Jewel of the Saintonge

Tags

Aulnay church, camino santiago, pilgrim route, Romanesque, Saintonge, World Heritage site

Aulnay

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

The Good Shepherd

Tags

Cotswolds, Good Shepherd, parable, stained glass, Tom Denny, Upper Slaughter church

…gives his life for the sheep

Glass by Tom Denny in Upper Slaughter Church, Cotswolds

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Meysey Hampton- a Sermon in Glass

Tags

Cotswolds, crucifixion, Dismas, Gestas, gold frankincense myrrh, Meysey Hampton, Paradise, paradox, Penitent Thief, Romans 5, Sheol, St Peter, wormwood

 Meysey Hampton church (Cotswolds) has stained

glass fragments pertaining to the crucifixion.  I believe they

were discovered in a barn, sold to the Paul Getty museum,

but have been returned home.

I’m Dismas.

 

Who the hell is that? you ask.

And where’s the other rogue – the one who mocked?

 

If I say I’m The Penitent Good Thief,

does that give you a clue?  Through gritted teeth,

I am trying to process a promise

that I’ll be translated to Paradise.

I’d get there sooner if they’d break my legs.

I can hardly breathe for my fractured ribs.

 

At the cusp of salvation/ damnation,

I turned my face, to see He’d gone ahead.

 

Some think my pardon was an act of grace,

bestowed because I showed a flash of faith,

but others say it was a just reward,

because I stopped those bandits – and Gestas

(no longer with us) from nicking gold,

frankincense, myrrh from that Man’s family,

aeons ago, when they were fugitives.

 

I asked then that He should remember me,

should our paths cross again – one day they did.

 

Well, some say Christ Himself was a Good Thief,

since He stole us back from Satan’s kingdom.

Do two wrongs make a right?  I do not know,

but I am warming to the paradox.

 

Salvabitur vix justus in die

judicii/ ergo salvabitur.*

 

I’m a glimpse of your hope of glory.

Hey, you malefactors – just look and live!

Everything else is a heap of smithereens.

 

I joined Him in Sheol and freed captives,

but, for the life of me, I do not know

what happened to Gestas; nor where he is.

 

I was found, restored and here I hang now –

unbaptised, but, oddly, beatified,

waiting for my promised resurrection.

Uncertain of what was meant by ‘today,’

but first in the queue to meet St Peter.

Meanwhile, give me a sip of that wormwood

and, since He didn’t want His, I’ll have it.

 

 

• Romans 5 v 7-9

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, but God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Abide in the Vine

Tags

black grapes, Jesus' sayings, pruning, The Vine

My first grapes!

Kept thinking about The Vine and the need to ‘abide’ if one is a branch.

I am a minor twig, but I want to be fruitful so I am not pruned and

thrown on the fire.

It’s Not Coming Home

Tags

Benjamin's sack, Croatians, diptych, football, Henry Bolingbroke, Joseph, King Edward, King Richard, livery badge, martlet, Pope, Revenge Parliament, shrines, St George, WAGS, Wilton diptych, World Cup

Viewing The Wilton Diptych on the Day England Realised

‘It [wasn’t] coming home.’

 

 

 

 

We knelt with King Richard – supplicated;

wanted to wave that pennant of St George,

which was frustratingly just out of reach.

There was no revolt; the ‘peasants’ behaved.

Why did the Virgin reward Croatians?

Why did Henry Bolingbroke take the crown?

Why is the Pope a Catholic?

 

All our hearts were couchant and chained today.

The shock of failure was epiphanal.

Our livery badge was the three lions.

The angel team seemed to be in clover,

while we were brought to our knees in wasteland.

 

After four years the Revenge Parliament

will sit.  We will challenge hollow power.

Our heraldic past was manufactured –

attributed, as Edward’s martlet shield.

Our feet seemed to be made of feathers

like the little birds thereon depicted.

 

Shrines and treasures are often portable

and they can be exchanged across countries,

like trophy WAGS.  We would have kissed the feet

of anyone who’d helped us win the cup;

not let it pass from us

into some thieving Benjamin’s rucksack.

With sainted management behind us, we,

like Joseph, will recover the chalice.

Youthful Madonna

Tags

acrylic, chalk, gold leaf, Madonna, portrait

More Treasures from Gloucester Cathedral

Tags

Adam and Eve, Alice Kettle frontal, fan vaulting, Gloucester Cathedral

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Triptych (Gloucester Cathedral)

Tags

crucifixion, deposition, Gloucester Cathedral, Ian McKillop, Lady Chapel, triptych

 

                        by Ian McKillop

                       Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Paralytic Goes Through The Roof

Tags

deus ex machina, Joshua, miracles, paralytic, Rahab

Engraving by Bernhard Rode, c 1775

Photo by James Steakley, 2009.  Wiki Commons

 

My friends let me down

and they vandalised the house.

I went through the roof –

deus ex machina (not).

Still, theatrical.

Talk about vertiginous!

I felt suspended,

like those spies in Jericho

whom Rahab rescued.

Well, I was a stretcher case,

until Joshua –

this one – spoke to me.

I do believe that

He could make the sun stand still.

(My friends will repair the roof.)

Mr Brocklehurst’s Catechism

Tags

catechism, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Mr Brocklehurst, orphanage, Paradise, Pharisee

I have always liked this dialogue from ‘Jane Eyre’

but I have put it into metre and expanded it a little.

 

Where do the wicked go when their death knell

has been tolled, you insignificant child?

Good sir, I believe that they go to Hell.

Describe this place reserved for those not mild,

nor meek.

Sir, it is a pit full of fire.

Should you like to fall into such a place?

(Then you would not join the Heavenly choir.)

I hope to reach Paradise, by God’s grace.

So, how might you avoid a dark decree?

I must try to keep in the best of health;

I must not listen to a Pharisee,

nor to those who slavishly amass wealth.

In short, I must take care never to die.

My God is Truth and yours, Sir, is a Lie.