The world is charged with the grandeur of God
DISCIPLES NEED QUIET DAYS. “Come to a deserted place and rest awhile”. Our local Bishop’s Lodge wasn’t deserted today. But rain, sunshine, thunder, lightning, birdsong, prayer, Eucharist, anointing, bishop, colleagues, fabulous lunch and a beautiful garden certainly enabled us to rest awhile.
Several things stand out:
- some reminiscences of the late Bishop John Robinson’s calling Christians to a higher and broader vision of God … and of his extraordinary pastoral gifts and prayerfulness; his being Honest to God.
- the praying of a prayer with which I grew familiar as a boy chorister at Evensong – now (in slightly extended form to that which I have always used) the prayer of the Iona Community …
Jesus, master carpenter, who on the cross through wood and nails purchased our whole salvation; wield well thy tools in this workshop of thine that we who come rough hewn may here be fashined to a truer beauty and a greater usefulness by thine own hand
- the image of a bishop tending a beautiful garden, and of the carved stone that testifies in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God”
- the question: “When did you last meet with the God who called you?”
Disciples need quiet days! And this one’s very grateful
charged with the grandeur of God
