A Sleep of Prisoners

A few requests for the poem by Christopher Fry that I read at SoD...

"Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
the thunder is the thunder of the floes,
the thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
comes to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
the longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
so many thousand years to wake,
but will you wake for pity's sake!"

study fatigue

supposed to be studying...




























though I can't help but wander out in the winter sun

Taking the mid-year break from college to research my long essay (which is on Douglas John Hall's theology of salvation). And it feels like I've been sitting with my head in these books for a long time now. But amidst the grind there is some absolute pearls that stand out, such as this one where Hall begins by quoting Moltmann;

""Faith in the resurrection... sees the raising of the tortured and crucified Son of Man as God's great protest against death and everyone who plays into death's hands and threatens life." It involves no public spectacle, no undoing of the past, no overcoming of the humiliation that has preceded it. It too prevents nothing that worldly powers determine to undertake. It gives the believing community no power of its own beyond the power of memory, love, and courage."

- D.J. Hall, "Professing the Faith", p.450.


Memory...

Love...

and Courage.

what would Australia look like if these were truly and deeply embraced? What have we forgotten? Who have we not loved? And what have we feared?

Just trying out some new editing software and reworking some old shots. The dishevelled midnight tale teller that is comrade smithy...

Annabelle's baptism prayer

You are loved Annabelle
though you may not know it yet,
you have heard its whisper in your Mothers’ touch, your Fathers’ voice
and that tippy-toed roaring energy that is your big sister.

You are loved Annabelle,
by all this family and all these friends,
though you may not know it yet
And all their stories
and all this life
will be a strand of who you are.
Just as you have already become this chubby-cheeked, opera-squealing part of ours

You are loved Annabelle,
though you may not know it yet
by the very God who created you and everything around us
From the blazing majesty of Antarctica,
to the ever-changing greenery of your Birtles Avenue home.

So when the water runs across your head
know that you are loved
not because of anything that you’ve done, or anything that you’ll do
Just because of the gift you are to all of us

And when the sign of the cross
is placed upon your frowning little forehead,
know that you stand in that great tradition
of those who claim God’s faithfulness in Jesus,
“Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us.”

Annabelle, you are loved.

(PS Thanks to Cheryl for the inspiration)

return of the faithful

June 23rd will not just go down as a great Collingwood win over the Swans in Sydney, but also as the day of the Return. Jimmy and Uncle Rob, welcome back!

Bootsy has the story here.