Category: The Magazine

“The work of CCSR demonstrates that the way we deal with our money and investments witnesses to our grounding in the spiritual gifts which are ours in Baptism.  Among the many gifts given for spiritual discernment, such as teaching, prophecy, and healing, is administration or oversight.  Those charged with oversight are called to be exemplary in love.  This means that God’s love for Creation must shine forth in all of our decision-making, including the ways we invest our treasure to further our mission.  Therefore, attention must be paid to social responsibility in investments.”

“What is a ‘good death’? For many people it’s almost impossible to think of those two words together, but all religious traditions have had their different ideas about what it means to die well – not glorifying death, nor hiding from it. In this shared tragedy, might we be able to find new ways of dying well? The first step would be to reverse the move towards the privatisation of dying (and grieving). I have been with many people at their deathbeds, and the most peaceful and least anxious have been the ones in which death’s coming is acknowledged, both by the families and the dying person.”

“Doing that – and this is the trickiest bit – involves recognising that we can’t do it ourselves. In this time in which we have realised that we aren’t as powerful as we thought, it’s possible that a little humility might begin to grow in our souls; and that might be the ground in which the seed of God’s promise can grow.”

“Hopkins contrasts the natural cycle, in which fire is a central component for Heraclitus, with the resurrection life. The world’s wildfire may leave but ash – but the matchwood of humanity is transformed into immortal diamond. It’s impossible to say or imagine what that might look like; the point is the promise.”

Fragment 11 “Even those sleeping are working, co-operating in making something of the world”

“What I’ve tried to do, in order to deal with this uncertainty and anxiety, is to find spaces in my life which I can do something about, and use them to provide islands of stability. For me, it has been about the rhythm of prayer, about taking exercise regularly, about keeping up with my reading. All of them would be easy to lose in a welter of obsessively checking the latest news. But insofar as I have managed to keep an even keel over the last months, I think those practices have been essential.”

“The pandemic has changed how many of us sleep, not usually for the better. The private worlds of sleep, in which we usually work through the past day and prepare for the next, have often been unable to cope with the uncertainties and anxieties of these past months. For some of us sleep has eluded our grasp completely; others have slept fitfully and only in the shallows, never properly resting. The ordinary strangeness of dreams has become still more bizarre.”

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and…your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  This was not just radical because of its decree to love but also because up to that time Jews had to adhere to 613 commandments. Our Lord distilled them down to two: love God and love your neighbour as yourself. Love is all you need.”

“Recalling the biblical passage helps me remember that my part of the bargain is to seek and that God will provide what I need. I also should remember that God’s imagination is greater than mine and that God might have something better in store for me than what I am seeking. This was the case with this opportunity, and it came from an unexpected place, not at all where I was looking.”