Word in the Hand

Here, PEACE, etch'd grave, stone -sharp tooth'd briar barricade- Not without trial.

Luke 9:18-24 One day when Jesus was praying alone in the presence of his disciples he put this question to them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; others Elijah; and others say one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up. ‘The Christ of God’ he said. But he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone anything about this. ‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’ Then to all he said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.’ ‘ Who do the crowds say I am’ The crowd has no name; there is no identity, no individual, no unique soul to recognise the voice that is...

Angels show the way Eyes and hands reach Heavenwards Summer sunbeams blaze

Dark shadowed gravestones Life birthed from ancient decay bright summer flowers wordinthehand2010

Corpus Christi Possibly the greatest gift, if we choose to believe it, is the Real Presence, the gift of the Eucharist. That who we receive is not a symbol, retelling, or celebration of ‘what Jesus meant’ but is the reality of what Jesus says; ‘this is my body; this is my blood’. It struck me today, for the first time, that Jesus gave us this gift before the Resurrection and I wondered why. We know that after the Resurrection Jesus meets with the disciples many times; eats with them; cooks for them; sits around tables and campfires teaching them to understand what had come before. We know that it is in the breaking of bread; the giving of hospitality that he is recognised by his friends. But wouldn’t it have been easier to believe the gift coming from a Risen Lord, one who has become super-human; has revealed his divinity; for whom nothing is impossible. But then nothing is impossible to God - except us. The free will that we all have, make each and every one of us a loose cannon in Go...

Luke 9:11-17 Jesus made the crowds welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing. It was late afternoon when the Twelve came to him and said, ‘Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here.’ He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ But they said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people’ For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, ‘Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty.’ They did so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps remaining were collected they filled twelve baskets. Th...