Online Contemplative Worship Blog

Teaching and Learning 26th November 2025 The first week (Wintering 1) I talked a bit about living OUT of the moment rather than IN it. This means being discerning with the gift of the present moment, where past and future meet, and growing in wisdom as we learn to use what’s lent to us. Last week (Wintering 2) I talked a bit about emptying the box we have made of our lives, because we have filled it full of stuff, most of which we don’t need, and none of which we can take with us into the New Year and coming spring that is heaven, the resurrection life where we shall be oned completely with God. Indeed it’s not just the stuff we don’t need, we don’t need the box, because we’re not boxes, but matter that will be raised in glory.  And that emptying of the box requires wisdom so that we can discern what is necessary (because in this life some stuff is necessary!) and what is not, and to discern how to stop being a box! And so this week we come to the last part of Psalm 90 where indeed...

Teaching and Learning on 19th November 2025 As we grew up it became clear that the purpose of life was to make ourselves a cardboard box. We called it school and education, training and maybe even college. We made the box in our own way. In fact it looked a lot like us. And then we started to fill it, because, obviously, that was what life was for. Everyone else was filling their own box so we needed to fill ours too. What did we put in it? We put in things like friendships and maybe deeper relationships. We put in experiences and lots of memories, mostly good, although a few bad ones got in there and wouldn't come out. And of course we put in lots of stuff. We bought clothes and shoes. We bought radios, records or cassettes or CDs or mobile phones and computers. We may have bought a car and maybe, if we were lucky, we bought a house. And anyway, even if it was only a rent, we began to fill our houses with stuff, because they were real boxes and collecting stuff was, obviously, wha...

Teaching and Learning on 12th November 2025 For the next three weeks I’m going to think about Wintering… this time of year when we close down, ponder and retire… except if you are still at work you don’t get a chance to and that is so unhealthy. Wintering is something we need to do every year.. but society won’t let us… and as we get older wintering is the last season of life. That’s not depressing, I suggest, but gloriously liberating! I’m sure you will all have heard the popular advice beloved of contemporary social influencers - to live in the moment. Life is too short to worry about the past or the future, so grab as much life as you can now, new experiences, new things and so on. Which is fine if you are relatively wealthy, relatively healthy and relatively free of personal commitments. Most of us aren’t all of these things, we fall down on at least one of them! There’s a sort of truth in living in the moment. But it’s not quite right. I am going to suggest that Jesus, though he w...