Harvest Immortality

"Are you setting them out geographically?" my friend asked, looking at the swathe of harvest boxes in our sanctuary prepared for distribution following our Harvest Thanksgiving on Sunday.

I replied, "Just now we're still working on separating between each side of the River Jordan . . .". 

In case that's lost on anyone Jordan is a metaphor for life's final journey, as in

When I tread the verge of Jordan bid my anxious fears subside,

Death of death and Hell's destruction land me safe on Canaan's [i.e. the Promised Land's] side.

People have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure they live on beyond their earthly passing and the internet offers new ways of continuing when you've ceased to exist.  However I believe one very good way to attain earthly immortality is by getting your name on a Church Harvest Distribution List.

Scarcely ever have I sat on the Monday after a Harvest without dissecting a list of names between the living and the dead and for all my efforts this year we still managed to attempt a delivery to someone who had passed away in the summer.

Only the Lord can save your immortal soul.  But to save your name on earth?  Hey, just get on a Church Harvest List and your name will live on when you've gone.  In fact, some goodhearted soul will even pack you some food or flowers and come looking for you.  Tesco's may not deliver food to me after I'm dead but if I can just get on that Harvest list . . . .

55lbs

Today is the Anniversary of the diet I began last September 23rd.

There's 55lbs less to carry about now.  Which is the equivalent of . . .

or



or, perhaps most alarmingly,





New Saints

On the day that the Pope continues the labyrinthine ecclesiastical process of canonisation for John Henry Newman, and in the spirit of my previous post, I offer a somewhat more dynamic and wholly more glorious expression of saint-making. 

Simple really.

Simple really

Here we are in the midst of Mr J.A. Ratzinger's visit to the UK.  I am listening to Latin emanating from the middle of golden pillars shrouded in clouds of incense.

For me the most telling thing about this visit is how good it is at its simplest and how, as it moves into higher things political and ecclesiastical, it moves further away from the Carpenter of Nazareth.

Here are the wonderful words the Pope spoke to schoolchildren yesterday;

"Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple -- true happiness is to be found in God," he said.  "God wants your friendship. And once you enter into a friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change."

Or to put it another way, Sic enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam.

I will

In the past week I have had time with families where people have just been married and where others are celebrating anniversaries and others are facing life-threatening illness together.  In tribute to them all and in gratitude for the marriage God has given me I offer J R Miller's moving description of a precious gift mistakenly maligned.

Not me