Category Archives: prayer

The Friday Fast: spring snow

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Like snow that falls after the daffodils have shown their colours, Friday afternoon slips in at the end of a long, slow week to whisper, “One more fast yet before the Sabbath.”

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The Friday Fast: God remembers that we are dust

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

An occasional series for Lent 2022 This poem is also found at the Episcopal Cafe

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Shrive vs shrivel

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Write me the script for a new heart, O God; 
scratch out a new and shriven, 
unshrivelled spirit within me.  Continue reading →

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(Holy Saturday)

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

How to carry the world’s pain – the cries of the children, the palsy of their great-grandparents confused with the tremors of memory; the subtle, internal turmoil that turns digestion upside down – violence is not a visitor but an … Continue reading →

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Yesterday is closer than it seems

Posted on February 24, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Yesterday I walked past a fallout shelter sign in the “historic district” of a run-down part of town, its triune logo sunny against the greying day, repainted, no doubt, as an artefact of interest; but yesterday is closer than it … Continue reading →

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What is good news?

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

God showed me a robin in the snow, so I hung a feeder from my window: so far no one has used it but
the cats live in hope. Continue reading →

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Flotsam

Posted on February 11, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

There is a thread that ties the sparrowto the hair on the pillow in the morning;There is a straight line from “My thoughtsare not your thoughts,” through,“There are more things …, Horatio,than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”There is some … Continue reading →

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A memory in black and white

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

A memory so ancient, it could be in black and white. I met the vicar on the street, in his white collar. He said, “J’accuse!” He did not.  He said, “It has been too long since you received Communion.” I … Continue reading →

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It was the sea

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

It was the sea,salt and water,the press of the tideand the undertow;the frightening mysteryof jellyfish; the shells,whitewashed tombs yet evidence of enduringbeauty I remember oncewe went outin a rubber dinghy,daring the waves to drown us,and they did.Beneath the boat,I held … Continue reading →

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Is it joy?

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Is it joyor curiosity that binds them;astonishment in discoveringthat Godhas made another, unalike,incomprehensible if somewhatfamiliar? Is it joy,the flick of the ear,the tic of the tail,a frisson of fur filledwith staticelectricity,the stuff of life? Who would not enjoythe vast and … Continue reading →

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