As George Herbert and Fiona Sampson make clear, partaking in the eucharist feat is our way of becoming intimate with God.
Herbert paradoxically describes Lent as a “dear Feast” in which we can revel.
Posted in Herbert (George) | Also tagged Lent, Religion |
In “The Call,” George Herbert opens himself to God’s love with a confidence not found in many of his poems.
“Collar” works as a triple pun—a clerical collar, a prisoner’s collar, and “choler.” Why, for all that I have done, am I only harvesting a thorn, George Herbert cries out in the poem by that name. Why am I still standing in suit to God when I could simply turn my back on it all?
George Herbert’s frustrations at not communicating with God are understandable because the words we use to pray will always feel inadequate. Rather than this being bad, however, we should learn to be humble. It is good that we feel wounded by our words because it is in our brokenness where we most feel God’s presence.
In threatening God that he will find another master, George Herbert sounds like a five-year-old threatening to run away from his mother. Deep down, he is acknowledging that he has no choice but to love God.
I write this the night before our sunrise Easter service where, as members of our church choir, Julia and I will arise before dawn to sing in the rising of the sun/son. No matter how early we get up, George Herbert’s “Easter” reassures us, the Lord is always there before us
Spiritual Sunday Last week I wrote about how my friend Alan, beset with cancer, has beenexploring the meaning of love as his health fails. Here’s a beautiful George Herbert poem that captures Alan’s love for creation, his sadness that he must leave it, and (perhaps) his sense that his love may transcend death. Even though [...]
Spiritual Sunday It has finally sunk in with me that my friend Alan will not recover from his cancer, and I find myself wrestling once again with the questions that arose after my son drowned. The biggest question, of course, is whether death is the end. Every Sunday in my Episcopal Church I claim [...]
Spiritual Sunday Today’s poem, a fabulous sonnet by my favorite religious poet, is also very much in the spirit of the times given our mortgage foreclosure crisis. The latest news is that federal attempts to aid homeowners have been meeting with indifferent success and that people continue to lose their homes. George Herbert’s “Redemption” (1633) [...]
Spiritual Sunday There are those who think it an impiety to question God. I find more honest, and true, those people who wrestle with their doubts. That’s why I esteem so highly the poetry of George Herbert, the 17th –century Anglican rector. He is constantly searching for God. In some of his poems he struggles [...]
The gifted nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer knew that his brilliance was not leading him to inner peace. Perhaps he appreciated George Herbert’s poem “The Pulley” for voicing his condition and was soothed by the poet’s vision of final rest.
Saint Chapelle in Paris Spiritual Sunday George Herbert is the author of this lovely 17th-century poem about stained glass windows. As so often with this humble Anglican rector, he is filled with self doubts, seeing himself as “brittle crazy glass,” and wonders how anyone can be worthy enough to preach God’s eternal word. But he [...]
Spiritual Sunday In the Episcopal church we are still in the season of Easter, which is coinciding this year with a particularly beautiful spring. I’ve therefore chosen another Easter poem for “Spiritual Sunday.” This is an emblem poem by my favorite religious poet, George Herbert. It is entitled “Easter Wings”: Lord, Who createdst man in [...]
Giotto, The Last Supper I can think of no better poet to move us into Holy Week than George Herbert, a 17th century Anglican rector who wrestled mightily with a sense of his unworthiness. In his poetry, Herbert is determined to be as honest about his doubts as possible. He is not [...]
George Herbert I’m trying to figure out why Stanley Fish bothers me so. Maybe it’s because I’m already worried that our society doesn’t take poetry seriously enough. Then an English professor with a national forum comes along and confirms that people should consider the study of literature as an arcane study yielding satisfactions only to [...]
