by Peter James | May 11, 2023 | Celtic prayer
I’ve avoided the traditional “Irish blessing” in this daily exercise of prayer. To my way of thinking, this prayer has been over-sentimentalized as a needlepoint favorite and a staple at weddings. Silly me! I’ve allowed its popularity to...
by Peter James | May 10, 2023 | Robert Robinson
Robert Robinson (1735-1790) was riding in a stagecoach. To break the monotony of the trip, a fellow passenger began to sing softly the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The young woman asked Robert what he thought of the song. “Madam, I am...
by Peter James | May 9, 2023 | Nicolas Herman
I’m fascinated by all the ways, dramatic and ordinary, by which people come to faith in Jesus. Nicolas Herman (1614-1691) of Lorraine, France was converted by a tree. Seriously! When he was eighteen, he came upon a tree stripped of its leaves in winter. The...
by Peter James | May 8, 2023 | Francis Thompson
Wilfrid Meynell opened his mailbox in 1887 to retrieve a small bundle of poems written on dirty scraps of paper. As publisher of the London magazine Merry England, he was accustomed to receiving variously shaped parcels. He filed it away and retrieved it three months...
by Peter James | May 7, 2023 | St. Teresa of Avila
Some Christians hear God’s voice in visions and experience God’s presence through dreams. So-called mystical Christians” are people who not only think great thoughts about God, but experience God deep in the soul. Teresa of Avila (1515-1581) was a...
