Spiritual Sunday My basketball player who is writing an essay about Henry Vaughan (see my post on him and the poem “Cock Crowing” here) has me thinking about light and dark imagery in the poetry of this 17th century mystical Anglican. Usually Vaughan associates God with light, as in “Cock Crowing” and “The World” (which […]
Tag Archives: Religion
Narnia, Much More than a Sermon
Jason Blake, my Ljubljana colleague, set off an interesting discussion two weeks ago when he wrote a post on on reading nonsense poetry to his daughter. Many readers wrote in about children’s literature, and at one point in the discussion Jason posted a poem by Robert Lewis Stevenson that made a number of us, with […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Foreign Children", C. S. Lewis, Children's literature, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Robert Lewis Stevenson Comments closed
Gratitude, God’s Great Gift
Spiritual Sunday I have been teaching Paradise Lost this past week so, in the spirit of the Thanksgiving weekend, I share here some of Milton’s insights into gratitude. Let me start with the prayer of gratitude that Adam and Eve offer up to God in Book IV. They have been working in the garden […]
Cock Crowing: Greeting God’s Holy Light
Joan Miro, “Le Coq” Spiritual Sunday This is the story of a student basketball player whose life has been changed by the mystic religious poetry of Henry Vaughan. Okay, so “changed” might be an exaggeration. But the 17th century metaphysical poet is helping Brian sort through a series of life reversals in ways that I […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Cock-Crowing", "World", Education, Henry Vaughan Comments closed
Gifts that Come with Sitting in Church
Spiritual Sunday When I was young, I could never understand why someone would want to sit for 90 minutes in church. But when I became a man (to quote Paul) I got it. There is something in the experience that grounds one, a peace that descends. This can occur even if one’s mind is wandering […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Gifts", Carrie Patterson, J. Annie MacLeod, Spirituality Comments closed
The Hell of Ego, the Heaven of Love
Spiritual Sunday A reader’s response to Friday’s post on the Faustus story has me thinking more about Marlowe’s marvelous play. Marlowe informs us that we don’t need to die to go to hell. If we refuse to listen to the voice of our soul, we can find hell right here on earth. If there were […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christopoher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, King Lear, Soul, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Austen for Progressive Church Reform
Spiritual Sunday I have come to admire, a great deal, the heroine of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Under unbelievable social and family pressure, the modest and overlooked Fanny Price sticks to her moral principles as she resists a marriage proposal from an eligible bachelor, the wealthy and dashing Henry Crawford. I have learned only recently […]
A Harvest Love Poem to God
Spiritual Sunday Here is a harvest poem that moves quickly from an actual harvest (in the first line) to a heavenly one. The clouds are like sacks of grain, their meal drifting across the skies, and we can gaze upward and glean them with our eyes. As Gerald Manley Hopkins sees it, God reveals himself […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Hurrahing in Harvest", Gerard Manley Hopkins, Nature, Spirituality Comments closed
