Recently a preacher on Radio 4’s Sunday Worship spoke of a mentor who embraces a new challenge during Lent each year, instead of giving something up. One year she learned to juggle, another year to play a musical instrument and so on.

In a quest for respite from world news, I’m adopting Philippians 4:8 as my verse of 2025.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

For much of December 2024, I was unwell, along with so many others, but my advent readings were a daily uplift.

We all know that there was ‘no room’ at the inn for Mary and Joseph, so he was born in some kind of outbuilding. There was also ‘no room’ in Herod’s kingdom, so the family had to flee to Egypt as refugees.

Now the evenings are closing in, I’m drawn to reflect on Jesus’ revelation about himself in John 8: 12 ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’

It’s unfashionable in secular society to speak of God as our Judge and many Christians now feel uncomfortable about it. But it’s clear from the moral outrage about issues like the Post Office scandal, that people of all persuasions have a keen sense of justice/injustice. 

Do you enjoy the BBC’s ancestry programme, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

David and I are currently watching series 4 of ‘The Chosen’, streaming free on watch.thechosen.tv. It’s invigorating to watch Jesus speaking truth to power.

Prayer plays a significant role in my novel, The Twelfth Cross (released July 6th.) I’m keen to see readers’ reactions to this, as I’m not marketing it as a Christian book. The historical setting is a help, as faith is a ‘given’ in the medieval period. But in my experience, many people are more open to the idea of prayer than to the idea of God.

Do you remember the 1991 film, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman?

This Lent I’ve been reading ‘Our Radiant Redeemer’ by Tim Chester, which I wholeheartedly recommend. It focuses on the Transfiguration of Christ, when 3 of his disciples had the privilege of seeing Jesus’ divine glory.

What better prayer can we pray for someone than that they become rooted in God's love? Yet this is not the climax of Paul's aspirational prayer in Ephesians 3,

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3: 17-19

These days we’re used to being instantly connected with others through the intangible mystery of the internet, a modern phenomenon that has embedded itself irrevocably in our lifestyle. Internet interconnectedness serves as a useful metaphor for prayer - the mysterious, intangible connectivity between us and God.