Word in the Hand

Gospel - Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.’ But he replied, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ The devil then took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. ‘If you are the Son of God’ he said ‘throw yourself down; for scripture says: He will put you in his angels’ charge, and they will support you on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Scripture also says: You must not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘I will give you all these’ he said, ‘if you fall at my feet and worship me....

Magdalen Lament I am sick. Not the sick of an excited, shrieking, palm filled road Not the sick of what happens next? Not the sick of too much food, too much wine. Not the sick of too little sleep. This is the sick I felt lost in the market-place This is the sick I felt sold into slavery This is the sick I felt at a child born dead This is the sick I felt when the demons laughed and the men spat at me This is the sick of fear drenched, screaming desolation. He is gone. The one who knew me, The one who saved me, The one who loved me. Oily clouds draw a veil over the night sky Moon and stars refuse to look upon those That condemned the Brightest One. His light no longer in this world. Eclipsed by the blackness of men’s hearts, The blindness of their eyes, The shadows of their ambition. He is gone. But I have a star, Fallen from his mouth. A promise to return. I fear I misheard, A demon awakened at his going Taunts me with my loss. For where are the others? I have a star, And by its li...

The snow falls as it did a few weeks ago but it seems to have lost its magic. The snow falls and now we disregard it. If a man falls should we do the same? Last night, I drove out to pick my husband up from the station. Turning the corner into the side-street I noticed an elderly man lying on the floor, carrier bags spilling out shopping around him. Assuming that he had just fallen, I waited a moment but nothing happened. So I got out of the car and walked over to see if there was anything I could do. ‘I can’t get up. I’m lying here and I can’t get up.’ Moving closer to give him a hand it became apparent that there was more than one reason why he couldn’t get up. The first glance was replaced by the noticing that his clothes were a hotch-potch of styles, he wore no socks with worn black leather shoes and his ‘shopping’ comprised of empty boxes and bags stuffed into more bags. He was one of our street people in a clever disguise; wearing a veneer of respectability that would allow hi...

One thing that has changed in hospitals is that they don't wake you up at dawn for whatever reason they used to. You may get woken up at other times but that's on a medicinal 'need to know' basis. Because of his illness crossed with being a teenager, my son sleeps on and on and on. Unfortunately Catholic guilt stops me from lying in the bed next to him, even if I am reading, even if I am tired too. So when I hear the staff starting their changeover circuit, I get up, fold the bed back into its space and tidy up, as if in readiness for a military inspection; after all this I don't want them to think I am a bad mother. After saying hello and finding out which nurse is 'ours' for the day (they are all lovely but they have their own ways and we have learnt to adapt ours) I head out into the main hospital and down to the restaurant for breakfast. It started off feeling somewhat unnerving, knowing that everyone around you is either staff or other parents sta...

The Children's Hospital is in an old Victorian building, better suited to the old days of large wards with the beds lined up in military fashion down each side and, you can imagine, a matron who didn't stand for any nonsense! Our ward has been split up into cubicles with three sides and a glass partition onto the corridor. The children here are all chronic cases of one kind or another so need to be in isolation as far as it can be managed. The cubicles start off bare, then an incubator, cot, bed or theatre stretcher appears with or without a child. Then the child, hopefully with family. Various monitors, pumps and other apparatus are wheeled in - beeps, buzzers, counters and flashing lights illuminating the effect of what the illness is having on the child's health. Parents hover nervously in the background feeling they are in the way or pose forcefully over their child like a defending archangel defying the doctors not to do their best. Walking up and down the corr...

Wh en I began this blog, it was Lent 2008. With the cycle of the Church I am reminded that although I am on this journey towards… often the path spirals back on itself; allowing me, allowing all of us, to revisit a time, an experience, a preconception or two. In the introduction to the blog I said that it would be about my faith, that there were parts of my life that I would not share, that I regarded as personal. And yet, as the year has gone on, this has shown itself to be false. If my reflections were only based on scripture study and preaching a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ philosophy then they would be no use to anybody- even me. Perhaps I do not report specific incidents, mention names, place and dates but my faith is my life therefore something of my life is surely in every posting. And that is as it should be; after all I do not leave God in the Tabernacle, at the door of the church, at the door of my home, at the door of my heart. God’s around and about me interfering with every...

Praying the Scriptures - Paul Suffers Opening Prayer Here I am Lord, Listening Speak to me within my heart and soul. I am listening. 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (The Message) I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door time after time. I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummelled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard travelling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I've known drudgery and hard labour, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. Acts 20:19-23 (The Message) When they arrived...