Widen the space of your TENT,stretch out your hangings freely,lengthen your ropes, make your pegs firm… I have always loved this text. The hope and possibility in the image of strengthening and expanding a tent have sustained me in some times of wilderness. In Isaiah Ch 54 these verses are preceded by a lament for …
Category Archives: Monastic
O Radix Jesse
Judges 13:2-7, 24-25Luke 1:5-25 O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples;kings stand silent in your presence;the nations bow down in worship before you.Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid. O Radix Jesse All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,Rose from a root …
Advent Alphabet (S)
That day, it will be said: See, this is our God in whom we hoped for SALVATION;the Lord is the one in whom we hoped. Just before this verse from Isaiah 25 we have the evocative imagery of the heavenly banquet. With its ‘fine wines’ and ‘foods rich and juicy’, it is an image of …
O Adonai
Jeremiah 23:5-8Matthew 1:18-24 O Lord of ancient Israel,who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain;come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free. O Adonai Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,Unseeable, you gave yourself away,The Adonai, the TetragramatonGrew by a wayside in the light …
Advent Alphabet (R)
REJOICES I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul REJOICES in my God,for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation,he has wrapped me in the cloak of integrity, like a bridegroom wearing his wreath,like a bride adorned in her jewels. In the three books which make up the writings ascribed to Isaiah …
O Sapientia
17th DecemberO Sapientia Gen 49:2, 8-10Mat 1:1-17 O Wisdom, O holy Word of God,you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care.Come and show your peoplethe way to salvation. O SAPIENTIA I cannot think unless I have been thought,Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.I cannot teach except as I am taught,Or …
Advent Alphabet (Q)
QUICKLY I have always loved the urgency in Luke’s story of the Visitation; ‘Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country’. By all accounts Mary’s journey to Elizabeth won’t have been easy. That Mary loses no time in making her journey speaks of the power of …
Advent Alphabet (P)
PREPARE PREPARE in the desert a way for the Lord.Make a straight highway for our God across the desert. Isaiah imagines for the Israelites a joyous return from Exile where their fortunes are to radically changed. In order that they waste no time the prophet tells them to prepare a straight highway. They have waited …
Advent Alphabet (O)
The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will OVERSHADOW you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. When the Moses and the Israelites wander in the wilderness they are re-assured by God’s presence, or glory, in the form of …
Advent Alphabet (N)
‘In the countryside close by there were shepherds out in the fields keeping guard over their sheep during the watches of the NIGHT.‘ Watching through the night is something which many of us will find ourselves doing at some point in our lives. We might be awaiting a birth or sitting at the bedside of …