Category Archives: prayer

Running out of water in the holy lands

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A little Lenten story First in the north, between fruit trees and shade, it seemed it should be more difficult than this to die, except for the envy of avocadoes and apricots, hoarding the hidden streams of mercy for themselves; It made more sensein the south, where … Continue reading →

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Born of water and the Spirit

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I am not preaching this Sunday, and there was no little Lenten story/legend this morning, so consider this an offering to replace them both. ____________ You know, although it wasn’t recorded, that when God made Adam — dust of the … Continue reading →

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Things that do not exist

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Taken out of context it reads like a ghost, 
like the time I conjured up a cat 
in the attic that leapt like a flame 
and vanished along with its own shadow 
when I was a child.  Continue reading →

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St David

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A little Lenten legend A pigeon with a golden beak fed him from its overflowing crop words of grace like kisses that he might strew abroad with every penitential sigh the love of our sweet Saviour; his breath uncluttered by … Continue reading →

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Stigmata?

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A little Lenten story She found a strange bruise on one foot – stigmata, perhaps, if it spread? – but it soaked away in the bath instead, leaving an emptiness to blossom somewhere behind her left breast, unseen.

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Shrove Tuesday

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

O God of branches and hosannas, forgive the dried state of last year’s palms; trampled by Holy Week and scant adoration, they have desiccated, as our hearts too often do, too. Kindle them, our hearts and our psalms, to fresh … Continue reading →

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A psalm of lament

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

We turn to you, Compassionate One,
with your endless forbearance and infinite mercy, and pray that your patience will one day break;

because it seems some days that ours, our capacity for carnage, is everlasting. Continue reading →

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(A conversion) not (of St Paul)

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

No lightning bolt nor sudden fall but the gentle tap-tap of mercy raining like hoofbeats like heartbeats over the umbrella of consciousness – Who are you? You sang, my pied piper;I was powerlessnot to follow; you led my soul astray, … Continue reading →

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Follow the star

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

But what if I have spent too long staring into space longing for a sign What if the mystery were here all along in the tall grass of childhood the stumbling steps of grief the sudden sharp discovery underfoot that all is not yet seen the … Continue reading →

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The priest

Posted on January 3, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Leave your prayers here with me,   not because I can answer them –   you and I know better –   but to slip on like borrowed shoes   before I cross the threshold

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