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Showing posts from September 8, 2024

A name engraved

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Sally and I were cooking the other evening and I realised she was humming the tune to the hymn Before the throne of God above.  I remembered that the first verse includes lines based on Isaiah 49.16:    My name is graven on His hands    My name is written on His heart To my delight, the penny dropped that after decades of following Christ, I'd now returned the favour ... ///hoped.clear.drifter

My body a temple ...

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I had my first tattoo yesterday. A version of the Jesus Prayer, half on one arm and the rest on the other arm. I've turned my body into a prayer. I started thinking about this weeks ago, while travelling, as the prayer became more and more important to me. I would often stand in churches or outside my tent with my arms outstretched while I prayed, and I began to imagine the prayer inscribed on me, speaking even when I was without words. Yesterday I made that dream a reality. The version of the prayer I used was a slightly unusual translation of the Greek which settled with me over the last few months; it reads as follows:    ✠ Lord Jesus Christ ✠ Son of the Living God ✠    ✠ have mercy on me ✠ your broken one ✠ (The first line on my right arm, the second on my left, so with arms open the prayer reads across from left to right if you're looking at me.) My daughter commented that, having now spent the summer riding across Europe on a new...

Home

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Sometimes the longing for home is irresistible and you begin to wonder: well, why resist? Derby Cathedral's service had been so wonderful it seemed like it might be a beautiful ending to this second pilgrimage. So I got on my bike and rode. Around 8.30pm I rang the doorbell and a rather surprised Sally opened the door. During two pilgrimages, which took about a month and a half, I've covered around 3,500 km on two 50cc mopeds. I've travelled through five countries, crossed the Alps, lived in monastic communities, joined worship in dozens of churches and cathedrals and prayed alone in countless others. I've met people across Europe and made friends across language and culture barriers. I've slept rough in fields, woods, verges, once in a hammock, and twice in bike parks. I've prayed the Jesus Prayer until it's lodged in my heart like the devotional equivalent of an ear worm. I've travelled through a 42°C heatwave in central Italy and shivered ...

Derby: a corner of heaven

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After Accrington I started to get homesick. It had been a wet night and I was cold and tired. Blackburn cathedral's morning service had been disappointing. Then followed a long ride through Manchester. Ever seen Life on Mars ? If not, you've got a treat ahead. But my GPS took me through every depressing 1970s style corner of the city, past every boarded up and vandalised factory, through every characterful alleyway, into every run-down neighbourhood. It was hard going. And all the churches were locked.  I emerged to the south, rose up into beautiful green hills, and soon found myself in the glorious Peak District. And one day I'm going to go back and explore it properly. But as I rode through some of the most magnificent countryside England has to offer, I realised that after nearly six weeks on the road (between the two pilgrimages) I'd done enough. I was ready to be home.  I pushed on to Derby and arrived in time for evening prayer, so I decided to stop. A...

Who are they?

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I'd camped so close, I couldn't resist.  Remember the famous milk ad from the 1980s? I did! ///stops.legal.digit