John Henry Newman, 1833. Have you ever noticed that hymns of repentance are among the gentlest of all? For with repentance comes the sweetness of restored love and gratitude, drowning all shame. The prodigal son tasted it when his father threw his arms about his neck and kissed him.
This is one of the poems I THOUGHT I understood! When my husband and I first got married, I copied it out in calligraphy as a gift to him. I am amazed and astonished at how often your choices of words, poems, and songs coincide with events and prayers. Last month I bought a small devotional book entitled Lead, Kindly Light. Then the recording of the poem I know so well by the Mariners [I'd never heard of them] brought me to tears. One of my students lost his beloved Grandpa in the night. So the poem took on still another veil of meaning. Thank you!
Carol, I am so glad that we chose this poem for this week, reading your comment. Tony decided this time to walk everyone through the poem, stanza by stanza. The traditional hymns are such a real support and comfort, and they lead us -- as this hymn, in particular emphasized -- in that direction which God chooses. God rest the soul of your student's dear Grandpa.
I cannot hear this poem without thinking of Thomas Howard, whose account of his conversion, with the title of this poem, was instrumental in my own coming into the Church.
I just received this book of Thomas Howard a few days ago. It's a connection for me in other ways as Thomas was a brother of Elizabeth Elliott, window of Jim Elliott of the Auca Indians mission in Ecuador. I was in high school in 1956 when that morning the news came on announcing the death of the 5 missionaries. Made a big impression on me in my teen years.
I met Tom a couple of times, the last at Gordon College, quite a few years ago now. He was irrepressibly cheerful, a wise man who never took himself seriously. A beautiful soul.
The Light continues to lead-- one must but step out of the shadows.
This is one of the poems I THOUGHT I understood! When my husband and I first got married, I copied it out in calligraphy as a gift to him. I am amazed and astonished at how often your choices of words, poems, and songs coincide with events and prayers. Last month I bought a small devotional book entitled Lead, Kindly Light. Then the recording of the poem I know so well by the Mariners [I'd never heard of them] brought me to tears. One of my students lost his beloved Grandpa in the night. So the poem took on still another veil of meaning. Thank you!
Carol, I am so glad that we chose this poem for this week, reading your comment. Tony decided this time to walk everyone through the poem, stanza by stanza. The traditional hymns are such a real support and comfort, and they lead us -- as this hymn, in particular emphasized -- in that direction which God chooses. God rest the soul of your student's dear Grandpa.
I cannot hear this poem without thinking of Thomas Howard, whose account of his conversion, with the title of this poem, was instrumental in my own coming into the Church.
I just received this book of Thomas Howard a few days ago. It's a connection for me in other ways as Thomas was a brother of Elizabeth Elliott, window of Jim Elliott of the Auca Indians mission in Ecuador. I was in high school in 1956 when that morning the news came on announcing the death of the 5 missionaries. Made a big impression on me in my teen years.
I met Tom a couple of times, the last at Gordon College, quite a few years ago now. He was irrepressibly cheerful, a wise man who never took himself seriously. A beautiful soul.