Meditation for Advent Sunday Welcome to this Advent Sunday meditation. It is the first in the series of meditations I’m offering through Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. This offers about half an hour of focussed prayer and reflection to help you mark Advent and prayerfully be attentive to God. You will need a bible; a notebook[…]
Category: Spirituality
The Accompanier’s Role
The origins of this reflection go back nearly twenty years. I wrote it for presenting in the final stages of ‘The Art of Spiritual Accompaniment’ in Sheffield. What began as a fairly straight presentation I discovered was actually a meditation. I recently revived it for presenting on the final day of Sarum College’s spiritual direction[…]
Wheat, Weeds and Ministry
Bible Study & Reflection: Being Unfinished: Matthew 13.24-30 The parable of the wheat and the tares Intro This was developed as part of the final reflections for the Developing Ministry programme run by the West Midlands CMD consortium. The aim being to provide some biblical wisdom for the ongoing ministry beyond the framework of the[…]
Jesus the pray-er
I recently gave some time to looking through the gospels at Jesus praying. Not his teaching about prayer, but rather how they show him praying. The context, the nature, the audience (if there was one) etc. And fascinating it was. Particularly in the way it showed how much of him as a prayer there is in[…]
Julian of Norwich: speaking from an age of plague to an age of pandemic
Julian of Norwich has long been a soul friend of mine. Over the last couple of months I’ve had several conversations with friends who’ve been discovering her wisdom and finding it enriching through this time. At first glance we might wonder what a 14th century anchorite can say to us today, but a little deeper[…]
Advent, Christmas & Epiphany
Through this season I’ll be publishing reflections for each of the Sundays of Advent and for Christmas Day and Epiphany. These will be web based, and be a mix of scripture, reflection and prayer, poetry, spiritual writing and music. Aiming to provide focus for a half hour, links to the web page will appear here,[…]
Gud i alle ting – Aadalen Retraete
This programme introducing Ignatian Spirituality is the first time I’ve led via zoom while everyone else is in the retreat house in Jutland. I’m very well supported by Johannes, Heidi, Peder, Bente, Pia and Benedicta – the home team. The Powerpoint presentation for this workshop can be downloaded here. God in All Things 2020 The prayer[…]
Conversation
The poem below was sent to me recently. It beautifully describes something of the depth of what Spiritual Direction offers. To be honest it somewhat awes me in terms of how I as a directee live up to this description. But then I’m also awed by what it is to sit with someone and be[…]
Some powerful quotes on ministry
Some powerful quotes on ministry For me August is set aside as a kind of sabbatical month. I’ve been using some of the time to try and bring some order to the myriad of papers and electronic documents that I have collected over 30+ years of ordained life. No small task, and one I’ve been[…]
Seismic Shift in Spiritual Direction?
Encouraging conversations revealing Seismic Shifts The two zoom meetings of people involved in Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Direction training on the 14th and 21st July respectively were really encouraging. I had a strong sense of being in the company of a deeply engaged group of people with a passion and commitment to Spiritual Direction and[…]