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31/03/2017
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.
Last on
Fri 31 Mar 2017
05:43
±«Óătv Radio 4
Friday 31st March
Good morning. Â Today, the 31st March, the church remembers the poet John Donne who died on this day in 1631.
John Donne lived in a turbulent time when life could be literally cut short: Â heads rolled!
Born into a Roman Catholic family facing daily persecution, John Donne wrote poetry that reflected his intense passion for life and love, sex and society.
He became both an MP and an Anglican priest serving ten years as Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. Â
John Donne was a priest earthed in life as we know it.  He struggled with how to live a good and holy life while set about by temptations of lust and power.  In one famous poem he likened himself to a fortress that, despite his declarations of loyalty, was under rebel control.  So, he invites God to batter down the walls of his heart, to “force, break, blow, bend and burn to make me new.”  Â
I’ve been thinking about walls this week, both real walls, how beautifully they can be made, and those other walls relational and moral, that cut us off from one another and the life God intended. John Donne was uncommonly aware of these divisions, especially our encounter with the sharpest dividing wall of all:  death.  As a Christian, he placed his faith firmly in the empty tomb of Jesus and the destruction of that ultimate barrier between heaven and earth.  He ends one of his poems mocking death for being so proud in its ephemeral achievement.  As we journey through Lent, let’s make his strident Easter affirmation our Prayer for the Day: Â
Why swellst thou then?One short sleep past, we wake eternally,And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!
Amen.
John Donne lived in a turbulent time when life could be literally cut short: Â heads rolled!
Born into a Roman Catholic family facing daily persecution, John Donne wrote poetry that reflected his intense passion for life and love, sex and society.
He became both an MP and an Anglican priest serving ten years as Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. Â
John Donne was a priest earthed in life as we know it.  He struggled with how to live a good and holy life while set about by temptations of lust and power.  In one famous poem he likened himself to a fortress that, despite his declarations of loyalty, was under rebel control.  So, he invites God to batter down the walls of his heart, to “force, break, blow, bend and burn to make me new.”  Â
I’ve been thinking about walls this week, both real walls, how beautifully they can be made, and those other walls relational and moral, that cut us off from one another and the life God intended. John Donne was uncommonly aware of these divisions, especially our encounter with the sharpest dividing wall of all:  death.  As a Christian, he placed his faith firmly in the empty tomb of Jesus and the destruction of that ultimate barrier between heaven and earth.  He ends one of his poems mocking death for being so proud in its ephemeral achievement.  As we journey through Lent, let’s make his strident Easter affirmation our Prayer for the Day: Â
Why swellst thou then?One short sleep past, we wake eternally,And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!
Amen.
Broadcast
- Fri 31 Mar 2017 05:43±«Óătv Radio 4
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