James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 18/04/2026God offers us quiet, contemplative eyes; God also calls us to prophetic and critical involvement in the pain and sufferings of our world—both at the same time. —Richard Rohr The Contemplative Eye Henry Moore 031
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 12/04/2026There comes a moment in every life when you find yourself suddenly wondering about the point of it all — It is a hollowing, a withering, a deadening of the spirit that can manifest as burnout or creative block, as a breakdown or a midlife crisis, or as the persistent low-frequency din of despair. 021
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 06/04/2026From Richard Rohr as we mark the 40 days of Easter So, to be a Christian is to be inevitably and forever a person of hope. God in Christ is saying this is what will last: My life and my love will always and forever have the final word. 052
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 04/04/2026www.jameswoodward.online/blog/visitin...jameswoodward.onlineVisiting Mount Athos on Holy Saturday 2026 | James WoodwardI have been journeying alongside a religious community this Holy Week. Today is that in between time : Holy Saturday as it sits between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In the Convent, bathed in silence... 000
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 03/04/2026It is the incarnation that redeems us all and gathers the whole of creation to God in Christ. So the good news is not that Jesus is perfect man was killed to appease and angry God, but that God has lived a human life, including death, and so affirm the eternal value of the cosmos. Mother Jane SLG 001
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 02/04/2026www.jameswoodward.online/blog/on-bein...jameswoodward.onlineOn being nourished by curiosity and wisdom. | James WoodwardI am all the poorer for having had this book sit on my waiting to read pile for too many months. Some time away in Holy Week offered the chance to drink from the wisdom in these nine chapters. There a... 010
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love towards the human race sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross: grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; 032
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 30/03/2026www.jameswoodward.online/blog/theolog...jameswoodward.onlineTheology and the Life of the Church : Truss on the Legacy of David Jenkins | James WoodwardThis book was just too personal, relevant and compelling not to engage with. David Jenkins was a fundamental part of my vocational journey. He was real, passionate, theologically lucid and a heartful ... 020
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 27/03/2026The renewed life, however, does not remain content in grass meadows or by quiet waters…. Instead, those who are citizens of this sacred realm are called forth on pathways of justice to make God’s name—God’s sabbath reign—known throughout the world. 020
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 13/03/2026Some personal news about my new season of life ! I am full of deep gratitude for these rich and fulfilling years : and best wishes for those involved in this process for all that has been : thanks For all that will be : Yes 262
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 04/03/2026But grace is also contagious. An act of kindness inspires another act of kindness. A random smile is exchanged for an opened door.A single act of forgiveness can feel like it heals the world. Grace begets grace. Love rubs off on those who are loved…. 042
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 25/02/2026The truth is that we’re all on a wilderness journey out of some form of slavery. On a personal level, we know what it is to be enslaved to fear, alcohol, food, rage, worry, lust, shame, inferiority, or control. 030
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 24/02/2026All journeys require an open mind—a mind that is not conditioned by past knowledge and experience, but open to possibility. Questioning opens the doors of our imagination, enabling us to consider alternatives to the status quo. Unless one is capable of imagining one cannot free oneself from bondage 000
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 23/02/2026In Moses, we see the connection between action and contemplation. Contemplation is the link to the Source of Love that allows activists to stay engaged for the long haul without burning out. Moses shows us that this marriage of action and contemplation is essential and possible. 011
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 21/02/2026The desert helped these Christians lean more deeply into undermining their assumptions and cravings for what is and what should be. —Rachel Wheeler 010
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 19/02/2026There is no way of talking about prayer or the spiritual teaching of the Desert Fathers -they had the hard work & experience of a lifetime of striving to re-direct every aspect of body, mind, and soul to God, and that is what they talked about. Prayer was a life continually turned towards God. Ward 001
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 15/02/2026The self, the place where we live, is a place of illusion. Goodness is connected with the attempt to see the unself… to pierce the veil of selfish consciousness and join the world as it really is. 000
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 12/02/2026Innocence The innocence and purity of heart which belong to paradise are a complete emptiness of self in which all is the work of God, the free and unpredictable expression of [God’s] love, the work of grace. In the purity of original innocence, all is done in us but without us. 011
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 11/02/2026The way back to Eden, the space between “paradise lost & gained” the place where we live our lives, can be one of love and suffering, humility and awe. It can also be a return to wonder - to the movement or the dance of belonging and becoming. It is the place where we laugh and cry and sing. @CAC 011
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 06/02/2026Our goal is not to create enemies but to proclaim the vision of God that is so big that everyone is welcome - it also means that those who have been oppressed are free from oppression, and those who have done the oppressing are free from being the oppressor, that everyone is set free. 131
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 05/02/2026scarcity or abundance? The worldview of abundance. We have to choose it, because it doesn’t come naturally. I’m convinced that it’s the worldview of the gospel. It’s a big world out there. There’s always another creative way to look at things. Do we remember to look at life that way? #Rohr 141
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 03/02/2026The consequences of justice and righteousness are shalom, an enduring Sabbath of joy and well-being. But the alternative is injustice and oppression, which leads inevitably to turmoil and anxiety, with no chance of well-being. 132
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Almost all of Jesus’s parables begin with the same phrase: “The reign of God is like….” Jesus fully knows he is speaking in simile, metaphor, story, and symbol. Many Christians have not granted him that freedom, and thus we miss or avoid many of his major messages. We are much poorer for it. 141
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 25/01/2026From Rohr This is what Walter Brueggemann, in Theology of the Old Testament, calls a “credo of five adjectives” that continually recurs in the Hebrew Scriptures: This God that Israel—and Jesus—discovered is consistently seen to be “merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love.” 041
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 17/01/2026There is no pressure on infinite holy mystery to create and continuously support a world. How could there be? It is done freely, as a flaming, generous act of love, the plentitude of infinite love overflowing. —Elizabeth Johnson 001
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Creation (what God did and continues to do daily) and the carrying out of shalom (what we are to do daily) are inextricably interwoven. We have the opportunity each day to participate in God’s shalom activities. 130
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 10/01/2026One of the hardest things to learn in life is that the heart is a clock too fast not to break. We lurch into loving, only to discover again and again that it takes a long time to know people, to understand people — and “understanding is love’s other name.” 051
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 04/01/2026A great paradox of being alive in this civilization is that we have come to dread and devalue the triumph of having lived, forgetting that to grow old is not a punishment but a privilege — that of having survived in order to begin the continuous creative act of holding on while letting go. #oldage 011
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 03/01/2026BLESSING FOR OLD AGE May the light of your soul mind you May all your worry and anxiousness about becoming old be transfigured, May you be given a wisdom with the eye of your soul, to see this beautiful time of harvesting -John O’Donahue 051
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 02/01/2026Refreshing, cold and bright Chirk Castle this morning #NewYear26 141
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 01/01/2026My first Negroni of the year: and raising the glass to wish you all well for this new year ! 171
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 01/01/2026Thinking about some space and time for yourself ? Do consider @sarumcollege.bsky.social www.sarum.ac.uk/learning/pri...sarum.ac.ukPrivate Stays, Retreats, Study Breaks in Cathedral CloseArrange a self-directed break, personalised stay, retreat, study break or sabbatical at Sarum College in Cathedral Close. 153
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 31/12/20252026 : A new Beginning ? There are moments in life when we are reminded that we are unfinished, that the story we have been telling ourselves about who we are and where our life leads is yet unwritten. To begin anything — is to cast upon yourself a spell against stagnation. 120
Reposted by James WoodwardFrank Beck @diehoren.bsky.social · 29/12/2025On this date in 1926, Rainer Maria Rilke died of leukemia at a clinic on Lake Geneva, at the age of 51. Three years before, he had published the Duino Elegies, the first of which has these lines (my translation): Voices, voices. Listen, my heart, as only saints have listened . . . 1144
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 29/12/2025We live on in the ongoing fragility and brokenness of ourselves, but we don’t walk in the darkness that surrounds us. Rather, we live in the light that transcends, permeates, and unexplainably shines through that darkness. We walk in the light that shines on … 011
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 27/12/2025www.jameswoodward.online/blog/is-ther...jameswoodward.onlineIs there any hope for theology in higher education? | James WoodwardI am grateful to Peter Kevern for drawing my attention to this book while he was teaching here at Sarum College. My search for it in Oxfords' Blackwells bookshop was worth the effort and time on a Sat... 021
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 24/12/2025To be alive in the adventure of Jesus is to kneel at the manger and gaze upon that little baby who is radiant with so much promise for our world today. 021
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 23/12/2025For Teilhard, the seeing of Christ in all things was the most powerful source for Christian renewal, for the transformation of humanity, and for the responsible, reverential care of our planet. 021
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 22/12/2025Religion’s essential function is to radically connect us with everything. A cosmic notion of the Christ competes with and excludes no one. The Creator’s love and presence are grounded in the created world, distinction between “natural” and “supernatural” falls apart. 030
Reposted by James WoodwardThe English Oak Project @thekentacorn.bsky.social · 21/12/2025For the eternal optimists it’s the first day of summer tomorrow 🥳🌳 123050
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 21/12/2025Christ is a word for the Primordial Template through whom “all things came into being, and not one thing had its being except through him” Seeing in this way has reframed, reenergized, and broadened my own belief, and I believe it could be Christianity’s unique contribution in the world religions. 010
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 20/12/2025Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) 031
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 19/12/2025www.jameswoodward.online/blog/fragmen...jameswoodward.onlineFragments of a story : enriched by the ministry and learning of Douglas Dales | James WoodwardI have spent some considerable time over the past three decades writing about building communities where age, and the wisdom of age is valued and celebrated. All of us need to both narrate our story a... 011
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Contemplation is nothing other than a secret, peaceful, loving inflow of God. If given room, it will fire the soul in the spirit of love. —John of the Cross 041
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars. 053
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 17/12/2025God is the wisdom of every lifetime, a deep plunge, the sinew and muscle of ethical responsibility, a community of goodness, but more. Descriptions reach out as far as they can toward God and then, like a rubber band stretched too far, they snap back and we are left with the silence of mystery & awe 010
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 15/12/2025The roots of ultimate insights are found … on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depth of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery. 000
James Woodward @woodwardjames.bsky.social · 14/12/2025How do we live whole in a breaking world? It helps to bless what is simply for being. It helps to thank everything for its unbidden everythingness. And still we need help — help holding on to the beauty amid the brutality, help stripping the armors of certainty to be complicated by contraction. 020