30th March 2020

Today's excerpt was written by our University Chaplain, Revd Harriet Harris.

Our souls are lovingly cultivated

It is as though the universe has sent us to our rooms.

Perhaps, like St Benedict, we will discover that we have all that we need in our ‘cells’

(though not in our cell phones!).

We are creating a world in which bike shops are’ essential’,

so-called ‘unskilled workers’ are ‘key’, we have almost a national wage,

our carbon footprint is reducing, and the UN has called for a global ceasefire.

If we can sit with the confusion,

not trying to escape it,

but letting life emerge from it,

we can start to tell the difference between what matters and what doesn’t.

From amongst the seeming chaos,

that which gives life comes into view.

The Flowering Apple Tree, Piet Mondrian, 1912

Where are the trees that are flowering in your days at the moment?

Are there some particularly confused and difficult times, times that feel frantic, or agonisingly lonely;

circumstances that at first seem bewildering and grey?

What do you want to say about these? Where’s the truth of it?

These times may feel overwhelming, but dig into their soil, find the juicy nutrients from which new life blossoms.

Oh, that my soul were a garden under heavenly cultivation

Walled around by grace

Planted by instruction, and visited by love

Weeded by heavenly discipline, guarded by divine power.

One’s soul thus nurtured is lovingly prepared to blossom and fruit.

Harriet Harris, adapted from C H Spurgeon