Shows
Help.vision_How diet and nutrition links with mental healthIn this podcast I am joined by Mark who is a hypnotherapist in Bewcastle. In this podcast we talk about how nutrition affects mental health. I hope you enjoy this podcast and if you have any questions leave it in the comments or direct message me on instagram or you can email me @helpvision216@gmail.com Here are some useful links: The free anxiety relief pack - www.escapeanxietynow.comInfo on food & gut health for mental health, with a free cheat sheet...
2025-11-021h 04
In Search of the Mystery of GodRemembranceSilence. Absence of speech. Heads bowed. Time transcended. Two minutes of eternity. Strangers' names sounded aloud. Anchor still holding. Lighthouse in the storm. Death faced. Or not.Our acts of remembrance are presented in many different ways. But not all are helpful. This sermon explores the real point of remembrance.
2024-11-1015 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodAlone-nessIn the depths of our inner being exists, in each of us, a part that no one else ever sees. Its the place where sometimes even we are too afraid to go. Its where our deepest secrets lie, the things we are too terrified to let others know about us; where the disappointments that have crushed us are buried; where memories of being rejected, or humiliated, or bullied, when we have been so badly hurt it feels like a sword has run through us, are shut away in the dark because otherwise they would overwhelm and drown us. Where...
2024-08-1813 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodThe Tentacles of sInShe was incredibly beautiful. Lithe, graceful, shapely, bronze-skinned with full and dark flowing hair, nubile. Who could resist her? It all started with a glance out the window that turned into a lingering gaze. Did she know he might see her, bathing out there on the roof in the evening sun? She was so…tantalising. He was mesmerised.It is the simplest of things. But at what point did he cross a threshold? Was it the glance? No, that was impulsive, accidental coincidence and he was shocked. Was it when he became transfixed, rooted to the spot, un...
2024-07-2813 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodA Liturgy of The RoodGood Friday service around the Bewcastle Cross including a recital of the Anglo-Saxon poem 'The Dream of The Rood'.
2024-03-2928 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodJourney of the MagiThe Epiphany, by its nature, is enigmatic. On the 6th January every year, we celebrate the visit of the wise men from the east to see the baby king in the stable with his mother and father, bringing their gifts. We call it The Epiphany because it represents the recognition of God's coming by the Gentile (that's us) world. 'Epiphany', that moment of sudden awakening or realisation.But what was realised? Who noticed? Notoriously, Herod became furious when he realised he was tricked by the magi, and sent his soldiers to slaughter all the boys aged two...
2024-01-0719 min
In Search of the Mystery of God'Come'?The Advent calling is to a different path, set in the approach to the darkest part of the year, when the forces that would exploit us by playing to our interests of self-preservation are most powerful. The prayer 'Come' requires us to prepare ourselves, to be brutally honest about who we are, both in our vulnerability and in our self-interest. For when we are, terrifying as this may be, we are met by the One who loves us with a passion that will lead him to the Cross on our behalf.Dare we pray the prayer? Dare...
2023-12-0312 min
The Smut Report PodcastPut Up Your Dukes: Championship RoundIn which we question the entire purpose of this project. And then make a bunch of recommendations for other duke books to read. And then finally decide who the best duke is.(Our final two dukes are Villiers and Bewcastle.)Shownotes, including a list of all those other great duke books we talked about, at smutreport.com/podcast.
2023-09-281h 01
The Smut Report PodcastThe Final FourWe're down to our final four best dukes! To narrow it down further, we dug into the love declarations to see whose was the dukiest.We've got Villers (A DUKE OF HER OWN) vs Montgomery (DUKE OF SIN) and Clermont (THE DUCHESS WAR) vs Bewcastle (SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS). Full show notes at smutreport.com/podcast.
2023-09-271h 13
The Smut Report PodcastElite Eight: Part 2Part 2 of our Elite Eight conversation! This is the one where we just could not stop talking about these books, with Clermont vs. Wyndham and Jervaulx vs. Bewcastle.Our previous conversations about these dukes:Clermont | Wyndham | Jervaulx | BewcastleNotes and our madlibs at smutreport.com/podcast.
2023-09-251h 04
The Smut Report PodcastBewcastle vs. ColtonIt's our final match-up for Put Up Your Dukes! It's time for Bewcastle from SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS by Mary Balogh going up against Colton from THE COURTESAN DUCHESS by Joanna Shupe.Full show notes at smutreport.com/podcast.
2023-09-1947 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodPearl DivingFor over 2000 years Japanese women, known as ama, have descended to depths of over 30m underwater, in a single breath lasting over two minutes, in search of pearls. They descend into the darkness where all colour has vanished. Only silence, shadows and outlines remain. It is a place of extreme cold and danger where few ever venture. They do it 100-150 times a day, and continue into their eighties, needing to retrieve a ton of oysters in their nets to find four or five decent pearls. Not many of us will ever experience the physical and physiological hardship of...
2023-07-3011 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodBeth-El - House of God?Duplicity. Abraham complies with his wife's scheming and then denies his firstborn. Isaac is tricked by his second-born with the help of his mother's plotting. Jacob indulges his wives' bitter rivalry, and so spawns the twelve tribes of Israel. The Patriarchs of Israel are a sorry bunch, for whom 'integrity' was not a word that carried much currency. And yet. And yet God chose them. Promised to bless the world through them - schemers and dreamers though they were.But perhaps it was the dreaming for which they were chosen? All of them 'heard' God speak words...
2023-07-2314 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodThe Stories We Tell'Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. A long time ago...'We love stories. From our earliest days to old age we love listening to, and telling, stories. They are how we make sense of the world around us, how we first encounter 'others' in our imaginations, and they are how we form our collective memories that bind us as societies. Jesus was a master story-teller; his stories, called parables, played off the collective stories familiar to his listeners, and turned out to be enigmatic, challenging, full of surprises and unexpected outcomes. His stories are crafted...
2023-06-2515 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodCataract of God'Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls' shouts the psalmist through the drenching thunder.So many of us are nervous souls, battered down by cares and worries, apprehensive for loved ones or ourselves. The experience of hurt and disappointment has left us timid and small. The adventure of childhood has long since been buried to allow us to cope with our journey towards the end. The thrill of life is now often found only in a book or on a screen. We manage our environments as best we can - warm homes, stocked cupboards...
2023-05-2811 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodA Common Treasury For AllIn 1649 to St George's Hill
A ragged band they called the "Diggers"
Came to show the people's will.
They defied the landlords, they defied the laws;
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs.
'We come in peace' they said 'to dig and sow.
We come to work the lands in common
And to make the wastelands grow;
This earth divided we will make whole
So it will be a common treasury for all.'
So begins a song by Leon Rosselson about Gerard Winstanley and the first Diggers - one that I sometimes sing at our folk evenings...
2023-05-0413 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodWe had HopedHope belongs to the world of belief; it has direction and a future. Atheism, in contrast, and by definition, has only chaos, and therefore neither. We, all of us, depend on hope, live our lives in hope, even as we rest in the moment. But hope disappointed can be shattering, destructive, devastating. It can ruin a soul and lead to utter darkness. It is the place of hell.So how do we choose what to hope for? How do we know who or what to trust and believe in? A topical question in a world of 'fake...
2023-04-2312 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodDawn TreaderHow does one make any sense of that which is beyond comprehension? How does someone from a flat world grasp a third dimension? How do we estimate the cost of our darkness, the damage of our sin, both to ourselves and to the stardust of the cosmos of which we are formed, and from which all else is created? Are we arrogant to think that we even have such significance? And yet the story of the Incarnation requires us to understand that the Creator knows we do. How? Worse, for some unfathomable reason, the Creator considers us worth the...
2023-04-0909 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodBreatheSometimes we struggle with the concept of 'belief'. Yet everything we do from the moment we get up to the moment we die is governed by what we believe about the world we inhabit. The stories we are told by the society in which we live have the power to control our concept of reality, and hence the entire direction of our lives, simply because we 'believe' them.So when Jesus says to Martha, 'do you believe?', he is challenging the story by which she lives, the story that defines her understanding of what is real...
2023-03-2615 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodWell MetA loose woman and a single man meet alone at a well in the desert. He starts talking about giving her 'living water'. This is the sort of place where encounters of a certain type begin.John's Gospel is the gospel of the Spirit. Jesus has been speaking to Nicodemus about the Spirit blowing beyond the boundaries. How far beyond? This is the first woman we encounter in John's Gospel after his mother. Not only is she a woman, but worse, she's a Samaritan. And although the conversation begins enigmatically, Jesus turns a key and unlocks her...
2023-03-1216 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 46"And he shall be known in the breaking of the bread." He, the Bread."Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us?" Yet still they did not recognise him.I wonder how often that has happened to us? This ancient Gaelic Rune of Hospitality comes from the west Highlands of Scotland:I saw a stranger yesterday.
I put food in the eating place -
Drink in the drinking place -
Music in the listening place -
And in the blessed name of the Triune
He blessed myself and my house,
...
2023-03-0717 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 45The Resurrection.It’s different in each of the Gospels. In Luke, Mary Magdalene and a group of at least four other women go to the tomb, enter it, and meet two angels, but no Jesus. In Matthew, two women, Mary Magdalene and another Mary, go to the tomb, experience an earthquake and meet a single angel sitting on the stone that used to seal the tomb, who invites them to go in and have a look. Then they meet Jesus on the way back. In Mark, three women reach the empty tomb, enter and find a si...
2023-03-0618 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodTo Where Does The Wind Blow?Wind. Breath. Spirit. All the same word. A Pharisee, a son of Abraham, is in the dark, visiting the rabbi by night. What is this wind? What is this birth of which you speak? But we are sons of Abraham. Aren't we? The wild wind of God has blown beyond the boundaries. So how do you know where it blows to? The death of water and the birth of wind. St John the Evangelist is in his element.The Bewcastle Benefice sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent (Year A).Poem: 'Instructions for the Desert...
2023-03-0515 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 44The Crucifixion.Begun with the visit of the angel to a young lass in Nazareth who said 'yes', the Incarnation of the composer into his composition culminates with this climactic moment. The cosmos cracks and fissures as the Temple curtain is rent in two. Red dwarfs shudder and black holes expirate across a billion trillion galaxies. The composer dies. The colossal terror of unheard dis-chord shatters the silence of icy darkness. The fabric of the space-time continuum ruptures, collapsing in to single point of historical particularity as spirit and matter are united in the agony of a...
2023-03-0518 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 43A sorry tale of politics, power, and crowd rule, or is that otherwise known as democracy, with 'social influencers' doing their piece? Three times Pilate says he will release Jesus, three times he is beaten back by the increasing vehemence of the crowds. Of course, he could have called in the army to crush the rising riot, but it would not have helped his thankless task of trying to govern this brittle people. Capitulation. We may speak of miscarriages of justice, but the deep irony of it is, as Jesus already knew, our redemption could not have happened any...
2023-03-0413 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 42There is one poem for this Friday we call 'good'.The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind us of our, and Adam’s curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.
The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shal...
2023-03-0318 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 41The Garden of Tears. The Garden of Eden. Things happen in gardens. Life begins in gardens. The soil gives rise to plants, and plants to all life. We are from the soil. Soil and spirit. The drops of agonising sweat fall back to the ground, the life blood of the Creator returns to the soil redeeming the earth, redeeming Eden, redeeming us. This is the agony of redemption. The betrayal by Judas. A man hangs from a rope on a tree (Matthew's Gospel). Three betrayals by Peter. A cock crows. A man weeps bitterly. How much agony can one...
2023-03-0216 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 40Blood. Plasma, platelets, red and white blood cells, haemoglobin, antibodies, clotting factors, hormones, cholesterol. Blood of the vine. The juice of life. Only life begets life. All humans and other animals must eat other life to live, be that plant or animal. We only live because we consume the life of another. So all food is holy and every meal a sacrament. Therefore blood is consumed to give new life, a new covenant. And the broken body shared. Death to give life. The Passover Lamb, whose blood is painted on the lintels and posts, whose body is eaten while...
2023-03-0117 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 39Preparing for the Pass-Over. The Passover lamb is to be sacrificed. This, the feast that defines the People of God. Lamb's blood on the door lintels and pillars so the angel of death passes over. Tunics tucked into belts. Eat standing up. No time for the yeast to rise - bread unleavened. Bags packed. Flight. Be prepared. Go into the city. Look for a man carrying water. What? A man? An angel? Follow him. Find the master. Prepare. The past in the present. The present in the past. Time transcended. Each event a participation in the first. And Judas...
2023-02-2817 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 38Strange to think that, though an infinite qualitative difference and separation lies between Creator and Creation, as between artist and art, yet God's presence runs through creation, as radio waves do a hand or a head. Which means that the turmoil and terror, the devastation and cataclysm of peoples and nations, of cities and homes, and the wrenching and twisting of the tortured creation in Jesus' apocalyptic speech shudders through the being of God. This shuddering is the eternal presence of the Cross that unites heaven and earth, the eternally burning bridge by which salvation is wrought. It is...
2023-02-2716 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodTempted?Hmm. Temptation. Choice and decision. It's a struggle for us, isn't it.Many pious people, and indeed the orthodox teaching of many churches, claim it is blasphemous to say Christ was really tempted in the desert, since he was fully God and God can't be tempted by evil. No, he just appeared to be tempted in order to vanquish the devil. But Jesus was also fully human, and the writer to the Hebrews says that he 'suffered when tempted' and was 'tempted as we are but without sin.' In fact there was no point...
2023-02-2614 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 37An extended prayer time this morning due to the long reading about Cuthbert's last weeks.The Pharisees and the scribes have all had their go at trying to catch Jesus out and find a pretext for having him arrested. Now its the turn of the other major sect, the Sadducees. They ask their knock-down question that proves the stupidity of the notion of 'resurrection'. It is interesting that, after Jesus annihilates the Sadducees, when the scribes seek to congratulate him, he turns on them. He has absolutely no interest in playing to the power structures. He is...
2023-02-2623 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 36Jesus has just cleansed the Temple. Now comes the challenge of authority. But in good rabbinic tradition, he answers the question with a question. The marvel of the interaction is the utter inability of the chief priests and scribes to see the hypocrisy of their position. But as in all these stories, we can never see ourselves as uninvolved bystanders. We, too, are so often in their position, blind, or at least inattentive, to the presence and work of God around us. So then comes yet another parable of vineyards, tenants, and a landlord. They, and everyone listening, know...
2023-02-2517 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 35"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!""Teacher, rebuke your disciples""I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."Indeed they would. The very fabric of creation shudders at the presence of her creator. This is the most explicit claim Jesus allows to be made of his real identity, hidden for so long . Perhaps he allows it knowing that it will so upset the religious elite that it will precipitate his arrest and execution. In any case, the king of his parables returns...
2023-02-2412 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 34Cuthbert, now in his early fifties, senses his body beginning to feel the strain of his years of asceticism. He wants to spend his last remaining days in prayer and praise on his beloved Farne, so after just two years as bishop, he decides to retire. He takes one final tour around the diocese, visiting monasteries and other places, giving words of encouragement and exhortation. In the course of which he comes to one of Aelfflaed's houses on the Tyne at her invitation. This is possibly the last time he meets his spiritual daughter and they dine together. The...
2023-02-2316 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 33People have speculated for years what it is about children that belongs to the kingdom of God. Personally, I think its a bit like children and Christmas - that sense of uncontainable excitement and the exuberant thrill of expected joy and delight. Everything else goes along with this - trust, simplicity, and a sense of wonder; and a lack of baggage - greed, prejudice and anxiety, you know, all the things that us grown-ups tend to accumulate. The sort of stuff that led us to nailing Jesus to the cross.Like Jesus insisting on letting the children...
2023-02-2216 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 32This story of the healing of a young lad brought to Cuthbert on a stretcher reminds us of the paralytic lowered through the roof in front of Jesus. Here the story happens in a remote and mountainous region that has never been identified. However, further details from the Anonymous Life of Cuthbert (an earlier 'Life' from which Bede draws) tell us it happened half way between Hexham and Carlisle, and that the bishop and his retinue accessed the area by a Via, probably a Roman Road. Bede tells us booths were made as shelters from branches cut from the...
2023-02-2115 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 31Another of Jesus' parables about Israel failing to share the wealth of God's rich blessing on his people. The rich man is not named, but the one from outside the gate is given a name, Lazarus, and is therefore known by God. He ends up standing by Abraham's side, where Israel expected to find itself. The shock in the story, however, is not that the rich man is punished, or that the poor man is shown mercy, for that was commonly accepted and anticipated. It was that the request of the rich man to send messengers of warning back...
2023-02-2018 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodEncounterEncounter, not meeting, changes us, and we are left different. Something touches our inner being, and we begin to flower. Or wither. Encounter has the power of life or death.Mountains are metaphors of encounter with God - "who will ascend the mountain of the Lord?" asks the psalmist. The Ark on Mt Ararat. Moses on Mt Sinai. Elijah on Mt Carmel. Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Sermon on the Mount.These encounters of creature with Creator burn through us, transforming us into our true selves, revealing our true natures, and liberating us...
2023-02-1914 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 30The parable of the unrighteous manager always throws folk. But its a parable, not a story. The key is in v9 : 'And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.' They may receive you? Who? Eternal dwellings? Really? How does that work? The parable is about God and Israel. The master's property, in the hands of his manager, is God's blessing promised to the world through his people that they never gave. Unrighteous wealth is unmerited wealth. Remember Abraham's faith? It...
2023-02-1915 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 29While the parable of the Prodigal Son, so familiar to many of us, is perhaps meant to tell of the relationship between God, Israel and the Gentile world, its sheer humanity works on many levels, not least the personal. It is difficult not to feel the intense and desperate love the father has towards both his children. Who could fail to be moved by it? This is our God.Cuthbert is both a pastoral and a monastic bishop. In this, he follows in the footsteps of one of his, and Bede's, favourite Fathers of the Church, St...
2023-02-1818 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 28Cuthbert again travels to Carlisle on administrative purposes. While there, word reaches his old friend, Hereberht, who lived as a hermit on the most isolated of the islands in Derwent Water in the Lake District. It remains uninhabited to this day (apart from occasional wild campers!), and is still known as St Herbert's Isle. The conversation between them is so foreign to most of us in this day and age, yet it derives directly from a life of lived prayer and praise. So, too, with Bede's tentative explanation of Herbert's final, fatal, painful illness. There is no talk of...
2023-02-1714 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 27St Cuthbert's DayCuthbert is aware that the hour of fulfilment of his prophecy to Aelfflaed concerning her brother, King Ecgfrith, is drawing near. So he goes to Carlisle to be with the queen, to be with her when it happens. As it happens, he is on a tourist trip round the city (still worth a visit, incidentally), when the event takes place. What is especially interesting here, though, is the manner in which he senses the battle and the king's death: the whole of creation shudders, although only Cuthbert can feel it, being so close to...
2023-02-1618 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 26Jesus certainly doesn't opt for the quiet life or avoid confrontation. No 'softly, softly' here. He won't let conformity or 'tradition' stand in the way of the coming of the Kingdom of God. "This daughter of Abraham". Jesus heart-wrenching compassion, and anger, are palpable. Who wouldn't want to follow him? Come, let the mustard seed in you grow.The only reason Cuthbert bows to the pressure of everyone requesting him to take the episcopal yoke is because of Boisil's prophesy on his death bed, and the fact that Cuthbert so respected him as a man of God...
2023-02-1517 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 25It's an age old question, 'why do bad things happen to good people?' Or in a more modern setting, 'if there was a God, why do innocent people suffer?' The stock answer was, 'they must have deserved it.' But Jesus will have none of it. Instead, once again, he uses it in exactly the same way as he does the parables of the thief in the night and the master returning home - be ready each day for you never know when your end will come. Or paraphrasing the 17thC Anglican Divine, Jeremy Taylor, you can't...
2023-02-1415 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 24"Two thousand years and he ain't showed yet" runs a 10cc song. Jesus' warnings about being ready in the middle of the night seem to have anticipated precisely this waiting. Down through the centuries these words have rung. The devastating familial breakdown at the end of the reading is a direct quote from Micah 7. It relates to non-complicity in 'wickedness', waiting for the Day of the Lord. The answer, of course, is not to speculate, but to live each day as a holy day, aware of Christ's presence with us at all times through his Holy Spirit. So our...
2023-02-1317 min
In Search of the Mystery of God"Significant Soil"The last two words of TS Eliot's third poem, 'The Dry Salvages', in The Four Quartets. We are approaching Lent and the wilderness is in view. The horizon draws nearer. The desert where all is stripped away and we are left naked and exposed.We, as human beings, created from the soil of the earth and breathed into by God, thus becoming 'significant', were tasked with being God's image present in his creation, itself just completed as an act of exuberant joy.Instead, we have made ourselves gods of creation, thinking that 'dominance' means to...
2023-02-1219 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 23Aelfflaed, daughter of King Oswiu, sister of King Ecgfrith, half-sister of King Aldfrith, was some 20 years younger than Cuthbert. She had been given to Abbess Hilda of Hartlepool at the age of one by her father in thanksgiving for a victory in battle. She was known for her skill in surgery and care for her patients. She had a special affection for Cuthbert, as he appears to have had for her - like spiritual father and daughter. In this story, Cuthbert has her in mind while praying on his solitary Farne, and senses her severe pain and need in...
2023-02-1218 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 22Solitary life turns out not to be so solitary after all. Here we catch a glimpse into the constant stream of visitors travelling by small boats across the waters to land on Cuthbert's shore. Folk suffering from distress, despondency, depression, despair, illness. And he has time for them all. Each one listened to, each one treated with careful attention, and each leaving with a unique word or touch, and a healed spirit, soul, or body. We are beyond politics here. This is the Kingdom of God.Jesus is, once again, calling out the hypocrisy of those who...
2023-02-1117 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 21The disciples ask Jesus to teach them a prayer. After all, that's what wandering rabbis do for their disciples, like John the Baptist. So he teaches them the prayer we say every day. But right at the beginning is this enigmatic request, 'Give us today our daily bread.' Later, of course, at the Last Supper, Jesus breaks the daily bread and says 'This is my body given for you'. And all this calls to mind the first temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness, when he, the Bread, was tempted to make bread, but responded, 'man does not live...
2023-02-1016 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 20Another story about ravens, the first birds named in the Bible. Corvids are renowned for their intelligence and their ability to form relationships with humans. They still exhibit this kind of behaviour in bringing gifts. But this story has more to it than just gifts - there is a special relationship established between two of God's servants.Once again, Jesus scandalises his hearers. A parable in which a priest, one who intercedes of behalf of the people before God, and a Levite from the holy tribe of Israel, both fail to love their neighbour, and therefore fail...
2023-02-0914 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 19Cuthbert has a go at self-sufficiency. He tries growing wheat, but that doesn't work, so tries barley instead. And then the corvids come. Again. I do know this feeling - had exactly the same problem with the corvids stealing all the barley seed I planted. Tried telling them off like Cuthbert, but it didn't work - they were just back again next morning. So I'm with Bede on this one!Jesus sends out the 72 as 36 pairs (all sorts of interpretations in those numbers). But something extraordinary is afoot - the world is changing as the Kingdom of...
2023-02-0816 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 18How do we do it? How do we turn the world on its head? 'The greatest is the least', 'Lord, shall we call down fire from heaven on these insolent people?' It just doesn't sink in through their thick skulls. Or mine. But I am convinced that the closest person to a saint in my parishes is a quiet 92-year-old widow with a gentle smile and a sparkle in her eyes, who says her prayers every day and holds the world before her Lord. And mine. She has become that child.Cuthbert is still building his...
2023-02-0714 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 17It's just tucked away at the beginning of the narrative, almost designed not to be noticed. 'About eight days later...' Eight days after Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ of God. Eight days after he said 'take up your cross...' and 'what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul...'. Eight days later we arrive at the Transfiguration on the mountain, the eighth day of creation, the day of Resurrection, the new beginning, the day that has no evening: the revelation of Jesus as the first whole and...
2023-02-0616 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 16Cuthbert is given the Herculean task of winning the Lindisfarne monks over to the Benedictine rule of life, which he, himself, has only newly adopted after the Synod of Whitby. But, despite the bitterness and aggression shown towards him by those who were reluctant to change, he remained patient, kind, and sensitive to others, yet strong and resolute. Also interesting that Bede understands the 'tedium' of the long nights of prayer. There is nothing romantic here, just hard graft. This passage gives us the greatest insight into the daily monastic life Cuthbert experienced as prior of Lindisfarne, and it...
2023-02-0519 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 15Something about Cuthbert's sensitivity to others allows him to hear the Holy Spirit speaking through a husband's distress. There is no doubt that his life of disciplined prayer, praise, worship and work has transformed him into an effective bearer of God's healing presence. This is nothing to do with 'works', and everything to do with cultivating the good soil of which Jesus speaks, that allows God's grace to grow and flourish, with the resulting benefits to the world around. And his sensitivity to the Spirit allows him to 'see' what is about to happen. We call it 'prophecy'. Cuthbert...
2023-02-0516 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 14The second of two stories about villages catching fire. This time the fire is real and Cuthbert takes it more seriously. We learn another piece of evidence suggesting that Cuthbert probably was from an aristocratic family as he was brought up by a wet nurse, of whom he clearly remained very fond. But he still had to take his turn looking after the sheep on the hills at night as a young lad.Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the story Gerasene demoniac is the conversation Jesus has with the demons. They, terrified of annihilation, 'beg him...
2023-02-0516 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 13The first of a pair of stories about villages catching fire. In this one the fire is a 'phantom' fire that roars and crackles, is spread by the wind, appears to do damage, but can't be extinguished with water. Its purpose is distraction, rather like the seed choked by thorns and thistles. It is only overcome by Cuthbert's prayer, whereupon it vanishes. Fire is a metaphor for many different types of trial and ordeal, as Bede makes clear at the end of tomorrow's reading.The fire on the stand is a metaphor for God's lamp on our...
2023-02-0514 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 12The only time in Cuthbert's 'Vita' that we possibly find him angry. And probably my favourite story of Cuthbert, perhaps even for that reason. I apologise in advance for the disturbing shock in the middle of it, but it is the only way I know how to read it. This story, more than any other, underlines the Anglo-Saxon understanding of our co-equality with the rest of creation before God. How we desperately need to re-recognise this essential truth of Genesis and the Cross - we are all as much part of Christ's Church as each other, although we bear...
2023-02-0513 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 11Somewhat optimistically Cuthbert and companions set off on a winter’s sailing trip without provisions, and come unstuck. It seems that Cuthbert is not a great planner; there are several of these stories where he runs out of provisions while on a journey. Rather, he lives in the moment and trusts God for the rest. And if that means he goes hungry, he uses the opportunity to fast and pray. The fact that he spends so much time praying and singing the psalms (he would have known the entire psalter by heart) meant that his mind would be saturated wi...
2023-02-0514 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 10Perhaps the best known of the stories about Cuthbert. Yet if anyone thought 'Celtic' Christianity, or more correctly Irish monasticism, a romantic idealism, this story must surely dispel any such myth. Cuthbert spends night after night up to his armpits secretly praying in the freezing North Sea, reciting the psalms. Nobody even knew he was doing it until after his death. This level of asceticism is utterly alien to most of us these days, but it clearly wasn't in those: Bede's focus is not on the severity of Cuthbert's vigil, but what happened after it. The spying monk is...
2023-02-0515 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 9On Boisil's death, Cuthbert takes over as head of the monastery at Melrose. Bede spends a lot of time describing Cuthbert's ministry, not just within the cloister, but more significantly, without it. He is driven by genuine compassion to seek out those that no-one else will visit because of their remoteness and poverty. This description of his life is so important to Bede that he repeats this entire chapter, word-for-word, in 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People', his most famous and widely read work. It says as much about Bede as it does about Cuthbert.Jesus continues...
2023-02-0518 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 8Having founded, and been given oversight of the new monastery at Ripon, Eata, Cuthbert, and the rest of the monks are kicked out when the king is persuaded to give it over the Wilfred, newly returned from Rome, instead. The year is 664, a year of plague and the Synod of Whitby, where Wilfred wins the argument over the calculation for the date of Easter, and the type of monastic discipline monks should follow (epitomised in the Roman (Petrine) or Irish (druidic) tonsure).They return to Melrose, but both Boisil and Cuthbert are struck down by the plague...
2023-02-0519 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 7Abbot Eata took Cuthbert and some of the other monks from Melrose south, to the newly-built monastery at Ripon, leaving Boisil in charge. At this stage they were still following the Irish monastic tradition, rather than the Roman (that was to change after the Synod of Whitby in 664). Cuthbert is given the role of guestmaster, the public face of the monastery. The practices of hospitality related in the story are humbling in the way they are taken for granted by Bede. But on one particular occasion a young guest turns out to something unexpected.
2023-02-0518 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 6Having been contemplating his future path for some time, Cuthbert decides to take the plunge. He trades in his spear for a pruning hook, his sword for a ploughshare, and his horse for a family. He is drawn to his local monastery of Melrose, rather than the renowned community on Holy Island, by the reputation for holiness of the prior, Boisil, with whom he was to form a firm bond of friendship and respect. So begins his life as a monastic in the Irish tradition.Jesus, driven out of his home town of Nazareth in the hills...
2023-02-0519 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 5Researching family trees has become a widespread pastime in recent decades, as folk seek to discover the characters behind their ancestral past. We never read Jesus' family tree in the liturgical calendar - its considered too tedious and of little more than academic interest. Yet two Gospel writers thought it important enough to include the two versions. Today we listen to the names of each of Jesus' forebears in Luke's list who have lived, all the way back into the mists of time. Most of them had not a clue that they would ever be remembered, let alone be...
2023-02-0519 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 4As a young lad, Cuthbert was a hill shepherd. Like David in the days of King Saul, the Judean hill shepherds in Palestine on the night Jesus was born, and the Transylvanian hill shepherds of today, that meant staying with the sheep at night out on the hills to protect them from lions (in Palestine) and wolves (in Europe). It was dangerous work.While Cuthbert keeps vigil as the other shepherds sleep, he sees a sight that will change his life for ever - angels carrying the soul, as he was later to discover, of the great...
2023-02-0517 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 3Some monks are in trouble at sea - and the Tynesiders jeer at them. But Cuthbert, as a young man, shows incredible strength of character, speaking out against the crowd and facing their taunts. Not sure I could have done what he did, but, interestingly, his reasoning has to do with what it means to be human.In our Gospel, Christ is born. The shepherds watching their sheep on the hill see a vision of angels that changes their lives, just as Cuthbert, watching his sheep on the hill, will tomorrow (day 4). With Mary and Joseph we...
2023-02-0519 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 2We learn that Cuthbert, as a young lad, lived in a household with servants, and his family therefore had some status. Later in the story, as a young man, we find he had a horse and spear, so was probably one of the king's warriors. But he was also a shepherd, spending nights out on the Cheviots looking after the sheep, which we will come to on Day 4.However, in this episode Cuthbert is in excruciating pain from a knee injury, no longer able to walk - perhaps the result of an ACL injury from his boisterous...
2023-02-0516 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLenten Prayer with St Cuthbert - Day 1The first of a series of 15-20 minute times of morning prayer through Lent to start the day with readings from the psalms, the Gospel of Luke, a chapter from Bede’s Life of Cuthbert, and some prayers. The pace is deliberately slow, to allow for contemplation, reflection, and supplication. If you are looking for something quick and amusing, you won’t find it here…St Cuthbert is the Anglo-Saxon saint of northern England who lived in the 7th Century and died in 687AD. He is renowned for his love of God, and his care for, and kindne...
2023-02-0519 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodGardens of The WordA man was once convicted as a 'terrorist' for advocating a system of beliefs that threatened the status quo. He was tried before a kangaroo court and executed as a common criminal on wasteland outside the city wall. This man, apparently, displays both God's wisdom and his power. What?To understand, we turn to the Gospels. But we can't approach them like any other book because we already know the end before we begin. No, instead we need to see them as secret gardens to explore, with corners populated by extraordinary plants, bursting with exuberant and colour-filled...
2023-01-2922 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodEchoes of LightWhat does it mean to "dwell in darkness"? While we can probably all identify "dark" situations around the world, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us might recognise that each of us have dark areas in our lives. They might result from external circumstances where we are held in some form of captivity by someone, possibly close to us, or oppressive situations in which we find ourselves, or internal struggles. Some are weighed down with guilt, some with pain, or deep anger, or just plain loneliness. Jesus' invitation to the first disciples on the shores of the...
2023-01-2212 min
Folk on FootMaddy Prior and Rose-Ellen Kemp at Stones Barn in Cumbria“The snow it is lying on Bewcastle FellAnd the wind strips the skin from my face.The bare bones of a tree give some shelter to meBut still it’s a draughty old place.”Come to “the least populated area of the least populated county in England” and take shelter from the elements in the warm welcome of Stones Barn where Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span and her daughter Rose-Ellen Kemp are hosting one of their acclaimed singing weekends. Guest tutor Martin Carthy reveals how he discovered the joys of traditional singing when he wa...
2023-01-1342 min
In Search of the Mystery of God8th DayIts eight days after Christmas and a recently-born Jewish baby is circumcised and named on his 8th day of life, as all Jewish boys have been for over 3000 years. But why is this one special, and why on the eighth day? In a world where all time is governed by a 7-day cycle, what does this eight mean? It all goes back (as everything does) to the opening chapters of Genesis, and that extraordinarily perspicacious story of Creation (and Fall). Dust and ashes. Poetry and mystery. Justice and freedom. The God of Joy is at work...Poem...
2023-01-0113 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodSpot the God (in Bethlehem)We hear the Christmas story year after year; the shepherds, the angels, the wise men. And it all seems so obvious, so blatant. But what did the shepherds actually see? Just an ordinary wrapped baby in the byre with a young mother and father. How was that a recognisable sign? Or the wise men who travelled following a moving star (what does that even mean?). All they found, too, was an ordinary baby with a mother. One wonders how all this ordinariness can carry the weight of centuries of prophecies, and the hopes of an entire nation... But this...
2022-12-1112 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLight in the DarknessLike a thief in the night, the Lord will come on clouds in Glory. The paradox is resolved in the fact that clouds hide the light. The Gospels are littered with warnings that we might miss his coming unless we are very careful. And then we discover that Christ is already here - our task is to live in his light in the midst of the darkness, to beat the swords into ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks. Welcome to Advent.Poem: 'The Coming' by RS ThomasOT Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5NT Reading...
2022-11-2710 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodA Kingdom and A KingJesus was mockingly called 'The King of The Jews'. He was given a purple robe, a sceptre, a crown and a throne - all the regalia still used by the British monarchy today. We vest the wealth of the nation in our monarchy, and they are bathed with military honours.But for all our tradition, does this actually have anything to do with kingship? And who decides what a real king looks like, and how a real king should act? They thought they knew in the 1stC, and it looked a lot like our modern expectations. Have...
2022-11-2011 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodUs and ThemWar begins in the soul. It is planted through the stories we are told by those around us, and that we then tell ourselves - stories of 'us' and 'them'. In these stories our fellow humans are cast as somehow different, other than 'us'; not 'us'. This, then, allows us to distance ourselves from them, and in that move lies the licence to deny them the same humanity as 'us'. This is the first step of murder and of war - the denial of a fellow human as brother or sister.So what does it mean to...
2022-11-1312 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodThe Still CentreTurmoil and uncertainty all around. From the crisis in social care, to terrifying food, energy, and mortgage inflation; from government sleaze to the 'invasion' by the destitute and homeless; from children dying of starvation to personal rockets to the moon; from the Trumpeting of the end of democracy to the rise of nationalism and xenophobia; from corporate mega-profits to the extinction of the human race through catastrophic climate change: take your pick. We can find glimpses of goodness in the personal, but broaden out and there is injustice and injustice at every turn.Job is devastated by...
2022-11-0614 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodHow to Harrow HellHell is separation from the God whose being is Love. It is the place of bitterness, hatred, manipulation, vindictiveness, violence,loneliness, emptiness, worthlessness. All of us have been there, many live there. We have all pointed the finger of blame at others while failing to notice the three pointing back at us. Jesus confronts our hypocrisy by visiting those who 'deserve' our hatred. The hell in which they live fractures in the presence of his love: hell is harrowed. Dare we follow in his footsteps?Poem: 'The Poet' by George Mackay BrownReadings: Isaiah 1:10-18...
2022-10-3016 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodThe Desert is JudgedNot the wilderness only, but the heart also, can be a dark, lonely, and deserted place, not least when seen under the glare of a ruthlessly honest conscience. And yet there is no other way to come to God. We follow the tax collector into the desert, and discover the extraordinary judgement of God, not just on ourselves, but on all creation.Reading: An extract from "Now, This Bell Tolling Softly for Another , Says to Me: Thou Must Die" by John DonneBible Readings: Joel 2:23-endLuke 18:9-14
2022-10-2313 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodWhere is God?A rabbi wanders in no-man's-land between two countries where the outcasts dwell. He sends them to the Temple to praise God. But one of them returns before reaching his destination. Or does he? The sermon for Trinity 17.Readings: 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19Poem: RS Thomas 'The Prayer'
2022-10-0916 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodBaptism as PilgrimageThe means, or the end? The journey, or the destination? "Lord, we do not even know where you are going. How can we know the way?" But actually all we have is this mysteriously small moment we call 'now' in which to live. All else lies untouchably in the future or in the past. What we do with each step we take in the garden of time determines where we are going, and how we get there. The journey is the pilgrimage. And it all begins with the death and rebirth that is baptism, and the gift of the...
2022-09-0410 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodJustice? Or Mercy?We have an innate sense of fairness. Society is built on the principle of justice. And yet justice has no power to give life - only to take it. And where do we stand before a just God? The Lord's Prayer has the key. The Bewcastle Benefice sermon for the 6th Sunday after Trinity, Year C.Poem: 'St David' by D Gwenallt JonesReadings: Hosea 1:2-10Colossians 2:6-15Luke 11:1-13
2022-07-2414 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodLet the Dead bury the Dead?What does Jesus mean, 'let the dead bury the dead'? What is freedom? What is this 'Spirit' that is so often portrayed as a wild bird over the waters, or in the mountains? What does it mean to see the world aright and be alive to God? Some of the questions posed by the readings for Trinity 2.Poem: The Raven, by Norman Nicholson. Old Testament: 2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14. New Testament: Gal 5:1, 13-25. Gospel: Luke 9: 51-end.
2022-06-2616 min
In Search of the Mystery of GodThis darkest of NightsA bleak island battered by the wild North Sea. A ferry ride. Spume against rock. A journey of disappointment through the darkness in search of a hinted promise. But what lay at the end of the road was not what was expected. Christmas Night sermon, 2021.
2022-05-3008 min
Northumbria days outThe Roman wall and BewcastleBritain’s most important Battle? A mile castle, Fort and bath time, A wall fort, Vine land, and Saxon cross
2021-03-1638 min
Absorb The Most Must-Listen Full Audiobook Today!Slightly Dangerous by Mary BaloghPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/317288to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Slightly Dangerous
Series: #6 of Bedwyn Saga
Author: Mary Balogh
Narrator: Rosalyn Landor
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 11 hours 56 minutes
Release date: April 18, 2017
Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.43 of Total 82
Ratings of Narrator: 4.77 of Total 26
Genres: Historical
Publisher's Summary:
All of London is abuzz over the imminent arrival of Wulfric Bedwyn, the reclusive, cold-as-ice Duke of Bewcastle, at the most glittering social event of the season. Some whisper of a tragic love affair. Others say he is so aloof and passionless that not even the greatest beauty could capture his attention. But o...
2017-04-1811h 56
Full Audiobooks in Romance, HistoricalSlightly Dangerous by Mary BaloghPlease visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/317288 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Slightly Dangerous Series: #6 of Bedwyn Saga Author: Mary Balogh Narrator: Rosalyn Landor Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 56 minutes Release date: April 18, 2017 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.43 of Total 82 Ratings of Narrator: 4.77 of Total 26 Genres: Historical Publisher's Summary: All of London is abuzz over the imminent arrival of Wulfric Bedwyn, the reclusive, cold-as-ice Duke of Bewcastle, at the most glittering social event of the season. Some whisper of a tragic love affair. Others say he is so aloof and passionless that not even the greatest beauty could capture his attention. B...
2017-04-1803 minAccess Essential Full Audiobooks in Romance, HistoricalSlightly Dangerous by Mary BaloghPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/317288to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Slightly Dangerous
Series: #6 of Bedwyn Saga
Author: Mary Balogh
Narrator: Rosalyn Landor
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 11 hours 56 minutes
Release date: April 18, 2017
Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.43 of Total 82
Ratings of Narrator: 4.77 of Total 26
Genres: Historical
Publisher's Summary:
All of London is abuzz over the imminent arrival of Wulfric Bedwyn, the reclusive, cold-as-ice Duke of Bewcastle, at the most glittering social event of the season. Some whisper of a tragic love affair. Others say he is so aloof and passionless that not even the greatest beauty could capture his attention. But o...
2017-04-1811h 56
The Mike Harding Folk ShowMike Harding Folk Show 146PODCAST: 11 Oct 2015 01 Tamp 'Em Up Solid - Ry Cooder - Paradise and Lunch02 The Cottager's Reply - Chris Wood - Trespasser03 Young Leonard - Jackie Oates - Hyperboreans04 The Star Of Munster - Emma Sweeney - Pangea05 All Among The Waves - Harry Bird And The Rubber Wellies - Bricks and Feathers06 Byker Hill - Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick - Byker Hill07 Great Fire Of Byker - Rob Heron and The Tea Pad Orchestra - Money Isn't Everything
2015-10-111h 15