Author: Henry Morgan
-
110. Jesus died for God
September 2022 I have never found the idea of Jesus’s death being a sacrifice a meaningful one. Quite the contrary. What sort of God needs to sacrifice his child in order to be at peace with what He has created? That sounds barbaric to me. I can understand why the first Jewish Christians understood Jesus death in those terms.…
-
109. Here am I
July 2022 This past Lent I sensed that my life was at a turning point, so I set myself the task of wondering what straws in the wind might give me a sense of the way forward that God was pointing me to. There were a number of ideas that had energy in them, some…
-
108. Whittling
June 2022 It started with the gift of some whittling knives, that I used to strip the bark from sticks, revealing something beautiful, which in turn connected me with ancestors who’d worked with wood, one 40,000 years ago. I made a holding cross for myself, and then many holding crosses that I gave away, before being…
-
107. Everything
June 2022 I was recently in conversation with a friend and we were both feeling depressed and angry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then I remembered a poem by a Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, entitled ‘Everything’ and I read it to him. It moved us both deeply. Here it is: “Everything has been plundered, betrayed,…
-
106. Clemency Burton Hill
January 2022 I quoted Clemency Burton-Hill from her excellent book ‘Another Year of Wonder’ in a recent post entitled ‘Year of Wonder’ [the title of her previous book]. In it I quoted some lovely words of hers for the beginning of the year. Both her books offer a piece of classical music, together with a…
-
105. Our temptations
January 2022 We are each called to incarnate some aspect[s] of God in our life, that is our calling, our vocation. It will be what brings us fully alive as a son or daughter of God. Moreover whatever we incarnate of God, being ‘of God’, will be eternal. It will be at least part of…
-
104. Spiritual conversations
June 2022 I’ve been blessed with two very good spiritual directors over the years, but I struggled when the last one died. It was probably not a bad idea to have a break for a while, but finding a new one, someone who would encourage, stimulate and challenge me spiritually, proved depressingly difficult. Then, one evening,…
-
103. A Year of Wonder
January 2022 I’ve become a grateful fan of Clemency Burton-Hill and her book ‘A Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday’ ever since I bought a copy several years ago. In it she offers a piece of music for every day of the year, and a brief commentary that helps to open up the piece…
-
102. Wise men, wise women
January 2022 As one year comes to an end and a new one begins there is much to feel depressed and ashamed about, and little to lift our spirits, both in the world at large and in the behaviour of our own Government. “Where has God been in all this?”, we might ask, “Where is…
-
101. Christmas is Coming
December 2021 The culmination of Advent with the coming of Christmas calls us once again to celebrate the birth of Jesus. John’s Gospel talks of Jesus existing with God from the beginning, before being incarnated as a human being, and of then returning to be with God after His death & resurrection. This is the…
A CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY 