"The Christmas tree comes to us from Martin Luther, who is credited with being inspired by the starry heavens one night and expressing his feelings to his family by bringing a fir tree into his home and attaching lighted candles to its branches. Fir … [Continue reading]
The Peace of Wild Things
The Peace of Wild Things BY WENDELL BERRY When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty … [Continue reading]
Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret
Hudson's Taylor private dictum: To move man, through God, by prayer alone. He expresses his spiritual secret which turned his life to joy in a long letter to his sister, which I've reproduced below. CHIN-KIANG, September 6, 1869. MY DEAR … [Continue reading]
Seedtime and Harvest. A blessing on labour. Genesis 8
Breughel, Corn Harvest A Blessing on Our Labour "As long as the earth endures Seedtime and harves, Cold and heat, Summer and winter, Day and night Will never cease." After the devastation of the flood, a blessing on our … [Continue reading]
“Then the Lord Shut Him In” (Gen. 7)
The Gallarus Oratory in the Dingle Peninsula Places of withdrawal and Prayer This is the story we are reading aloud at present around the family dinner table. God's directions for the ark--450 ft by 75 by 45 feet. I used to find this part … [Continue reading]
Thomas Merton’s Beautiful Prayer–You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually … [Continue reading]
Do not labour for food which perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life. John 6.27.
Franz Snyders Do not labour for food which perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life. Not all of us have choices about what labour we undertake. Many of us have our choices cut out for us by long years of training and … [Continue reading]
Thoughts on the Election of President Obama
I was proud of America. I feared that when it came to it, most white people wouldn't vote for a black person. However, as the New York Times said, the economy was the overriding issue, and so many, no doubt, "swallowed hard" and did the … [Continue reading]