You made the blocks in the sky and you know them by name

Well, I'm beginning to settle in at Pembroke House, the church-cum-community-centre off the Old Kent Road in South London.  Yes, I'm on the first of the browns (#sicktodeathofthemonopolyreference)!

One thing I expected on moving from a beauty spot in rural Dorset to London's urban sprawl was a sense that God was not here.  One of the most common comments from guests at Hilfield was, "This is such a beautiful place.  I can really feel God here."  Walworth is not quite the same.

Churches spend a lot of time designing their altars.  I've put up a few pictures of the beautiful wooden altar at Hilfield, and I'm always struck by how natural and organic it feels - it is almost as if it is still alive.  Well, our altar at St Christopher's is made of concrete.

But it's not dead.  It is very much alive.  And it's not alive because the concrete has been moulded into some intricate and natural shape.  It really hasn't, though it is elegant in its own sort of way.  It is alive because it reflects the life of this place, a life that isn't woody, and certainly isn't sweeping landscapes and rolling pastures.

No.  One of the things I am really confronted with on moving here is how much the life of God sustains this place.  God has to give it life.  The natural landscape is gone, almost completely removed.  Rather, the place sings with the vibrancy of the people who live here.  It sings with their food, their openness, the colours of their clothing, and - a lot of the time - their laughter and their praise.

The Aylesbury Arts Event to launch the first phase of the redevelopment of the estate

Perhaps here even more than at Hilfield (and I say this with the disclaimer that I am certainly in my London honeymoon period) you get the sense that God is really working His purpose out through those that live here.  Without the fields and hills to give me a sense of God's presence, I'm forced to look even more closely for him in those around me.

'God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.' 1 John 4:16

Lord, thankyou for my brothers and sisters,

for those I live alongside,

and for all those who welcome me every day into their lives.

Give me grace to see you in them,

and just perhaps,

let them see you in me.

Peace and goodwill from London

http://pembrokehouse.org.uk/

Contemplation: A Beginner's Guide

So, I've left Hilfield.  I was quite tempted to leave this blog at that.  I have spent a year in a very strange place - and it has really changed me.  What more is there to say?

But I think this year has been too important to allow me to simply draw a line under it and walk away.

Taking time out to immerse yourself in God is a terrifying thing.  It is a life changing thing.  I always felt that when I went to church on a Sunday... so I suppose it shouldn't shock me that the effects of attempting a year-long immersion (admittedly with some struggling and holding of breath on my part) could have a proportionately massive effect.  But it has.

There is a painting, which my grandmother has sent me (in postcard and bookmark form) a few times in the past few years, which I love.  Although the bookmark is busy acquiring a healthy spotting of mould from a book it is living in, it always captures me when I open it for a daily reading.

When I first saw it, I was tempted to say that Holman Hunt's Light of the World was just another beardy Jesus that should be permanently consigned to the cheeseboard of sentimental Victorian art.  But there was something profoundly shocking about the image of Jesus (the all powerful, Son of God etc. etc.) patiently knocking on a door, overgrown with weeds from being shut too long, that has no doorknob on his side, waiting for someone on the other side to open it.

Today, with that image in mind, I wrote this poem.  It is only a first draft, so bear with me (and possibly have a stiff drink to hand).

Contemplation: A Beginner's Guide

Exegesis - the drawing out - can seem

A little tenuous at first, but then

That's it for things that start with where you've been.

You think you'll find your mind at war and when

You've won the fight you'll be at peace.  Creation's

Not quite as you would like.  The explanations

Illude you still.  And so may that remain.

If you would seek a reason from the same

I AM who said 'My thoughts and ways are Mine'

Prepare for disappointment.  Fight no more.

Let darkness drench the space and even time.

Your Christ, love's fire, is beating on the door.

You'll only hear Him in the silence of the night.

And how, without the darkness, will you see His light?

Peace and goodwill, not from Hilfield, but from Winchester.

You are what you eat, souls as well

Facebook is sometimes absolutely fantastic.  Some mornings you end up flicking through your news feed and something really significant leaps out at you.  And that certainly happened today.


It was a video about food.


One of the things I have learnt over the course of the last year is that what we eat matters.  Our food purchases are the cornerstone of our consumer footprint.  And so, at Hilfield, we try to eat according to the LOAF principle.  Local, organic, animal friendly and fairtrade.


But more than that, we believe that our eating should be an expression of love.  When we eat, we should be loving the people we are eating with, the people who cooked the food, the people who transported the food, the people who grew, harvested and slaughtered the food, and yes, the people who aren't eating the food.


But also, we should be loving God himself in our eating.  We should be expressing the beauty of His creation when we eat, the intricacy of a vegetable, the beauty and personality of an animal.


If we eat God's creation without appreciating the wonder of the things we are eating, we are turning our backs on the miracle of creation.  I only slightly hesitate to say that we are turning our backs on God.

 Veal calves at a farm just down the road from us

Jesus said, "They will say, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then the King will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did not do it to me.'  Matthew 25:44-45

One of our community members, who isn't a christian by the way, only eats meat which he knows has been reared in a particular way.  At the moment, this means he pretty much only eats meat reared here at Hilfield.  For him, knowing how the animal lived and died is just as important as knowing how much it costs and how it tastes, even to the extent of having to go veggy a lot of the time.


Watch the film below, and see if you think you ever turn your back on God when you eat.


without-saying-a-word-this-6-minute-short-film-will-make-you-speechless/


Life-giving God,
Creator of wonders,
forgive me when I turn my back on those wonders,
and forgive me when I turn my back on your wonder.
Help me to see your glory in what I eat,
and help me to give thanks for it,
and rejoice in it,
every day.
Amen.

Happy St Clare's Day!

A Happy Feast of St Clare to everyone!  Just a short post today as we have restricted internet at the friary and I am signal chasing with a laptop!  Holy poverty for the 21st Century, indeed.

 

Clare was a young woman who felt called to follow Francis' life of poverty, but was prevented from doing so because the Church felt such a life was too strenuous for a woman to lead.  She lived a cloistered life of contemplation and prayer with her sisters, whose numbers continued to grow, and resisted attempts by the Church to force possessions and hierarchical power structures on her community.

Even though she was not able to go out to preach, her fame spread and it is largely due to her and her sisters that the Franciscan message survived the death of Francis and the first generation of friars.

 

St Clare was received by St Francis into a life of humility, poverty and simplicity only after she escaped her family through a back door of her house.  Shortly after, they came to get her back.  Having beaten her and one of her sisters, they tried to drag her forcibly from the church.  They failed

.

"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!  Your soul in the brilliance of glory! ... Transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead itself! ... May you totally love God whose self-giving was totally for your love, at whose beauty the sun and the moon marvel, whose rewards and their uniqueness and grandeur have no limits."  St Clare of Asissi

 

Father, thankyou for the witness of the many women who have carried the gospel in their lives far better than I ever could... and bless all women who feel constrained by the fact they live in a church run by men.  Bless us all with the strength and love of our sister Clare.  Amen.

A follow up

Sorry, I wouldn't usually dare to sully a blog with memes, but this was just too perfect not to follow my previous post:

Every blessing from Hilfield.

Brodo: Three Knots to Rule Them All - Young People Wanted to Save the World

One of the odd things about growing up is that at every stage in your development you meet people who don't think you are ready to contribute to the world because you just aren't old enough yet.  This, I guess, keeps happening pretty much until the age at which they say you are too old to contribute.

I was lucky enough to go to a meeting of the tertiary franciscans (lay people who take vows to live a franciscan life and be a franciscan presence in their families and communities) from our local area, and... yes... I was the youngest person in the room.  But, unlike lots of events at church/school/uni/work/wherever, people actually seemed quite enthusiastic that I was there.  And actually, I had to work quite hard to get people to share their own experiences, so interested were they in learning about mine at Hilfield.

The prophet Joel wrote: 'I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.'

The most venerable and complex role (interpreting dreams - think of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dreams about skinny and fat cows!) is left to the elderly, the most experienced in society.  But the most vibrant gift of the Holy Spirit, that of prophecy, the act of MAKING GOD'S MESSAGE SPEAK TO ORDINARY PEOPLE, is left to the young.

 The first Christian martyr, St Stephen (cf. Acts 7), stoned to death for preaching that 

Jesus was the Son of God, probably in his late twenties.

St Luke puts Joel's words into St Peter's mouth in Acts 2:17 when Peter is trying to convince a crowd of Jerusalemites (hardy city-folk who are convinced the disciples must be pissed when they start preaching the Gospel!) of just how exciting the Church can be when it is open to God.

How exciting life can be, when we are ALL open to the Spirit acting through ALL of us.

Brother Douglas (or Brodo for short) was a co-founder of the Anglican Franciscans.  Here's what he had to say on the subject in 1942:

Some of our wisest thinkers are wondering today how democracy will work in the post-war world - unless a new spirit of unselfishness is born in every individual and every class, unless in our economic life the motive of private profit is somehow transformed into the motive of public service... and we ask is there any hope of eradicating the selfishness ingrained in the very structure of our social order?  Can we exorcize this acquisitive instinct that is so rampant, and awaken that higher instinct of joy in loving service which we might have seen predominant if only Christ had been accepted as the Lord of our life?

It may be that the fate of our civilization will depend on whether there are enough Christian leaders among the younger generation who will give up at least part of their life to win people for Our Lord in this way.

When I first started talking to people about my vocation to be a priest, the first response was usually along the lines of, "Yes, that's all well and good, but you're far too young to be able to offer any real help to anyone."

Bollocks to that.

My prayer tonight is for more young people to have the courage to come forward, to answer God's call, whatever people around them say.  We need them more than we realise.

Father,

pour out your Spirit on all your children,

young and old.

Give us the courage to listen to you

and not to those who try to put us down;

so that we may do what you want

and not what they want.

Tis bloody good, Lord, to be here

If I had a penny for every person who said to me, 'Gosh, you're so lucky to be at the friary at this time of year.'   Perhaps I had better share some summer moments with you!

Wildflowers in the top field

A spectacular common spotted orchid near the barn

The Wysteria survived Sam's 'pruning' of last year

The Swallow chicks are out of the nest

Chantal's amazing flowers in front of Francis House

Phil's carving has made the move from the shed to the Canticle Garden

 Olive still being haughty

Wild Crane-bill Geranium outside my front door

Home with a few wild orchids for decoration

 

 

Yes, I think I am lucky to be here at the moment.


Peace and goodwill from Hilfield!