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52 Reflections on Faith - Humility: The compassionate life
52 Reflections on Faith - Humility: The compassionate life
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Humility: The compassionate life ‘Can’t you have a bit of humility?’ ‘Can’t you back off sometimes?’ ‘Do you always have to have the last word?’ ‘Who do you think you are?’ How often have we said these words to someone, in a moment of anger, in an argument with a spouse, perhaps,…
52 Reflections on Faith - Icons: Looking through a window
52 Reflections on Faith - Icons: Looking through a window
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Icons: Looking through a window Icons can be a very powerful aid to prayer. They’re mostly found in Greek, Russian and other Orthodox churches but in the last few decades they’ve started to appear in the UK in Anglican churches and cathedrals…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
10 Jesus and Healing I wonder if you’ve ever played any part in healing somebody. Have you ever had a role in helping somebody become whole? I don’t mean ‘Have you ever performed a miracle?’ as much as ‘Do you think in terms of healing and behave as if healing were possible?’ Do …
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and the Poor
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and the Poor
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
11 Jesus and the Poor It’s striking, isn’t it, that God often comes to us in times of deprivation and loss, at times when we’re most down and depressed, at our weakest and most vulnerable, and perhaps feeling least religious? It’s true, of course, that we feel God’s presence at t…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus Christ today
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus Christ today
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
8 Jesus Christ today: ‘Who is Jesus Christ for us today?’ This is the famous question asked by Dietrich Bonhoeffer from his cell in Tegel military prison, Germany, during the last 18 months of his life. Bonhoeffer had been arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis in April 1943. He wa…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the good shepherd: Door of the sheep
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the good shepherd: Door of the sheep
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Jesus the good shepherd: Door of the sheep When I worked in the Holy Land with St George’s College, Jerusalem, we often took groups to the Sinai desert to camp overnight under the stars on the way down to St Catherine’s monastery…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the good shepherd: the door of the sheep
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the good shepherd: the door of the sheep
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Jesus the Good Shepherd: door of the sheep When I worked in the Holy Land with St George’s College, Jerusalem, we often took groups to the Sinai desert to camp overnight under the stars on the way down to St Catherine’s monastery. It was an amazing experience. Quite often I would…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the teacher: words and deeds
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the teacher: words and deeds
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Jesus the teacher: words and deeds We can probably all remember particular teachers we had at school. Some stick in the mind as ‘good teachers’, but we probably remember others because we didn’t like them, got on the wrong side of them or were hopeless at their subjects…
52 Reflections on Faith - John the Baptist: pointing to Jesus
52 Reflections on Faith - John the Baptist: pointing to Jesus
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
John the Baptist: pointing to Jesus The bones of John the Baptist have been discovered in Bulgaria, or so some newspapers have implied. A number of remains, including a knuckle bone, have been found in a sarcophagus in the grounds of a monastery on an island called Sveti Ivan, of…
52 Reflections on Faith - Justification by faith: Computer studies
52 Reflections on Faith - Justification by faith: Computer studies
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Justification by faith: Computer studies Sometime back in the late 1980s, I took an adventurous step and bought an Amstrad computer. Thinking of it now, it feels like a computer dinosaur. Actually, mine was only a word processor and I bought it partly, at least, under the sad ill…
52 Reflections on Faith - Light: Standing in the river
52 Reflections on Faith - Light: Standing in the river
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Light:Standing in the river One evening as I sit in my study, reading by a table lamp, a wasp hovers overhead for a moment, then makes for the light bulb. Finding the bulb hot, it moves to the inside of the shade and settles in the warm glow of the light…
52 Reflections on Faith - Love your enemies: Israelis and Palestinians
52 Reflections on Faith - Love your enemies: Israelis and Palestinians
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Love your enemies: Israelis and Palestinians It’s well known that Christianity tells us to love our neighbours. The expression ‘love thy neighbour’ has a special place in the English language and there was once a British TV sitcom with exactly that title…
52 Reflections on Faith - Mary, mother of Jesus: pointing to God
52 Reflections on Faith - Mary, mother of Jesus: pointing to God
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Mary, mother of Jesus: pointing to God Michelangelo’s Pietà is one of the most beautiful and famous pieces of art in the world. It stands just inside St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In glorious white marble, sculpted in the 15th century when the artist was only 24, the statue depict…
52 Reflections on Faith - Maundy Thursday: washing the feet
52 Reflections on Faith - Maundy Thursday: washing the feet
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Maundy Thursday: washing the feet Maundy Thursday is the first of the three holy days leading up to Easter. Christians usually think of it as the day when the Eucharist was instituted. Jesus ate a meal with his disciples in Jerusalem the night before he died, thereby inaugurating…
52 Reflections on Faith - Mothering Sunday: the motherhood of God
52 Reflections on Faith - Mothering Sunday: the motherhood of God
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Mothering Sunday: The motherhood of God Mothering Sunday is a day for celebrating motherhood and giving thanks for our mothers. On this day we reflect on the place and importance of our mothers in our lives and thank them for everything they’ve given us. Everyone has (or has had)…
52 Reflections on Faith - Palm Sunday: little donkey
52 Reflections on Faith - Palm Sunday: little donkey
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Palm Sunday: little donkey Sometime in the late 1990s the local municipality of Jerusalem denied all donkeys access to the walled Old City. The decision was made primarily on health grounds but it changed the landscape of Jerusalem immediately. Somehow the donkey was a feature of…
52 Reflections on Faith - Passion Sunday: responding to God