Seeker

Outside St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a memorial bust of John Donne sculpted by Nigel Boonham and unveiled in 2012. John Donne (1572 - 1631) was a Dean of St Paul's. He died on 31 March 1631 which is why the Church of England commemorates him today. John Donne is remembered as priest and poet. Inside St Paul's is a 17th century memorial statue of Donne , one of the few to survive the 1666 great fire of London.  Many years ago as an adolescent studying the English metaphysical poets I fell in love with Donne's poetry - his erotic love poetry and his religious poetry. Later I discovered other works by him including sermons and philosophical writings. Probably the best known of John Donne's words was not written as poetry but as part of a prose devotional meditation, although often quoted as poetry. I have been thinking of the quote below especially this week while feeling particularly sad following 29 March 2017 when Article 50 was triggered to sta...

Today could be called the last look back at Christmas, the day when some people clear away any Christmas decorations still around. We are now 40 days after the day of celebrating the birth of Jesus. What is celebrated today in the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) is based on the story told by Luke in chapter 2 of his gospel, verses 22 - 40 . Luke 2: 22 - 40 tells how Mary and Joseph, in accordance with custom and religious law, took their baby Jesus to be presented in the temple. There they encounter 2 prophets, who had each been waiting, praying and longing for the coming of a Saviour. These 2 people were Simeon (who was probably an old man) and Anna (who was certainly an old woman). Both of them recognised in the infant Jesus the one for whom they were waiting and they rejoiced. Simeon's song of rejoicing, known as the 'Nunc Dimittis' is said or sung daily at Evening Prayer in many places throughout the world. It is a prayer to be allowed to depart in pe...

Jesus often surprised people. He did not conform to what people expected of him. In his first appearance as an adult in the gospel accounts he joined the repentant sinners asking to be baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. John wanted to prevent this happening. He recognised that Jesus did not need this, but Jesus quietly insisted that it should be so. He is indeed Emmanuel, God-with-us, fully human and humbly identifying with humanity. Matthew's Gospel tells the story of Jesus' baptism like this: "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and ali...