It began, as most life-altering things do, without warning. Mary wasn’t praying for revelation. She wasn’t prepared. She was simply living — and that, it seems, was enough. The angel didn’t descend with thunder or spectacle, but with words. A greeting, strangely formal, and yet weighted with eternity. She was told she was favoured, though … Continue reading When Heaven Knocked Softly: Merry Christmas
Tag: Christ
The Cry from the Cross
The question drifted across my day like an unexpected visitor — not hostile, not foolish, just curious: ‘If Jesus is God, then who was He talking to on the cross?’ It’s not the first time I’ve been asked it. In fact, it seems to surface every few months, usually in the same tone: part intrigue, … Continue reading The Cry from the Cross
The Christmas Stamp Scandal
Image: © Royal Mail. Used for commentary/critique. —or— How the Holy Family Became Too Brown for Britain There’s nothing more British than a Christmas stamp scandal. Every year, the nation that once ruled half the world now works itself into a moral froth over an adhesive square worth a pound twenty-five. It’s as though we … Continue reading The Christmas Stamp Scandal
Christmastown in the Third Heaven: A Pilgrim’s Progress Through Pastel Nonsense
Christmas seems to fly around quicker as I get older, and I’ve had this little belter in draft for a while now. And there are moments in the modern Church when I feel that the early Reformers may have burned the wrong books. Luther fretted over indulgences; Calvin worried about predestination; Cranmer toyed with liturgies. … Continue reading Christmastown in the Third Heaven: A Pilgrim’s Progress Through Pastel Nonsense
Night and Day: The Devil’s Auction and the Radiant Company
Otto Greiner (1869–1916), Die Feilbietung (The Sale), 1898. Lithograph, 25 × 20 cm. Public domain.The devil as auctioneer, mankind as eager bidder - Greiner’s vision of damnation is less warning than mirror, a Halloween reminder that we often sell ourselves far too cheaply. Night and day belong together. One can’t savour dawn without knowing what … Continue reading Night and Day: The Devil’s Auction and the Radiant Company
Wording 