Poet and Author
Deeper than words is the Word. Deeper than the abstract is the Incarnate. Deeper than prose is poetry. Therefore, if language is to be good, it must be in covenant with the truth. And if the truth is to be good, it must offer us the choice to give ourselves freely to it. In a word, it must be beautiful. And if the proud arm of Unbelief removes the trees called the True and the Good from the Garden, chopping them to stumps, then the tree called Beauty, pushing up from the homely root of self-giving love, will stretch out her bows and do the work of all three.
Recent Articles
Hopkins Gives the Windhover a Voice
29/06/2018I have meditated much on this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and it becomes deeper and richer the more I do. I see here the mystery that Simone Weil described as “seeing the smile of Christ through creation”. I see here what Dimitru Staniloae describes, namely that we, as the image-bearers of the Creator, are commissioned […]
Three Servants on Your Day Off
23/06/2018You need three servants to ensure a good day off: rest, refreshment, and reflection. Your heavenly Father knows you need them, for you are both clay and treasure, both biology and mystery: precious to Him. To rest is to trust your Father with your unfinished business. Like a cloud of gnats about our faces, there […]
To My Son Daniel on His Graduation Day
12/05/2018A poem in Milton’s unrhymed English heroic verse You are the one in battle setting the Trumpet to his mouth ready to rally Scattered soldiers at the gen’ral’s command In fever pitch pressures against all odds Remaining confidently calm, catching His glance as he nods to you to give blast To brass that pushes […]
Wonder
Why are we here? Where are we going?
Who is with us in this journey?
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Man as Microcosm & Mediator
Through us the world is transfigured from a mute wonder to a living, active offering back to the creator. We alone can do this because of our unique identity as both bodily creatures and spiritual beings.
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Life-Giving Limitations
Freedom and joy come by the acceptance of our limitations, by realizing that in fact these actually define who I am as a unique person.
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Choose Joy
In a world whose troubles dwarf our own, is joy possible—even permissible? Samuel Shoemaker said, “The surest mark of a Christian is not faith, or even love, but joy.” I believe him. The problem is how do we get hold of joy in the midst of the pressure, pain, and disappointments that are also part […]
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The Bridge Called Beauty
Innocent beauty welcomes us. It disarms our defenses and leads us to the borders of virtue, justice, and the mystery of God. Why? Introduction A quote from John G. Stackhouse Jr. in Christianity Today magazine (7 January 02) frames the contemporary conversation on the subject of beauty, a transcendental ideal that our society has abandoned. […]
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The Gardener of Eden
The Hebrew verbs communicate a distinct personality and tender ethos of the “LORD God” as he introduces himself to the reader.
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The Crucified God
At the center of the Christian faith story is an abandoned, suffering Man crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Through the incarnation and crucifixion, God communicates his solidarity with us in our sufferings and those of the world. Some years ago, Jürgen Moltmann wrote his well known book, The Crucified […]