The Living Flame

My dear friends,

As the continuing situation in regard to Covid seems never ending, I have been struck over many months by the number of candles alight on our ‘Tree of Light’ in church; sometimes a solitary flame, sometimes ablaze with many. There is no doubt that it has provided a way of connecting with the spiritual for many, even if they would not necessarily identify as religious or, in some cases, Christian. It has become a blessing to them. The fact that it is house in our beautiful church helps – there is a tangible sense of God’s grace within Holy Trinity.

In the strange world in which we now live, we are blessed that ours is a faith of accompaniment in every circumstance in life. We are never alone. So too is our call to counter the negativity of so much modern culture. No one is ever cancelled in the eyes of God. All that is required to approach the throne of grace is the willingness to grow spiritually. 

I am always inspired by St John of the Cross – the Spanish mystic. He endured the cancelling culture of his time at the hands of his fellow monks. Lock in a tiny cell over many months with only a tiny aperture high up in letting air he nevertheless found God’s presence never failing him, as he wrote in ‘The Living Flame,’ of which this is the last verse:

How gently and lovingly
you wake in my heart, 
where in secret you dwell alone; 
and in your sweet breathing, 
filled with good and glory, 
how tenderly you swell my heart with love. 

God – the true reality of our existence – always with us.

With love,

Michael