Lay of the Five Senses: A Celebration

Pixabay free image by arverro

Lay of the Five Senses

(Tune: 7.7.7.6 - Gaelic Cradle Song : posted by The Iona Community at Christmas 2025)

 

When my eyes on beauty rest,

when I feel by nature blessed:

when such beauty calms my stress, 

make me deeply thankful.

 

When the scents of herb or flower

waft at me their healing power,

help me feel my tensions lower;

make me deeply thankful.

 

When the sweetness of ripe fruit

tastes so very, very good;

for its heav’nly attributes

make me deeply thankful. 

 

When the touch of friendship true

tells of love and care for you:

means I can enjoy that too;

makes me deeply thankful.

 

When the sound of silence stills

fretful fears and troubling ills,

when God’s peace my being fills:

make me deeply thankful.

Madingley, The Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial

Not far from where we live on the edge of Cambridge UK is the thought-provoking American War Cemetery and Memorial. With unnecessary wars raging across the world, this place of squandered lives seems more than usually poignant.

 

Madingley

Here in ranks and files, 

more regimented 

than those they commemorate

could have ever been on parade,

are white memorials,

representing more than a quarter-of-a-million years 

of squandered human potential.

More than five thousand young lives

brought to a premature end

to bring the dreams of a madman to a halt.

 

This is but a glimpse

of a far further-flung scenario:

just one of many fields of death

planted after the second world war:

the war that made a mockery of its predecessor,

the ‘War to end all wars’.

 

Yet today,

increasingly indiscriminately,

increasingly violently,

increasingly remotely,

played out over and over

in theatres of war

initiated by madmen.

 

 

 

(Cambridge cemetery – basis for estimate of potential lost)

5127 dead and missing

US Age expectancy 1990 = 75.19yrs

So 5000 x (75 -19)= 280,000 years of wasted potential)

 

 

Job 38 v 4 and ff Reimagined for the 21st Century.

I have been generously asked by Dr Ruth Bancewicz, Church Engagement Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion to give a  link to my Reimagining of Job 38 from verse 4 onwards, on the background of my acrylic painting called “Starburst’. The thumbnail here is a jpeg, so as the text could not be easily lifted from the image,  I have followed the thumbnail with a plain words version below and you will find a ‘dropbox’ printable version HERE. 

I found it a delight to overlay the words on to on to my painting and a number of people have been kind in telling me they have found the re-imagining helpful. For me, both exercises try to convey the glory of God in His amazing universe, in the language of today, and building this on the magnificent passage of Job 38 felt compelling. 

Job 38 v4ff re-imagined for Today

on Acrylic ’Starburst’ painted by 

the author

This is not the only re-imagining I have enjoyed putting together. So if this resonates with you, then you might also enjoy Psalm 24 Reimagined for Today which sets out the reimagining in a format for a cantor to speak the verses other than the ‘chorus', which can be sung by a choir or congregation. The 'chorus' in the Psalm starts ‘Lift up Your Heads, you gates’ and in the reimagining becomes ‘Lift up your heads, you galaxies’ and I hope might speak not only to those who are familiar with the Psalms but to some who may never have encountered them - but can see, in this reimagining, a glimpse of the sheer wonder of Creation expressed poetically in English that might be used when looking up on a clear night at the hint of the immensity of Creation. You will also find a link on this page to a YouTube video of the re-imagined Psalm.

Trevor Thorn, 

posted on an unexpected ‘extra’ retreat day on the Island of Iona when another amazing demonstration of the glory of our planet is being manifested in a 'ferry-stopping' storm and we are in the warmth and comfort afforded by The Iona Community a dispersed Christian Community, working for Peace and Justice, which you also might like to check out.                   

Job 38. 4ff re-imagined for the 21^st Century.

 

Where were you when I gave birth to the universe; when my Wisdom called forth particles from the womb of the cosmic void and seeded them into the realm of existence?

 

Who marked off its dimensions and form and let matter prevail over anti-matter?

 

On what were its footings set or who provoked its mighty expansion in the blinking of an eye?

 

How deeply do you comprehend the gift of light or understand the mysteries of its nature?

 

Who of you knows from where the sounds that fill the cosmos emanated or how music distilled its harmonies from the roaring cadences of creation?

 

Who gave water its extraordinary properties, decreed its many forms and accorded rôles to each that it might adhere to the surfaces of gathering spheres, to nurture and give shape to barren terrains?

 

Can you make sense of the patterns of constellations as they would be seen from planets in the extreme reaches of the universe?

 

Can you leap between galaxies or re-fashion the orbits of stars or planets, or yet fully understand the fundamental forces of the cosmos?

 

Can you yet contemplate travelling to the beautiful Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Have you fully uncovered the laws of the universe or can you emulate God’s care for it?

 

Could you reduce turbulences that beset distant planets, weather the extreme storms on other worlds or alter the path of the arrow of time?

 

Have you even perfected knowledge of your own benign planet, understood the reason for its existence and how to encourage your own people to act as responsible stewards for it?

 

Can you fathom in your exquisitely fashioned brain the mind of your maker or conceive the depth of his love?

 

Will you ever understand enough to render praise and thanksgiving truly worthy of the Creator of heaven and the entire cosmos?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aurora over Iona Abbey - Real and imagined!

Sometime between 2015 and 2018, with the sunspot cycle low in its eleven year sequence, I imagined, in pastel, how an aurora might look over Iona Abbey, feeling that such an event, if ever it happened, would beautifully illustrate the idea that Iona is a thin place where heaven reaches down to touch the earth.

So I was absolutely thrilled to see the picture below taken by Mark Wildman, Head Chef at The Bishops House, Iona, on 24th September 2024. Thank you Mark and thank you Robbie (Warden of Bishops House)

Just wonderful!

The pastel was an outworking of a poem I had written in 2015

Aurora

 

Your hand,

O Lord,

ripples the light

at the ends of the earth.

 

You have set the stage

for dancing curtains

to irradiate

the dark hours

preceding

a polar dawn,

with the assistance

of Your beautiful servant

the sun,

whose life-giving

irridescence

is muted

and borrowed,

so we might safely

be wonder-struck

by the glory

of Your

heavenly light.

 

Seals and White Horses

Seals on Lindisfarne Sandbank

Staying once again on the beautiful Holy Island of Lindisfarne and privileged to be able to watch the tides from the lounge and bedroom windows. Sunday 10 days ago we experienced a wild wind which roared up the sound, so I tried to capture the moment and ... consider the future.

Seals and White Horses

(on a Lindisfarne Sandbank)

 

Twice a day,

some twenty score of seals

languidly allow themselves to succumb

to the encroaching sea,

as it steadfastly overwhelms

their sandbank resting-place.

 

But on this tide

a stampede of white horses

chases them

into forced retreat

before a fast-running tide,

driven by ferocious wind.

 

This wind has roared across the Atlantic

having wrought devastation-by-flooding

prior to leaving its last landfall.

 

Yet more extreme weather

resulting from the

undeniable climate chaos,

discerned by the truth-seeking,

broad-based research

of rightly sombre scientists.

 

Too soon, the sandbanks

will be permanently submerged.

 

No respite then for seals.

This post is part of  ‘My Lindisfarne Collection’, the rest of which which can be found HERE

Nested Within Eternity

Life Forces: CGI by the author

Nested Within Eternity

(Drawing on the prevailing scientific views of mid 2023)

 

Nested within eternity

lies creation.

Big bang? Big bounce? 

A single benign universe or multiverses?

Physicists and mathematicians, speculate,

and for a while, in one seat-of-learning or another

a fresh concept will gain traction,

prompting intellectuals to hunt for strings, 

for dimensions, for physical states:

for theories of the sub-atomic

that attempt to explain

our astounding presence, satisfactorily.

 

But the veils persist, sometimes parting

to reveal a new glimpse

of our existence:

minds race to accommodate the novel,

within a new theory of everything.

 

Amazingly-conceived telescopes

uncover new puzzles in hitherto

partially explored wavelengths

and intellects are brought to bear from

a multitude of disciplines

as the apparently, very first

tremblings of matter

emerge, with unexpected patterns

of gases, plasma and time.

 

And beyond it all is that vastness

we call eternity: 

God’s overarching realm

from which,

emanates

all that is seeable,

all that is hidden,

all that remains cosmic mystery,

spliced together with the sheer wonder of love

for everyone and everything that exists

on a small, insignificant planet

which is in danger of being destroyed

by us, its beloved but wilful inhabitants.

 

How can we be so sure of that realm

amidst such awesome mysteries?

Because the all-mighty God

visited us, showing us supreme love

by dying for this wayward race.

Our Earth is Beset by a Crisis

 

Earth and Space  (imagined): Pixabay free image

This poem was written as a song for the Resound 12 Song Challenge 2022/3. Musicians might like the challenge of writing music for it. If used as a poem, in the chorus use line 1, 3,4,6

Our Earth is Beset by a Crisis 

 

Our earth is beset by a crisis, 

driven by human excess,

through profligate use of resources 

by we who could manage with less.

God surely calls us to be stewards

of the planet where Jesus has lived,

and challenge the fossil fuel behemoths,

to save our Creator’s great gift.

 

chorus

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord,

of this your much-loved home.

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord,

working so justice may come.

 

The evidence for this disaster

spans continents islands and seas:

so Christians in every nation

need pray and protest to relieve

the damage that’s being inflicted

on this ravaged planet, our home,

and bring hope through visionary challenge,

as_we_plead ’Now with justice, Lord, come’

 

chorus

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord, 

of this your much-loved home.

help us be stewards Lord,

 help us be stewards Lord,

 working so justice may come.

 

Psalm 24 (Re-imagined) for the Second Space Age

NASA: Colliding Galaxies: arp 143

Psalm 24 For Today.

Verses can be spoken or chanted.

The three Responsories can sung by all to the tune Truro/ Jesus Shall Reign Wherere The Sun.

 

The whole cosmos is the Lord's and everything in it:

every particle of matter throughout the universe.

 

All human beings, the earth’s wild creatures and resources:

and unknown beings who may live on planets far beyond our reach.

(Responsory 1) 

Lift Up your heads, you galaxies, 

Bright Nova form a dazzling path,

That your great King of Glo-o-o-ory 

Through all your realms may nobly pass 

 

It was God commanded the deep realm of space, Come forth:

and it sprang into instant being.

 

He established light and dark; light to see the wonders of our generous planet:

darkness to invite us to see the vastness of creation.

(Responsory 2)

 Who is this great and glorious King?

The Lord, Creator of us all, 

It was His Word establish-ed 

Prime forces and base particles.

Who shall travel beyond, into the eternal presence of The Lord:

or who shall dare to approach that holy place?

 

Even those who have clean hands and pure hearts, 

who love righteousness and Godly justice, and who despise greed and iniquity.

 

These will receive blessings from The Lord: and be welcomed into his kingdom of love.

They will be a renewed generation of those who revere God,

who stand in awe at the unfolding of the magnificence of his creation. 

 

Lift Up your heads, you galaxies, 

Bright Nova form a dazzling path,

That your great King of Glo-o-o-ory 

Through all your realms may nobly pass 

 

 

(c) March 2023

There is a YouTube Video  posted on the Sing of God  and Science channel. You will find it at 

https://youtu.be/4XHgjfVDhlY  

 

The Atom and The Molecule are part of God’s Great Plan

The Atom and The Molecule

(A faith and science song - tune to follow)

 

Source: CGI by the author: note the heart of the image

This is a lighthearted song which blends the science of Creation and an outline of the Christian story. I hope you and God will like it: I found it great fun to write!

 

The atom and the molecule are part of Gods’ great plan, 

the photon and the proton both emerged in The Big Bang. 

The source of all the elements was God’s almighty Word,

and the fundamental forces* jumped for joy! 

 

Great rocks and little pebbles were coerced by gravity 

to form amazing planets, and enormous galaxies 

The source of all this gathering was God’s almighty Word,

and the fundamental forces jumped for joy! 

 

Great beasts preceded humans here, upon our planet earth,

extinction by an asteroid left fossils we unearth.

The source of all those massive lives was God’s almighty Word,

and the fundamental forces jumped for joy! 

 

Among much smaller creatures, human beings then evolved

and Eve and Adam’s epic was the wisest story told

Of mortals’ brash behaviour despite God’s forewarning Word.

And the fundamental forces paused their joy.

 

As humans down the ages moved away from God’s great plan,

He gave His Son to visit us, from baby through to man,

to offer us a vision of life lived by His Word,

and the angel hosts of heaven sung for joy.

 

Good News and life eternal were the messages of Christ,

confronting powerful leaders anxious they might be displaced;

Christ’s shameful killing at their hands fulfilled the Prophets’ Words

(Pause)

AT HIS RISING ALL THE COSMOS LEAPT FOR  JOY!

* The Fundamental Forces are 

• The Weak nuclear force responsible for particle decay: find a good physics site such as 'Live Science’ to explain the mechanics of this and the other three forces.You will find a link at the bottom of this post.
• The Strong nuclear force
• Electromagnetism     
• Gravity
•                                                               
• These four forces govern everything in the Universe (Source: Space.com)

This same theme is explored in a rather more youth-friendly  song called ‘The Bible Starts with Awesome Tale’ which can be accessed HERE

And similar ideas are caught into the hymn Source of The Fundamental Forces

The four fundamental forces are explained on this page of the Live Science website

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 93 Reimagined for the Second Space Age

Original Introduction in brackets here, but equally appropriate at  any time we want to praise our amazing God

(As we approach the end of the Christmas period at Candlemas, an opportunity to think of the cosmic relevance of the incarnation) 

Psalm 93 Reimagined for the Second Space Age

 

You, Lord, are ruler of the whole universe:

you are robed in the fabric of the cosmos

which was established at your Word.

The vastness of space and time

cannot contain you, Lord.

You are from and to everlasting.

Constellations are testimonies to your might,

Planets and their inhabitants praise you

   in joyful outpourings of known and unknown tongues.  

More majestic than the roar of gargantuan waters

that dwarf all of earth’s mighty oceans;

more majestic than storms that are indescribably vast,

are you, Almighty God

.

You reign in eternity and even now know the

    time of your return and the end-time of the universe .

Your laws guide us into truth, righteousness and justice.

Let me delight in the holiness of your domain

both now and forever, O mighty God.

If you appreciate this sort of re-working, you may like a similar refashioning of part of Job 38 which you can find HERE 

And here is the original in the NRSV

The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty;
   the Lord is robed, he is girded with strength.
He has established the world; it shall never be moved; 
   your throne is established from of old;
   you are from everlasting. 

The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
   the floods have lifted up their voice;
   the floods lift up their roaring. 
More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,
   more majestic than the waves of the sea,
   majestic on high is the Lord! 

Your decrees are very sure;
   holiness befits your house,
   O Lord, for evermore.

This Time, This Place: this Gift of Grace

 This Time, This Space: Retreat into Grace

A very short history of a Medieval Retreat House!

 

This time, this space:

this gift of grace

is balm to the soul:

where farmlands roll

to converge and enclose

where Abbots imposed

their tithing demands

on all those who rented their land.

 

Such wealth, such realms

with Oak, Ash, and Elm,

incited a King

to annexe everything

that was clerically owned

and could be handed on

to henchmen-at-arms,

who’d exploit those former church farms.

 

In time this place

became a space

where stillness might reign;

letting Moderns abstain

from their feverish rounds                              

and the clamorous sounds

of our time and place.

Indeed, a locale of great grace.       

 

Trevor Thorn: Launde: January 2023.

A Reflection on This Time, This Space.

 

Last week, we just made it to Launde Abbey and its exquisite surroundings in a beautiful natural bowl of Leicestershire. I say ‘just’ because so much militated against us getting there. Our purposes of that journey were so Pam could join a Quilting group week and I could settle to the bliss of three and a half days for writing and editing some of my earlier scribblings.

 

First, I uncovered a virus in my laptop. Looked nasty – and no chance of our friendly local expert being able to attend to it before we left on Monday morning. Thankfully Pam would not be using her laptop whilst quilting, so I was able to access the essential tools of a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary – but not my image library, nor some of those older notes I had planned to edit.

 

But, rather worse, on the Saturday before the Monday we were due to leave, towards the end of a longish journey, our car’s brakes began to grind in an unpleasantly gruesome way. A garage visit Monday morning confirmed my suspicions – the car should not be driven, other than to return home across our village.

 

Hiring a car at very short notice proved not to be possible, but our son-in-law was free and willing to transport us. How very fortunate – and what a blessing. We arrived only half-an-hour into Pam’s programme though the return journey would have to be resolved during the week.

 

Launde Abbey is undoubtedly a very special place for those who get to enjoy its ambience. On the morning following our fraught arrival, it felt right to celebrate its existence and its ministry. The following poem ‘This Time, This Space, This Gift of Grace’ emerged. It is a VERY brief history which could apply to several retreat houses around the UK: all of them are a blessing to most of those who can avail themselves of such opportunities, and whilst ‘balm for the soul’ may sound trite, I can’t think of a better phrase to describe a place…

 

‘where stillness might reign;

letting Moderns abstain

from their feverish rounds                              

and the clamorous sounds

of our time and place.

 

And since the pandemic struck, it feels that such places are even more important than they were before that challenging time.

 

With these thoughts in mind, whilst on a frosty and beautiful walk, I felt quite distressed to see just how weather has ravaged some parts of this lovely building. It did not need an expert to realise that stone window frames alone will soon need large sums of money to make them safe and weatherproof. As a former fundraiser, I began to speculate… I wonder if there are any seriously wealthy philanthropists out there who would adopt such a place and funnel adequate funds into one of them to secure it for, let’s say the next quarter century. She or he would be performing a service that many, many people would benefit from.

If this poem commends itself to you, you might find this link to a poem called Embracing Silence helpful