Holy Communion
Published on: 5 May, 2014
By: David Torkington
As a person tries to observe the new commandments by making acts of love through all they say and do, they are gradually able to rise step by step towards journey’s end. Their progress is made possible, because it is made in, with, and through Christ who claimed to be the vital living embodiment of…
Reflections on the Resurrection, Cimabue’s Glorification
Published on: 1 May, 2014
By: David Torkington
I’d always been ready to poke fun at the culture-vultures who were bussed into Florence to ‘do the city’ in a single day until I found myself in a far worse predicament. I had but three hours in which ‘to do’ the same city while awaiting my connection for Rome. The day was hot and I…
Thanksgiving
Published on: 30 April, 2014
By: David Torkington
Continuing the theme: – Praying the Our Father – The Ladder of Perfection My earliest and happiest memories are of going to visit my grandfather. It wasn’t because he played games with me, gave me my favourite chocolate or even money to buy myself an ice cream on the way home, it was just because I loved…
Abandonment
Published on: 23 April, 2014
By: David Torkington
Continuing the theme – Praying the Our Father The next letter of the OUR FATHER is the letter A which stands for Abandonment. It took me a long time deciding whether or not to use such an uncompromising word, but frankly I have no choice. If we really believe in God and what he has…
An Act of Faith
Published on: 19 April, 2014
By: David Torkington
The Fifth Lenten talk at SS Anselm and Cecilia, London, in two parts. Part Two F- Making an Act of Faith For the first Christians then faith did not mean primarily believing in a body of truths or defined dogmas, but in a body that was raised from the dead on the first Easter Day. Just…
When I saw the Light
Published on: 12 April, 2014
By: David Torkington
The Fifth Lenten talk at SS Anselm and Cecilia, London, in three parts. Part One Although my book –‘Wisdom from the Western Isles’, charting the journey from first beginnings to the heights of Mystical Contemplation was selling well, and had received such wonderful reviews, I couldn’t help wondering what it would mean to outsiders, who knew…
A Mystical Maelstrom
Published on: 4 April, 2014
By: David Torkington
Summary of the 4th Lenten Talk. SS Anselm and Cecilia, Holborn, London When Christ came, it was to announce something that no other religion had ever taught, nor any other religion taught since. Namely that the ultimate power, the ultimate energy the infinite source of all creation, is not some impersonal super-power, but infinite love,…
The Morning Offering
Published on: 28 March, 2014
By: David Torkington
The Morning Offering Summary of the 3rd Lenten Lecture 24/03/2014 We know for a fact that the early Christians prayed five times a day, just as Jesus had done with his early disciples. They would rise at midnight to meditate on Christ’s resurrection, so that they would never forget that he was still alive and…
A Mini History of Christian Spirituality
Published on: 19 March, 2014
By: David Torkington
A Mini History of Christian Spirituality Summary of the second Lenten lecture 17.3.2014 SS Anselm and Cecilia, London The theologian Karl Adam summed up early Christian Spirituality with the words ‘Christ Our Brother’. Imagine it as a circle with Christ at its centre, radiating the infinite love that has been transposed into human loving in his…
Back to the Future
Published on: 8 March, 2014
By: David Torkington
Summary of the first Lenten lecture 10.3.2014 SS Anselm and Cecilia, London Back to the Future No Temples no Altars Writing at the beginning of the first century, St Justin delighted in boasting, “We have no temples, we have no altars,” for Jesus had introduced a new form of worship that needed none of them. For…