enemy that seeks to divide citizens, to separate children from their parents, grandchildren from their grandparents, the faithful from their pastors, students from teachers, and customers from vendors. Let us not allow centuries of Christian civilization to be erased under the pretext of a virus, and an odious technological tyranny to be established, in which nameless and faceless people can decide the fate of the world by confining us to a virtual reality. If this is the plan to which the powers of this earth intend to make us yield, know that Jesus Christ, King and Lord of History, has promised that “the gates of Hell shall not prevail” (Mt 16:18).
Let us entrust government leaders and all those who rule over the fate of nations to Almighty God, that He may enlighten and guide them in this time of great crisis. May they remember that, just as the Lord will judge us Pastors for the flock which he has entrusted to us, so will He also judge government leaders for the peoples whom they have the duty to defend and govern.
With faith, let us beseech the Lord to protect the Church and the world. May the Blessed Virgin, Help of Christians, crush the head of the ancient Serpent and defeat the plans of the children of darkness.“
Please read the full text here, and sign should you feel so inclined.
Being a walking question mark 