Faith in Action

Attending XR's The Big One

29 May 2023

When Extinction Rebellion (XR) announced on social media that they were aiming to get 100,000 people outside Parliament to put pressure on the UK government to ACT on climate change, I knew I had to be there. The climate crisis is such a dominating and complex issue that it is easy to...

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Little Kindnesses with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and St Therese of Lisieux

15 May 2023

I’m on something of a St Therese of Lisieux bender at the moment, and thinking about the Little Way and all its little acts of love. I’ve also been rereading Bonhoeffer’s Letters from Prison, my favourite of his writings.  

You wouldn’t think the letters of a man imprisoned by the Nazis...

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Finding the Divine in Moss

27 Apr 2023

Do you remember the first time you noticed moss?

I do. I was a child, young enough that I wasn’t in school yet, and my mother was taking my brother and me for a walk in the woods. Before she had children, my mother worked as an environmental scientist, doing ecosystem assessments for an...

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Prayer Adventure Week Six: The End

5 Apr 2023

Well folks, my Lenten prayer adventure has come to an end. At least for now. During this time, I have cried a lot, learned a lot, and spent a lot of time on trains. I’ve learned that the rosary doesn’t work for me but the examen does, and that I am too Protestant for Marian devotion, but find a...

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Prayer Adventure Week Five: Holy Women and Wholly Saints Part 2

29 Mar 2023

To read part one of this blog, click here.

 

Day Four—St Catherine of Siena

St Catherine of Siena was not a nun, unlike the rest of our female saints. She does, however,...

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Imagining a World without Nuclear Weapons

27 Mar 2023

Nuclear weapons are one of those issues that many people seem to have forgotten about. For people like me, who were born after the end of the Cold War and can’t remember a time when nuclear disarmament was very much in the public consciousness, it can be a surprise to find that nuclear weapons...

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Prayer Adventure Week Four: Holy Women and Wholly Saints

22 Mar 2023

This week, I am doing something a little different. We’re going on an adventure here, after all. I’ve spent some time this week reading about the lives of various female saints (and women who maybe should be saints), and I’ve realised that all of them have had quite difficult lives. They lived...

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Prayer Adventure Week Three: A Little Bit of Liturgy

14 Mar 2023

This whole project was inspired by reading God Loves the Autistic Mind. It’s a remarkable book by autistic Catholic priest Father Matthew P. Schneider that is part memoir, part theological exploration of autism, and part prayer guide.  The second half of the book is a series of...

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Prayer Adventure Week Two: Round and Round the Rosary

8 Mar 2023

I’ve always had a fascination with the rosary. Growing up very Protestant (so Protestant I didn’t really know any practicing Catholics until I went to university), they always seemed like forbidden objects. I remember wanting one as a child and being told that they weren’t for people like me....

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Prayer Adventure Week One: Have you tried Ignatian Spirituality?

1 Mar 2023

It feels like every time I admit that I struggle with prayer in front of a Catholic, I get the same response.

‘Have you tried Ignatian spirituality? You should look into the Daily Examen.’

No, of course I haven’t. I’m Lutheran. Also, I hate praying, I don’t exactly want to do a...

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